Nakatani Again Tames the Beast

It would be exaggerating to say that Hall of Fame jockeys were fighting last year at this time to ride General Challenge. But not by much. His trainer, Bob Baffert, did almost come to blows with Chris McCarron’s agent one day at Santa Anita after reneging on a promise and handing the precocious colt’s reins to Gary Stevens.

If any horse was worth fighting for during the March madness that descends upon trainers and jockeys in the weeks preceding the Kentucy Derby as they try to settle on the winning combination, it was General Challenge. Baffert said the horse was as promising as any he’d ever trained. Considering he had trained the last two Derby winners, Silver Charm and Real Quiet, that was a bold statement. But no one who watched him work in the mornings would have argued with it.

Who wouldn’t want to ride General Challenge?

Almost everybody, as it turned out.

General Challenge might have been the most gifted horse in Baffert’s barn, but he also was the most temperamental, unprofessional and aggravating that the trainer had ever seen.

Baffert could have given you a laundry list of things that prevented the fast horse from becoming a race horse, but Santa Anita publicist Jack Disney summed it up by nicknaming him “Rodman.”

Stevens rode General Challenge to a first-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby, then an 11th in the Kentucky Derby. David Flores took over and had two firsts and two seconds and then a 10th. McCarron finally got his chance and had a first and a fourth.

“I had to beg Corey to ride him,” Baffert said Saturday.

“No, he didn’t,” Corey Nakatani, General Challenge’s jockey of the moment, said, unconvincingly.

But there is no question that General Challenge is more of a challenge than most jockeys want to take on.

*

Having watched too many NFL games, Baffert once suggested to Stevens that trainers should be able with the modern technology available to make radio contact with jockeys during races to discuss tactics.

“If you need a radio, you’re riding the wrong rider,” Stevens told him.

Baffert knew for sure what Stevens meant last month during the Strub Stakes at Santa Anita. It was Nakatani’s first race on General Challenge, and after receiving instructions from Baffert, the jockey ignored virtually all of them.

After watching General Challenge fall nine lengths off the pace, Baffert would have fired Nakatani on the spot if they had had a radio.

“I was uttering all sorts of things under my breath, like, ‘What is he doing?’ ” Baffert said.

Nakatani knew exactly what he was doing. He had seen General Challenge run enough times to know that he didn’t like to run in traffic. Dirt in his face stops him like a brick wall. So Nakatani kept him behind the field as long as he thought possible, took him outside, and then charged unobstructed to the finish line, a 9 1/2-length winner.

There is a question after every race about whether it was the jockey, the trainer or the horse who won it. Or lost it. In most cases, the jockey and the trainers disagree. This time, Nakatani received all the credit.

Baffert wouldn’t blame General Challenge’s previous jockeys, who, after all, are some of the sport’s best, but he did say that they all made one big mistake.

“I put a lot of pressure on the other riders who rode him,” he said. “They were listening to me. Corey didn’t listen to me.”

*

The question Saturday at Santa Anita was whether Nakatani really had solved General Challenge.

It is one thing to win the San Fernando against an average field, another to win the Santa Anita Handicap against horses such as Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Cat Thief and runner-up Budroyale and former Big ‘Cap champion Malek.

The bettors got it right when they made him the favorite, and, in retrospect, it doesn’t seem all that hard to figure.

Although neither Baffert nor Nakatani had ever won the Big ‘Cap, the former is the leading trainer at Santa Anita this winter and the latter is the leading jockey. General Challenge is the best horse there or anywhere else.

Even Budroyale’s trainer, Ted H. West, acknowledged that.

“I’ve seen him train every day out here for two years, and he does things I’ve never seen any other horse do,” he said. “He has the most talent of any horse in the world.”

But, and there is always a but with General Challenge, West added, “He doesn’t know he’s a race horse. Bud doesn’t have as much talent, but he knows he’s a race horse.”

It’s not clear whether General Challenge knows any more than he did a month ago, or a year ago, but it does appear as if Nakatani is on to something. Again, he held General Challenge back, took him outside on the far turn and turned him loose.

“Budroyale is such a warrior,” Baffert said. “We didn’t want to engage him. We just wanted to woosh past him.”

Woosh, they did. General Challenge won by 1 1/4 lengths.

“Now Corey’s going to have to ride this horse for the rest of his career,” Baffert said.

Or until the next loss.

*

Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com.