Global Impact to Have Bearing on Hollendorfer’s Derby Hopes

One thing that trainers Neil Drysdale and Jerry Hollendorfer have in common is that both men missed out on a Kentucky Derby when their horses were injured just before the race. Drysdale lost his chance in 1992 when A.P. Indy was scratched on Derby morning because of a bruised foot. In 1998, Hollendorfer got to within eight days of the Derby before Event Of The Year cracked a knee in a workout at Churchill Downs.

A.P. Indy was probably going to be the second choice, behind Arazi, and Event Of The Year, undefeated at the time, might have gone off favored. Drysdale and Hollendorfer can only dream about how they might have done. Neither has ever started a horse in the race, but this year they’re again on the Derby threshold, Drysdale with two horses--probable favorite Fusaichi Pegasus and War Chant--and Hollendorfer with Globalize. Fusaichi Pegasus, winner of the Wood Memorial, and War Chant, second in the Santa Anita Derby, have run their final prep races, while Globalize, Hollendorfer says, must run a strong race--without necessarily winning--in today’s Coolmore Lexington Stakes at Keeneland in order to advance to the Kentucky Derby on May 6.

In an eight-horse field today, Globalize has the outside post and is the 5-2 second choice on the morning line, behind Commendable at 2-1. At first glance, that line seems suspect, because Commendable hasn’t won a race since his maiden victory at Del Mar last August, and the Golden Gate Fields-based Globalize won the Turfway Park Spiral Stakes about a month ago. In the final analysis, though, the line makes sense, because Southern California horses beat Northern California horses most of the time, and better yet Commendable is ridden by Pat Day, the darling of Keeneland and the winningest rider in track history.

Globalize will be ridden for the second time by Francisco Torres, after Hollendorfer considered a switch to Russell Baze, the Bay Area kingpin who got off the colt as Torres won with him at Turfway. In the Spiral, Torres had Globalize battling for the lead early, an uncharacteristic spot for a horse more comfortable coming from off the pace.

“I liked the way Torres explained why he did what he did,” Hollendorfer said. “He let the horse go for the right reasons: Turfway favors speed, and the fractions that day were not very fast. Torres likes the horse. He understands the horse, and he deserves another chance.”

Baze had ridden Globalize five times in California, winning the Golden State Mile with him at Bay Meadows in February, but they were fourth a month later in the El Camino Real Derby. Globalize, who caught nothing but off tracks in three California starts this year, needed a big effort at Turfway to get this far. The 1 1/8-mile Spiral was the colt’s first win beyond a mile, and Hollendorfer sought proof that he might be able to handle 1 1/4 miles in the Kentucky Derby.

“I was disappointed that Russell stayed home instead of riding the horse at Turfway,” Hollendorfer said. “But I respected his decision. We are friends outside our working relationship, and we’re still friends. I’m glad I found Torres. He was a good fit for this horse.”

With Baze riding many of his horses over the years, Hollendorfer, 50, has been highly successful with his bulging stable in the Bay Area, and in recent years he has hung up numbers that have also landed him among the national leaders. Last year, he won 224 races and with $5.3 million in purses finished ninth on the money list. In 1998, his $6.3-million purse total ranked him sixth nationally.

Hollendorfer might be unknown in the Kentucky Derby, but in the Kentucky Oaks, the race for 3-year-old fillies run the day before the Derby, he has had impact. In 1991, he saddled Lite Light, who won the Oaks in a brilliant 1:48 4/5 for the 1 1/8 miles, and five years later he won the Oaks again with Pike Place Dancer. But it’s still not the Derby. As the celebrated owner-breeder William T. Young said, he’d rather have one win in the one race than 10 wins in the other.

Horse Racing Notes

China Visit, who won’t have enough earnings to draw into the Kentucky Derby field if the maximum 20 horses are entered, won a trial race in Dubai Friday and is headed for Churchill Downs. On the same plane will be another of Sheik Mohammed’s Derby hopes, Chief Seattle, who stumbled at the start and finished fourth, eight lengths behind China Visit. . . . Big Numbers could give trainer Steve Asmussen two Derby starters if he runs well today in the Lone Star Derby at Lone Star Park near Dallas. Asmussen already plans to run Snuck In, the Arkansas Derby runner-up, in the Kentucky Derby. . . . Derby contender Anees, working without company over a dull track, was clocked in a slow 1:03 for five furlongs at Churchill Downs. . . . Another arbitrator ruled against the California Horse Racing Board in a clenbuterol hearing. Trainers Bruce Headley and Darrell Vienna, whose horses tested positive for the prohibited bronchodilator in 1998, were found blameless by Frank Britt, an administrative law judge who said that there was no evidence that the urine samples belonged to their horses. The racing board must decide whether to accept Britt’s decision. Earlier this month, another arbitrator sustained an appeal from owners John Toffan and Trudy McCaffery and trainer Paco Gonzalez in a clenbuterol case involving Free House, winner of the 1998 Bel Air Handicap at Hollywood Park.