Captain Steve Has Rich Opportunity

Point Given may be the most famous horse in trainer Bob Baffert’s barn at the moment, but the richest will be in action today at Churchill Downs.

Captain Steve, who failed to do much in the Triple Crown last year, will race for the first time since winning the $6-million Dubai World Cup almost three months ago in the $750,000 Stephen Foster Handicap.

Owned by Mike Pegram, the 4-year-old son of Fly So Free will break from the inside in the field of eight and again will be ridden by Jerry Bailey. With $6,527,156 in earnings, Captain Steve ranks sixth on the all-time list and will pass John Henry, Alysheba and Silver Charm into third if he wins today.

Carrying top weight of 123 pounds, Captain Steve, who won the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park in his first start of 2001, will be conceding five to 12 pounds to his seven opponents and is the 6-5 favorite on the morning line.

Unshaded, the winner of last year’s Travers Stakes, drew the outside in his second start of the year. Sidelined by a tendon injury after defeating Albert The Great in a thrilling Travers last summer, Unshaded defeated overmatched allowance rivals at Churchill Downs on May 17 and now will step into a Grade II for trainer Carl Nafzger. He is the 3-1 second choice.

“We’ll get 100% from him,” said Nafzger, who won both the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic in 1990 with Unbridled, Unshaded’s sire. “We’ll need this race to get where we are going. He’s got to step up. He stepped up in his first test against older horses [last month] and now he’s catching one of the best horses in the country in Captain Steve. Unshaded has to step up and go. He’s got to be a five-length better horse than last year and I think he is.”

Graeme Hall, who will be ridden by Victor Espinoza, is the 4-1 third choice in the Foster, which is run at 1 1/8 miles, then come Guided Tour and Brahms (8-1), Duckhorn (10-1) and Jadada and Da Devil (30-1).

Brahms, a troubled third as the 13-10 favorite in the Shoemaker Breeders’ Cup Mile at Hollywood Park on May 28, will be making only his second start on dirt. He was seventh of 14 at 55-1 in the 1999 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Gulfstream Park in his first race in this country.

After the Foster, Baffert and Pegram will turn their attention to Hollywood Park, where Pegram’s Love At Noon will try to become a graded stakes winner in the $100,000 Princess Stakes.

With Golden Ballet retired after suffering a tendon injury during a workout earlier in the month, Love At Noon, a daughter of Afternoon Deelites, will try to take advantage of a weak 3-year-old filly division in California.

A winner of her first two starts, Love At Noon was an unlucky loser as the 1-2 favorite in the Dogwood. Running for the first time around two turns, she broke in the air at the start, raced wide throughout and was defeated by a neck by Nasty Storm in the Grade III.

Some afterthoughts on the Belmont:

Monarchos’ trainer, John Ward, was right. Point Given should have had a workout at Belmont Park before the race last Saturday. Then, perhaps, Baffert’s first Belmont Stakes winner would have approached Secretariat’s record 31-length margin of victory instead of winning by a mere 12 1/4 lengths.

Ward has yet to concede that Point Given is a better colt than Monarchos, even though his horse lost by a combined 20 1/2 lengths in their last two meetings.

Monarchos is a quality 3-year-old, but both of his biggest victories this year were in races--the Florida and Kentucky derbies--that were made for his come-from-behind style. In the big events where the pace wasn’t sizzling, he was second in the Wood Memorial, sixth in the Preakness, then third in the Belmont, unable to get past a weary A P Valentine in the final quarter of a mile.

Given his front-running style, Balto Star looked like a legitimate longshot threat in the Belmont. The son of Glitterman got his trip, but simply was run over by the winner and wound up beaten by 45 lengths. He clearly has distance limitations and also seems a bit short in the class department.