Lewises Not About to Exploit This Colt

Racing is rich in horses that were supposed to be sold, weren’t sold and then went on to greatness.

Count Fleet, who swept the Triple Crown in 1943, and Sunday Silence, winner of the Kentucky Derby and horse of the year in 1989, are two, and even though he has a long way to go, Exploit, an undefeated 2-year-old colt, may someday be an addition to this formidable list.

The money trail for Exploit makes Count Fleet, who might have been sold for $4,500, and Sunday Silence, who could have been bought for $32,000, look like pikers.

Exploit started at the mid-six figures and quickly graduated to more than $1 million, but it’s not likely he will go on the block again. Not as long as Bob and Beverly Lewis, of Silver Charm fame, dream the ridiculous dream of winning a second Kentucky Derby.

When the Lewises bought the May 25 foal in November 1996 at Keeneland, Exploit was not quite a 6-month-old weanling. In a strong market for weanlings--one colt, by Storm Cat, brought a record $1.4 million--the Lewises paid $525,000 for Exploit, with the idea of pinhooking--selling him as a yearling the next year.

Thus Exploit, also a son of Storm Cat, was consigned by the Lewises to another Keeneland auction, in September 1997. The Lewises set a reserve of $1.5 million, which meant that if the horse didn’t bring that much, they would be able to buy him back, paying the money to themselves, less the 5% commission for the sales company.

Besides being by Storm Cat, a premier sire whose stud fee is going to increase by 33% (to $200,000) next year, Exploit is out of the mare My Turbulent Miss. She never ran a race, but My Turbulent Miss has a breeding history sprinkled with stakes winners. Prized, one of her sons, sparkled on dirt and in 1989 won the Breeders’ Cup Turf in the first grass race he ever ran.

Not surprisingly, the bidding for Exploit at the yearling sale was spirited. The number went to $1.45 million, with trainer John Kimmel holding sway. But even though he appeared to have chased away his competitors, Kimmel was $50,000 short of the reserve.

The auctioneer looked long and hard at the Lewises. “We’ve got real money here,” he said.

To keep things going, hoping to push someone else’s bid over their reserve, the Lewises bid $1.475 million. All Kimmel had to do was bid $25,000 more and the horse would have been his. But instead he stopped. Exploit went home with the couple that had brought him.

Since then, Exploit’s exploits have been well-documented--four wins in four starts.

Trainer Bob Baffert, who has won the Kentucky Derby the last two years with Silver Charm and Real Quiet, started him out in August in a sprint for maidens at Del Mar. Under Chris McCarron, the only jockey who has ridden him, Exploit won by half a length. In early October, Exploit ran in another sprint, beating an allowance field at Santa Anita by 1 1/2 lengths.

Off two starts, and never having run around two turns, Exploit lacked the seasoning for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, but he was at Churchill Downs on Nov. 7 just the same, running a creditable 1:36 1/5 mile and winning the Iroquois Stakes on the undercard.

The stories the next day were about the surprising Awesome Again winning the Classic, the trooper Da Hoss winning the Mile and the uninspiring Answer Lively winning the Juvenile, but the buzz around the track was about Baffert’s 2-year-olds, Exploit and Silverbulletday, who won the Juvenile Fillies.

Baffert ran them both back at Churchill Downs last Saturday. A 2-5 favorite, Exploit won the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes--his first try at two turns, and his longest race at 1 1/16 miles--by 1 3/4 lengths.

Silverbulletday, who races for Mike Pegram, the owner of Real Quiet, had won the Golden Rod Stakes earlier in the day by 10 lengths. Silverbulletday ran faster than Answer Lively on Breeders’ Cup day, beating another talented Baffert-trained filly, Excellent Meeting, and she was faster than Exploit last Saturday. The only chink in Silverbulletday’s seven-race record is a fourth- place finish in the Del Mar Debutante.

These talented 2-year-olds may return to Churchill Downs next year, but for different races--the Kentucky Oaks on April 30 for Silverbulletday and the Kentucky Derby on May 1 for Exploit.

Silverbulletday was sired by Silver Deputy, but Pegram is more clever than that in naming his horses. Pegram’s beer of choice is Coors Light, in those aluminum cans that are known as silver bullets. For a long time, Pegram has popped open his first can with the intonation, “It’s a silver-bullet day.”

But Pegram does make an exception.

“I don’t drink Coors when I’m around Bob Lewis,” he said.

Rivals on the track, Pegram and Lewis are still friends and you don’t insult your friends. Bob Lewis sells Budweiser.

*

Exploit won’t run again until next year, but Baffert has three other horses--Premier Property, Prime Timber and National Saint--in the Hollywood Futurity a week from today. . . . On Dec. 13, Baffert will try to win the Hollywood Starlet with Excellent Meeting, who ran second to stablemate Silverbulletday in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. . . . Baffert has won 28 races for 2-year-olds on the Southern California circuit this year. . . . Last year’s Bayakoa Handicap turned into a walkover when no one showed up to run against Sharp Cat. Because of Manistique, only three other horses were entered for this year’s Bayakoa, which will be run Sunday. Manistique won three starts by 31 lengths before she came out of the Alabama Stakes at Saratoga with a throat infection. The Bayakoa will be her first start since August. Others in the field are Victory Stripes, India Divina and Numero Uno.

Buck’s Boy, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf, won’t ship in for the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Cup on Dec. 12. . . . Escena, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, will be sold by Allen Paulson at a Keeneland auction next month. . . . Santa Anita officials told the California Horse Racing Board on Friday that the track’s sale date will probably be next Friday. If not then, the deal will be completed by Dec. 15. A subsidiary of Frank Stronach’s Magna International Inc. has a $126-million agreement to buy Santa Anita from the Meditrust Cos. . . . The racing board reelected Ralph Scurfield as chairman and George Nicholaw was elected vice chairman.