He Will Try to Go Distance

The Team Valor owners of Captain Bodgit wish they still had the real thing, instead of just a son of Captain Bodgit. Murray Friedlander, an international bloodstock agent, wishes he had been able to find a good 3-year-old this year. And John Toffan, one of the owners of the favorite for Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby, can only speculate about how well the class of 1997 might have done in this year’s Triple Crown.

Which is to say, the 2002 Kentucky Derby might be only four weeks away, but with no clear-cut favorite, there’s the lingering feeling that the current crop of 3-year-olds could be subpar. As always, the races will decide, and there are too many races left to run--two more rounds of Kentucky Derby preps, the Derby itself and the rest of the grueling Triple Crown series. Call back in mid-June for a more definitive analysis.

Toffan and his partner, Trudy McCaffery, who’ll watch Came Home shoot for his sixth victory in seven starts in the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, also raced Free House as a 3-year-old in 1997, a year marked by a strong group of colts. Free House earned $1.3 million that year but had to do it the hard way, butting heads with Silver Charm, Captain Bodgit and Touch Gold in the Triple Crown. After winning the Santa Anita Derby, Free House finished third in the Kentucky Derby, lost by a head to Silver Charm in the Preakness and was third in the Belmont.

“There are no outstanding horses this year,” Toffan said Tuesday. “You think about how tough the horses were the year Free House ran. Our horse, and the ones he had to beat. If any of those horses were around now, their owners would think that they’d have a super chance to win the Triple Crown.”

That son of Captain Bodgit, Windward Passage, has been running at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., and will be one of the favorites in the Arkansas Derby on April 13. Meanwhile, at Santa Anita, Came Home will face six or seven rivals in his first test at 11/8 miles, an eighth of a mile shorter than the Kentucky Derby. It would cost Tracemark, not nominated and with only a victory against maidens in 12 starts, $30,000 to run. More likely to start are Mayakovsky, Danthebluegrassman, Easy Grades, Jack’s Silver, Lusty Latin and U S S Tinosa.

The Came Home camp, which also includes trainer Paco Gonzalez and additional owners Will Farish and John Goodman, won’t vouch for their colt’s potential at 11/4 miles, but after his three-length victory at a mile in the San Rafael on March 2, they feel Saturday’s distance is well within his scope.

“It was very impressive the way he galloped out after his last race,” said Bill Farish, son of Will Farish, the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. “He was hardly blowing at all.”

Questioning Came Home’s breeding--he’s by Gone West out of Nice Assay, a broodmare that McCaffery and Toffan sold for $1.7 million in 1999--irks Toffan.

“I don’t care for the self-appointed pedigree experts,” he said. “I know Came Home’s out of a speed mare, but the way he trains, we think he can run farther than he has. The bloodlines don’t always work. You can’t just look at a horse and say he’s going to be a sprinter, without trying him. I don’t know if any of these horses want a mile and a quarter. I think a mile and an eighth won’t be a problem for my horse, and then after that, as for the Derby, we’ll just have to see. Paco’s calling the shots and he says the horse is good enough to win the Santa Anita Derby.”

The opening line for this week’s Kentucky Derby Future Wager has Came Home, at 10-1, grouped with Johannesburg, Medaglia d’Oro, and Saarland. The favorites, trained by Ken McPeek, are Harlan’s Holiday, 6-1, and Repent, 8-1.

Surprisingly, trainer Aidan O’Brien said Tuesday that undefeated Johannesburg, unraced since winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in October, might run Sunday at the Curragh near Dublin, in a seven-furlong grass race against older horses, instead of facing other 3-year-olds in a one-mile race Saturday over the all-weather surface at Lingfield Park in England. In an extraordinary plan, Johannesburg is scheduled to run only once before going in the Kentucky Derby.

“If it’s a dry week, my first preference is the Curragh,” O’Brien said. “It’s been raining, but the last few days it’s dried up. You never know about the weather. I know we’ll be taking a huge step in the Derby. As a 2-year-old, this horse was a freak and no challenge was too big. We’re hopeful he’s a freak as a 3-year-old as well.”

With 10 horses entered, Repent drew the outside post for Saturday’s $500,000 Illinois Derby at Sportsman’s Park. Fonz’s, who ran fifth at Santa Anita in the San Rafael--his first start of the year--will carry 117 pounds, seven less than Repent, and be ridden by Alfredo Juarez Jr. for the first time.... Nokoma, seventh in the Florida Derby, gets a new rider in Mike Smith for the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 13.... The same day, Azillion, the colt Smith rode to a second-place finish, a neck behind Perfect Drift, in the Spiral at Turfway Park, will be ridden by Corey Nakatani in the Blue Grass at Keeneland.