This Is March Madness Too

When trainer Carl Nafzger’s Unbridled won the Florida Derby nine years ago, his time was the slowest in 35 years. People shook Nafzger’s hand and then, out of earshot, said that Unbridled was the best of a bad lot.

Some of this snideness even made it into print.

“There hasn’t been a slower Florida Derby since Nashua,” one writer observed. “And Unbridled sure isn’t another Nashua.”

But seven weeks later, Unbridled did something Nashua couldn’t do. He won the Kentucky Derby.

Even so, Nafzger can’t get over that Nashua crack.

“I didn’t like it,” he said at Gulfstream Park, where he will try with Vicar today to win another Florida Derby. “They can knock me, but don’t knock my horse. It might be an old line, but I heard [trainer] Jack Van Berg say it first: Time only counts when you’re in jail.”

The road to the 125th Kentucky Derby, which will be run at Churchill Downs on May 1, will be marked on several significant signposts this weekend. Of the Daily Racing Form’s 25 leading Derby candidates, 14 will be racing. The major stops are today, here at Gulfstream and at Santa Anita, where Exploit, undefeated in five starts and the mild early favorite for the Derby, faces two stablemates from Bob Baffert’s barn and four others in the San Felipe Stakes.

Other races this weekend are in New Orleans, where the Fair Grounds Oaks will be run today and the Louisiana Derby on Sunday, and Sunday’s Santa Anita Oaks.

Baffert, who has won the last two Kentucky Derbies, with Silver Charm and Real Quiet, has a stake in all of these races but the Florida Derby.

The roll call for Baffert:

* Besides Exploit, he’s running Prime Timber and Finder’s Gold in the San Felipe.

* General Challenge, a California-bred gelding who may be Baffert’s best, runs in the Louisiana Derby against Answer Lively, last year’s champion 2-year-old male, and Ecton Park, who beat Answer Lively by a nose three weeks ago.

* Silverbulletday, best 2-year-old filly last year and winner of seven of eight starts overall, races six rivals in the Fair Grounds Oaks.

* Excellent Meeting, who is likely to run against colts for the first time in the Santa Anita Derby on April 3, first must dispose of a small field in the Santa Anita Oaks.

According to the Racing Form’s list, Baffert trains six of the top nine contenders for the Kentucky Derby. The interlopers are Cat Chief, who’s running in the Florida Derby; Worldly Manner, the former California standout--when he was trained by Baffert--who’s been training in Dubai since being sold for a reported $5 million to Sheik Mohammed’s Godolphin Stable, and Vicar.

A son of Wild Again, winner of the first Breeders’ Cup Classic in 1984, Vicar races for Nafzger and owner James Tafel.

Nafzger never had a Kentucky Derby horse before Unbridled and hasn’t had one since. He’s philosophic about that.

“When I won the Derby, that put me in wingtip shoes,” he said. “But I knew I’d be back in loafers before it was all over with.”

Vicar, who finished second to Exploit last November at Churchill Downs, underwent minor throat surgery after a fifth-place finish at Gulfstream on Jan. 16, then rebounded Feb. 20 to beat Cat Thief by a neck in the Fountain of Youth Stakes. Once again, though, Nafzger is being hounded by the suggestion that he has a colt that isn’t fast enough. Vicar’s time for the Fountain of Youth--1:45 3/5 for 1 1/16 miles--was the slowest since 1986.

“Pace makes for fast times, and if there’s no pace, there won’t be the times,” Nafzger said. “What it all boils down to in this game is eyeball to eyeball. Other than that, nothing else matters.”

With three wins and that second to Exploit in five starts, Vicar is a work in progress and a moderate 3-1 favorite on today’s morning line. Like Unbridled, Vicar’s next hurdle after the Florida Derby is expected to be the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 10.

Horse Racing Notes

Three Ring, the filly who was entered in the Florida Derby, will be scratched because of an unfavorable outside post position. . . . Santa Anita has dropped out of the running for the 2000 Breeders’ Cup. The renovation of the plant and the racing surface were concerns for Breeders’ Cup officials, who are expected to give next year’s date, Nov. 4, to Churchill Downs.