Baffert Finds Some Good Luck

Horses with four white stockings are supposed to be bad luck, but General Challenge may be good enough to rout the superstition. The 3-year-old gelding has emerged from the ranks of the California-breds to beat open company around two turns, and for now that’s enough to vault him to the front tier of this year’s Kentucky Derby ranks.

Exploit, undefeated going into Saturday’s San Vicente Stakes, might still be the consensus No. 1 for May 1 at Churchill Downs, but he won’t be able to get out of California without a battle.

Bob Baffert, who has won the last two Derbies with Silver Charm and Real Quiet, trains both General Challenge and Exploit. Baffert, who watched Silver Charm run third Saturday in the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park, remained in Miami on Sunday to see the Super Bowl while his assistant, Eoin Harty, saddled General Challenge at Santa Anita for his three-length victory in the $106,500 Santa Catalina Stakes.

Gary Stevens has been aboard undefeated General Challenge for the last two of his three wins. Stevens, who rode Silver Charm on Saturday, also considered going to the Super Bowl, but after General Challenge’s powerful 1 1/8-mile workout Jan. 16, he rearranged his priorities.

“This was worth coming back for,” Stevens said. “This is a horse that’s got quality written all over him. Last year I was very high on Indian Charlie [the winner of the Santa Anita Derby and third in the Kentucky Derby], but like a lot of other people I had reservations about his ability to get the Derby distance. I don’t have those reservations about this horse.”

Bred and raced by John and Betty Mabee, through a mating with their hot sire General Meeting and Excellent Lady, General Challenge was second after a half mile and swept past Buck Trout with one-eighth of a mile left. The winner’s time for 1 1/16 miles was 1:42 4/5 over a drying-out track that played more like it was fast than the “good” label it received. General Challenge paid $3.60 to win, earning $63,900. Buck Trout finished second, one length better than another Baffert runner, Brilliantly, in the five-horse field.

“This is a special horse,” John Mabee said of General Challenge. “We’ve got a long ways to go, but Gary is sky-high about this horse and so is Bob. He’s bred to run all day and [the Derby distance of 1 1/4 miles] shouldn’t be a problem.”

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When Silver Charm was given a police escort from the airport to Gulfstream Park four days before the Donn Handicap, Puerto Madero was in the same van, but no one paid much attention.

“He was on the back of the bus,” said R.D. Hubbard, the Hollywood Park chairman and principal owner of Puerto Madero, who upset Silver Charm in Saturday’s Donn. Puerto Madero finished 2 3/4 lengths in front of Behrens, with Silver Charm, at 4-5, settling for third, 5 1/4 lengths behind the winner.

“Silver Charm [breaking from the outside in a 12-horse field] looked like he got shuffled back off the pace,” said Richard Mandella, who trains Puerto Madero. “Maybe he didn’t have his best day, but my horse ran a big race regardless of what happened.”

Mandella plans to skip the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap, on March 6, and run Puerto Madero in the $5-million Dubai World Cup on March 28. Silver Charm, who won the World Cup last year, might run in both the Big ‘Cap and in Dubai.

“It was all post position,” Baffert said about Silver Charm’s problems in the Donn. “It was too tall an order from out there on the outside. He couldn’t get over. He had to go way back, and he was dead after that. I told [Stevens] that if he could get over [after the start], fine. But if you can’t, don’t kill him trying. You don’t want to get blown out of the water [early in the year].”

Horse Racing Notes

Bet Me Best remained unbeaten with a hard-fought win over Texas Glitter in the $150,000 Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Winning by a nose with jockey Jerry Bailey, Bet Me Best ran seven furlongs in 1:22 1/5. In the last 13 years, only Holy Bull, with a 1:21 1/5 clocking in 1994, has posted a faster time in the Hutcheson, which is one of the preps for the Florida Derby. Cat Thief, making his first start since running third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, ran third in the Hutcheson. . . . Eddie Delahoussaye’s win on Point Proven was the 5,998th of his career.