Grand Slam in Need of Home Runs Before Derby

After weeks of playing it close to the vest, trainer Wayne Lukas has picked an intriguing spot, Sunday’s San Pedro Stakes at Santa Anita, as the race for Grand Slam to make his 1998 debut.

The San Pedro, an ungraded, $75,000 race at 6 1/2 furlongs, would seem to be an inauspicious beginning for a talented horse who still might run in the Kentucky Derby on May 2, but Lukas is running out of time. Grand Slam, one of the best 2-year-olds in the country last year before he was injured in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, needs a couple of solid races before Lukas can consider the Derby, which is only five weeks off.

In a less surprising development, officials at Oaklawn Park confirmed that trainer Bill Mott has made plans to fly Favorite Trick from Florida to Arkansas for the $500,000 Arkansas Derby on April 11. The undefeated Favorite Trick, the first 2-year-old to win horse-of-the-year honors since Secretariat in 1972, will be trying for his 10th consecutive victory. Mott considered running his colt in another race on April 11, the $700,000 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, where the first three finishers in the Florida Derby are expected to have a rematch.

Last November, a showdown between Favorite Trick and Grand Slam in the Breeders’ Cup never materialized. Grand Slam, caught in a crowd in the short run to the first turn at Hollywood Park, suffered a badly lacerated left rear leg that was surgically repaired. Favorite Trick won the Juvenile by 5 1/2 lengths while Grand Slam was eased through the stretch.

A more realistic goal for Grand Slam might be the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown, at Pimlico on May 16. In the last 12 years, only one horse (Sunday Silence in 1989) has won the Derby after waiting until March to make his 3-year-old debut. Grand Slam is almost into April for his first race. The only late-March beginners to win the Derby in the last 48 years have been Sunny’s Halo in 1983 and Spend A Buck in 1985.

Grand Slam ran five times last year, winning the Futurity and the Champagne at Belmont Park. Old Topper is another recovering 2-year-old scheduled to run in the San Pedro, but trainer Noble Threewitt has no Derby aspirations. Old Topper has won two of seven starts, building a reputation off solid efforts against top horses. Sidelined by sore shins, Old Topper hasn’t run since finishing last at 2-1 in the Norfolk at Santa Anita on Oct. 19.

Four others are running in the San Pedro: Shingen Speed, F J’s Pace, Search Me and Son’s Corona.

Lukas is bringing in Shane Sellers from the East to ride Grand Slam. Sellers won the Florida Derby with Lukas’ Cape Town, after the stewards’ disqualification of Lil’s Lad, and the next day he rode Comic Strip to victory in the Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds. Sellers is riding another Lukas 3-year-old, Time Limit, in today’s $600,000 Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park.

Oaklawn Park officials said that Favorite Trick will arrive in Arkansas next Thursday. The colt, trained by Patrick Byrne for his first eight wins, has remained in Florida since his win in the Swale at Gulfstream Park on March 14.

Pat Day, who has ridden Favorite Trick in all his races, told Mott that the colt’s victory in the Breeders Futurity at Keeneland in October was his least impressive of eight victories as a 2-year-old. Apparently that observation, combined with the pace scenario that is likely for the Blue Grass, steered Mott away from Keeneland. Lil’s Lad probably will not get much pressure on the lead in the Blue Grass.

“Lil’s Lad is blessed with early speed, which is just the opposite of Favorite Trick,” Mott said. “Lil’s Lad is a one-dimensional horse. It doesn’t look like he can be rated. But if he’s the only horse with speed in a race, he’s going to be difficult to run down. I don’t want my horse’s next race to be his toughest.”

Like Grand Slam, Favorite Trick might be trying to do something seldom achieved at Churchill Downs. Only one horse--Sunny’s Halo in 1983--in the last 43 years has won the Kentucky Derby with only two starts as a 3-year-old.

“I don’t think I’m playing catch-up at all,” Mott said. “My horse is the most accomplished one out there. It’s feasible to have him fit enough to go to the Derby. What I want to see in the next race is whether a mile and a quarter [the Kentucky Derby distance] is within his realm.”

With Favorite Trick running, the 1 1/8-mile Arkansas Derby will draw a small field. Among the probables are Victory Gallop and Robin would, who ran 1-2 last Saturday in the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn.

Horse Racing Notes

Just when it looked as though Wayne Lukas wouldn’t be running a horse in the Santa Anita Derby for the first time in 20 years, his assistant, Mike Marlow, said Friday that there was a 50-50 chance Skeaping will run in the $750,000 race a week from today. Lukas was high on Skeaping after he broke his maiden by seven lengths in December, but this year he has been last and second-to-last in two stakes, losing by a combined 26 lengths. . . . Artax, who’ll be favored in the Santa Anita Derby, will face Real Quiet, Orville N Wilbur’s, Indiana Charlie, Classic Cat, Nationalore and perhaps Sea of Secrets, who underwent an ownership change since his hard-luck last-place run in the San Felipe. Irv and Marge Cowan have sold 50% of the colt to Michael Tabor and John Magnier, but the Cowans will continue to manage his racing career with trainer Neil Drysdale. . . . Gary Stevens, who’s riding Silver Charm today in the $4-million Dubai World Cup, has picked up the mount on Halory Hunter for the Blue Grass.