Dollase Finds Derby Fever Contagious

Richard Mulhall stood on the iron steps leading up to the box-seat area at Santa Anita, a cellular phone in his right hand. On the other end was the boss, Ahmed Salman, the Saudi Arabian prince, who was home in Riyadh.

The horses had crossed the finish line in the San Rafael Stakes’ blanket finish, but the official results of the photo had not yet been posted on the tote board.

“I think we got it,” Mulhall was saying calmly to the prince. “He had to squeeze his way through, but I think we got it.”

“Not another inquiry?” Salman said. His stable has been bedeviled by stewards’ inquiries lately.

“No, there’s no inquiry,” said Mulhall, a former trainer who is general manager of the prince’s racing interests.

Then the numbers went up on the tote, the right numbers for Mulhall and the prince. Their lightly raced Desert Hero had beaten Prime Timber by a neck in the $200,000 race, and off of only two races--both wins--their trainer, Wally Dollase, is today thinking about the Santa Anita Derby on April 3 and perhaps the Kentucky Derby on May 1.

“I’m not saying we’re going to win the Kentucky Derby,” Dollase said, “but we’re going to have fun trying.”

The same team--Salman, Dollase and jockey Corey Nakatani, who is the trainer’s son-in-law--won last year’s San Rafael with Orville N Wilbur’s. But after a fourth-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby, that colt was injured and didn’t make it to Kentucky.

“Everybody else seemed to be getting Derby fever, so we decided to give it a shot with our horse,” Dollase said of Desert Hero. “You never know what you have until you try. I thought that if we came within three lengths of the winner, we were going to be thinking Derby. This horse is fast, and he’s bred to go long.”

Desert Hero, purchased for $575,000 as a yearling and unraced as a two-year-old, is a son of Sea Hero, who won the Kentucky Derby in 1993. Desert Hero’s dam, Multiply, is a daughter of Easy Goer, who was odds-on when he lost to Sunday Silence at Churchill Downs in 1989.

Should Desert Hero run in the Santa Anita Derby and then go on to Louisville, he would be bucking all sorts of historical obstacles. No Derby winner since Apollo, in 1882, has not run as a 2-year-old, and the last time a horse won the Derby off only three career starts was the filly Regret in 1915.

The one-mile San Rafael was filled with inexperienced horses. Prime Timber had run only three times, none since his second-place finish in the Hollywood Futurity on Dec. 12. Undefeated Honest Lady, the first filly to ever run in the San Rafael, was making only her third start. She led at the head of the stretch before finishing fifth. Capsized ran third and Love That Red was fourth as less than a length separated the first five horses.

“It was pretty tight in the stretch, and I was taking a chance trying to go through there,” Nakatani said. “The hole closed up, but I just sat on him and moved him to the outside, and he put in a big kick like I thought he would.”

Dollase has been to the Kentucky Derby twice, finishing 14th with Momentous in 1987 and eighth with Alyrob in 1996. The raucous crowds of 130,000 or more have unnerved many a horse at Churchill, but apparently that won’t be a problem for Desert Hero.

“You can’t scare this horse with a baseball bat,” Dollase said.

Horse Racing Notes

Silver Charm was given two less pounds from his previous race, from 126 to 124, for next Saturday’s $1-million Santa Anita Handicap. Puerto Madero, who won the Donn Handicap as Silver Charm ran third, picked up two pounds and will carry 122 in the Big ‘Cap. “I don’t see anything wrong with a two-pound drop,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “He got beat by a sixteenth of a mile.” Other Big ‘Cap weights: Free House, 123 pounds; Event Of The Year, 119; Malek, 118, Dr Fong, 117; and Sidon, 114. . . . Desert Hero, who paid $22.80 and was timed in 1:36 2/5 in the San Rafael, didn’t make his first start until Feb. 7 because of a foot problem. He defeated maidens by two lengths in that 6 1/2-furlong race. . . . Honest Lady, the 7-5 favorite in the San Rafael, was up close early, only a length behind longshot Patrick’s Exit through a fast 45 4/5 opening half-mile. “I might have rushed her a little bit into the first turn,” jockey Kent Desormeaux said. “She got a little aggressive on me around the first bend. Instead of being comfortable, I’ve now got her strolling up into the bridle, and I just think this will be a learning experience for her. She’d never been two turns, so you could say that this filly more or less went to school today.” . . . Lethal Instrument reportedly was scratched from the San Rafael because of his outside post position in a 10-horse field. . . . Luke Kruytbosch, the announcer at Hollywood Park and Turf Paradise, has been hired by Churchill Downs, according to the Daily Racing Form. Kruytbosch, 36, will also call the races at Ellis Park, which is owned by Churchill. He will replace Kurt Becker, who was the Churchill announcer the last two years.