Derby-to-Derby Trip Possible for as Many as Four Finishers

Perhaps encouraged by the muted hurrahs for Pulpit, and while waiting to see if Captain Bodgit can pile another win on top of his Florida Derby victory, handlers of at least three horses from Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby are headed for Churchill Downs to mix it up again in the Kentucky Derby on May 3.

Returns from the morning-after showed Silver Charm and Hello, who followed Free House across the finish line at Santa Anita, are Louisville-bound with him, and Steel Ruhlr, the fourth-place finisher, might join them.

But trainer Wayne Lukas virtually eliminated the Kentucky Derby for his filly, Sharp Cat, the Santa Anita Derby favorite who wilted after setting a punishing early pace. She finished sixth, beaten by almost six lengths. Sharp Cat will probably run in the Kentucky Oaks, a $500,000 race for 3-year-old fillies at Churchill on May 2, although Lukas left the door slightly ajar for the Derby the next day.

By finishing 1-2, only a head apart, in Saturday’s quickly run race, Free House and Silver Charm joined Captain Bodgit and Pulpit, the 1-2 finishers in the Florida Derby, as the big guns with only three major preps left before the Kentucky Derby. The Eastern-based leaders will be running in two of them--Captain Bodgit trying Aqueduct and the Wood Memorial on Saturday, and Pulpit running the same day in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. Another race Saturday is the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park, which has drawn Crypto Star, the Louisiana Derby winner.

Pulpit, who had won his first three races to generate a groundswell of support in Florida, can regain some lost prestige in the Blue Grass, a race that has also drawn King Crimson, a California shipper scratched by trainer Riley Griffiths from the Santa Anita Derby.

“It didn’t cost anything to enter, so I only put him in [the Santa Anita Derby] in case some of the other top horses didn’t go,” Griffiths said Sunday morning at Hollywood Park. “Pulpit is the test. Captain Bodgit liked the track at Gulfstream Park better than [Pulpit] did. If my horse can’t run with Pulpit, I won’t beat my brains out running him in the Kentucky Derby.”

In the continuing game of musical jockeys, Chris McCarron will ride King Crimson in the Blue Grass, his first assignment aboard the colt. McCarron has ridden many of the top 3-year-olds in California this winter. He was astride Hello for a third-place finish Saturday.

Paco Gonzalez, Free House’s trainer, said his colt’s jockey situation is unresolved. Kent Desormeaux, who rode Free House on Saturday, has another Kentucky Derby prospect in Pacificbounty, who will be running in the Arkansas Derby. Top jockeys with Kentucky Derby choices prefer waiting as long as they can before committing. In the event a horse is injured, they like to have a backup available.

Gonzalez received a call Sunday from David Flores’ agent, Jim Pegram. Flores is one of four jockeys who have ridden Free House in his nine races, and is two for two with the gray colt. Flores rode Isitingood to a second-place finish Saturday in the Oaklawn Handicap.

“He just wanted to let me know that his rider is open,” Gonzalez said. “David, Kent, Alex [Solis] and Eddie [Delahoussaye] have all ridden this horse well, but they all went to other horses. I don’t know what we’re going to do. With this horse, you need a rider who’s strong at the end, because the horse goes to sleep and likes to stop in the stretch.”

Gonzalez said Jerry Bailey, who was busy at Keeneland on Saturday, had been offered the Santa Anita Derby mount on Free House before Desormeaux stopped by the barn early last week.

The Santa Anita Derby took less out of Free House than it did Silver Charm, who was caught up in the speed duel with Sharp Cat.

“I think we’ll have a really good chance in the Kentucky Derby,” Gonzalez said. “We were 7-1 Saturday and the horse we beat before (Silver Charm) was 2-1. Maybe they thought that because my horse is a Cal-bred, he’s not so good.”

Horse Racing Notes

P.T. Indy bled in the Santa Anita Derby. . . . A Richard Mandella 3-year-old, Holzmeister, will run in the Lone Star Derby at the new Texas track, Lone Star Park, on April 20.