Field of Eight Could Be Special

A reunion of five horses, including the top three finishers from November’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, takes place today in Baltimore, where unofficial leadership of racing’s older-male division awaits the winner of the $750,000 Pimlico Special.

With the future of Santa Anita Handicap winner General Challenge clouded because of throat surgery, the winner of the Special could supplant him atop the heap. Lemon Drop Kid, high-weighted under the handicap conditions of the race, probably will be favored at post time, even though both of his races this year have been marked by unusual finishes.

In his first start since running sixth in the Breeders’ Cup at Gulfstream Park, Lemon Drop Kid appeared to be a two-length winner of the Widener Handicap at Gulfstream in March, but the stewards disqualified trainer Scotty Schulhofer’s colt to fourth place for interference in the stretch.

A month later, Lemon Drop Kid was a winner of sorts, but End Of The Road finished in a dead heat with him at the wire of an allowance race at Aqueduct.

Schulhofer still fumes about the Widener disqualification.

“[The Florida stewards] are three blind mice,” he said this week. “That was the worst call I ever saw.”

Jose Santos was the first jockey to win with Lemon Drop Kid, and Santos was aboard last year when the colt spoiled Charismatic’s Triple Crown bid in the Belmont and later won the Travers. But in a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately game, Santos has been replaced by Edgar Prado for today’s race. Schulhofer didn’t care for the way Santos let Lemon Drop Kid move to the front early in the Aqueduct race.

Prado has never won the Pimlico Special--his best finish in seven tries has been Devil His Due’s second behind Cigar in 1995--but when Kent Desormeaux moved from Maryland to Southern California in 1990, Prado took over as the Pimlico-Laurel Park kingpin. Prado, now riding regularly in New York and Florida, has won 14 of the last 17 riding titles at Pimlico.

Cat Thief, the surprise winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic at 19-1, will try to win the Special after going winless in five starts since November. Also in today’s field are Budroyale (second in the Classic), Golden Missile (third) and Almutawakel, fifth in the Classic and winless in six starts since he won the Dubai World Cup in March 1999. Rounding out the eight-horse field are K One King, winner of the Oaklawn Handicap; Allen’s Oop, who won the New Orleans Handicap; and Pleasant Breeze.

The Special will be run at 1 3/16 miles, an uncommon distance at most tracks but at Pimlico the same distance as next Saturday’s Preakness, the second leg in the Triple Crown. Desormeaux, who’ll ride Fusaichi Pegasus as he tries to add the Preakness to his win in the Kentucky Derby, will be aboard Golden Missile today. In his only other race with owner Frank Stronach’s 5-year-old, they finished 1 1/2 lengths behind Cat Thief in the Breeders’ Cup.

Horse Racing Notes

Performance Magic, winner of the Derby Trial, and Bet On Red, the California Derby winner, are in the nine-horse field, but Country Only is the 5-2 favorite in today’s $500,000 Illinois Derby at Sportsman’s Park in Chicago. . . . Arlington International, closed for two years as its owner, Dick Duchossois, feuded with Illinois politicos over the incursion of riverboat casinos, will reopen Sunday. The Arlington Million, one of the country’s premier grass races, is back on the schedule and will be worth $2 million when it’s run on Aug. 19.