Palmeiro Steps to the Plate

Before Rafael Palmeiro and the rest of the Texas Rangers host the Seattle Mariners on Saturday night, the veteran first baseman will position himself in front of a television to watch the 64th running of the Santa Anita Derby.

Palmeiro, who began the 2001 season with 400 home runs and a lifetime .296 batting average, probably couldn’t name any of the past winners of the derby, but he does have a special interest in this year’s race.

One of the participants will be Palmeiro, a 3-year-old son of Pleasant Tap out of the mare Fortune Pending who is named in honor of, well, guess who.

Jerry Moss, who owns the dark bay colt with wife Ann, has never met Rafael Palmeiro, but developed a regard from afar. And there was another important factor that led to the naming of the horse.

“I’ve always admired him and he’s a classy guy,” Moss said. “He’s a home run hitter, his last name begins with a P and this horse is by Pleasant and the name has eight letters in it. I’ve been lucky with horses with eight-letter names, like [1990 Santa Anita Handicap winner] Ruhlmann and Garthorn.”

Although Moss didn’t mention them, there were also Zoonaqua, who won the Sorrento and Oak Leaf Stakes in 1992, and ’92 Hollywood Juvenile winner Altazarr.

Perhaps if Moss preferred, or had enjoyed success with nine-letter names, Palmeiro would have been called Rodriguez, honoring either the Rangers’ new, extremely wealthy shortstop, Alex, or their all-star catcher, Ivan.

No real fan of racing before, Palmeiro said he became aware of his namesake when he arrived at spring training in Port Charlotte, Fla.

“I was totally shocked and I was honored,” he said. “I really don’t know much about it, but I hope he does well.

“I haven’t spoken to Mr. Moss, but Fernando Cuza, my agent, met him when they were both at the Dodgers’ complex in Vero Beach. We’re coming to California to play the Angels [beginning Tuesday] and I’m hoping to get to the track to see the horse.

“I saw a replay of the San Rafael, where he was second, and I’ll definitely watch the derby. I’m starting to get more into it and my wife Lynne has already started making plans to go to the Kentucky Derby if the horse runs there.”

Whether Palmeiro heads to Churchill Downs depends on how the four-legged version fares this weekend. In a field that includes Point Given, arguably the top 3-year-old in the country, and Crafty C.T., Palmeiro, a $140,000 yearling purchase, will be something of an outsider in the local derby.

The first starter for trainer John Sadler in the Grade I stake, Palmeiro will be trying to turn the tables on Crafty C.T. after a four-length loss in the one-mile San Rafael Stakes on March 3.

He will have an extra eighth of a mile to work with and Sadler thinks that will be of considerable help to his colt.

“I know I have a horse who wants to run 1 1/4 miles [the Kentucky Derby distance],” he said. “From the time I first saw him, I said he was a stayer and I still say that.

“For him to go on to Kentucky, he’s got to run a good race, which means running well at the end, and, I think, finishing first, second or third.

“I don’t know if he can beat Point Given at 1 1/8 miles right here, right now, because I think Point Given is the best 3-year-old in the country, but I hope Palmeiro can win. He’s doing great.”

Purchased at the recommendation of Dottie Ingordo, the racing manager for the Mosses, who liked his conformation and pedigree, Palmeiro, not surprisingly, showed little in his debut.

Last Aug. 12 at Del Mar, he finished ninth of 11 in a 5 1/2-furlong sprint, a race in which Point Given was a distant second.

Stretched out to a mile a little more than two months later, Palmeiro finished sixth in an eight-horse field, 10 1/2 lengths behind the winning Bully’s North.

“His second race kind of caught me off guard,” Sadler said. “He raced more green than I thought he would.”

Blinkers went on for his next start and since then, Palmeiro has not been worse than second in four races. He was second behind runaway winner Golden Ticket in a maiden race Nov. 12 at Hollywood Park, earned his only victory Dec. 8 in Inglewood in his first collaboration with jockey Kent Desormeaux, then was second, at 31-1, to Millennium Wind in the Santa Catalina Stakes on Jan. 21 at Santa Anita.

“After his [second] to Golden Ticket, I started to feel real good about him,” Sadler said. “After he broke his maiden, I wanted to run him in an allowance race at Santa Anita, but none would fill, so we decided to try him against Millennium Wind.

“I thought he would be second, but I didn’t know he would make the kind of leap forward he did in terms of his performance. He really improved and fought Millennium Wind all the way. We were delighted.

“The San Rafael was the tough one. We had a ton of rain in February and I didn’t train him that hard and I knew a mile might be a little short for him, but I wanted to keep the spacing for his races at about a month.

“That day the track was such that if you weren’t on the lead, you weren’t going to win. So, Kent kind of altered his style and it probably was not the best thing to do, but he still battled and hung tough. It wasn’t an ideal race, but the weather has been good since then and we’ve been able to train him the way we’ve wanted.”

Moss, co-founder of A&M; Records with Herb Alpert and current chairman of Rondor Music, will have his third Santa Anita Derby starter Saturday.

He hopes Palmeiro fares better than the previous two. Ruhlmann finished eighth in 1988 and Compelling Sound was seventh in 1991.

“It would be one of the great thrills of my life to win this race,” said Moss, who will turn 66 three days after the Kentucky Derby. “It would be unbelievable. I’ve been fortunate enough to have won the Santa Anita Handicap with Ruhlmann, but this would be huge.

“[Palmeiro] seems to have come around as a 3-year-old and we’ll find that out in the next couple of months. I think he’s doing well, but quite honestly, we’re just hoping the horse stays around for a long time. If it doesn’t happen in the next couple of months, there’s always the future and we’re hoping to have some fun with him.”

Like his owner, Sadler has never met Rafael Palmeiro.

“I’m a little bit of a baseball fan, but I’m more of an NBA guy,” the trainer said.