It Would Behoove No One to Sell This Horse Short in Kentucky

He wasn’t a horse, he was a “for sale” sign.

Three times in his tender first two years, his owners futilely peddled him on the street.

Didn’t have a name. Didn’t have a buyer. Didn’t have a prayer.

At the first auction, he reared back and toppled, making him too crazy.

At the second auction, he was too small.

At the third auction, he was a two-time loser.

“A lot of buyers thought if we had a horse for sale, something was wrong with him,” co-owner John Toffan said.

In the cold business of breeding, something was indeed wrong.

This horse didn’t want to stand still for the flesh traders.

This horse wanted to run.

So he did Saturday, a brilliant golden flash churning up a deep brown home stretch, charging down the middle to win the Santa Anita Derby by 21/4 lengths, an expected victory for an unexpected treasure.

He is named Came Home because of what he did when nobody wanted him.

In a couple of weeks, that home will be a barn at Churchill Downs, where the once-ignored colt will be the life of the feedbag at the Kentucky Derby.

Thirteen months ago, nobody would pay more than $145,000 for him.

Now, you probably can’t touch him for less than several million.

“It just shows you, people who look at horses, you wonder how much they know,” said co-owner Trudy McCaffery. “You can’t really measure a horse’s heart.”

And now it starts all over again, the rebukes, the questions, the pinching, the prodding.

Came Home flies to Kentucky in a couple of weeks carrying a heavy legacy on a sore back.

Three times in the last six years, a horse from the Santa Anita Derby has won the Kentucky Derby.

Yet this was the slowest Santa Anita Derby in 40 years, with a winning time of 1:50.

Six times in seven career starts, Came Home has finished first.

Yet not once has he shown the sort of finishing strength that would indicate he could triumph at Kentucky’s 11/4-mile distance, in his first effort at that length.

There was some feeling that if runner-up Easy Grades had pushed harder, he could have defeated Came Home in the final strides of Saturday’s 11/8-mile race.

“I’d like to give [Came Home] some credit and say that he’s conserving his energy for that last furlong,” jockey Chris McCarron said after winning his second Santa Anita Derby in three years.

In a couple of weeks, though, McCarron could be one of the only ones giving him credit.

We can see the headlines now.

Came Home Late.

Came Home Slow.

Came Home Why?

There will be murmurs that a pulled back muscle suffered nearly a month ago--the reason given for his slow time Saturday--has not properly healed.

There will be talk that the horse just isn’t big or strong enough for the most difficult race in the world.

And of course, somebody will ask Toffan and McCaffery ... if you people are so smart, why did you try to sell him in the first place?

“We always sell our best horses,” said Toffan, whose minimum price of $400,000 was never met. “It’s too hard to make a living just racing.”

Indeed, after deciding they might as well throw a saddle on him, the locally based team still sold part of Came Home.

After he won his first three races, even.

It was last fall, and Houston investors Will Farish and John Goodman thought the horse had a great future.

In stud.

“That would be correct,” Farish said Saturday with a sheepish grin. “We were just going to let him take us as far as he could take us.”

Who would have thought that eventually it would be further than celebrated trainers D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert, who saddled the seventh- and eight-place finisher, respectively, in Saturday’s eight-horse race and will probably both be absent in Kentucky?

Who would have thought it would be far enough to take McCaffery and Toffan back to the Derby for the second time, after Free House finished third in 1997?

Who would have thought?

“Somehow, we were just not meant to sell this horse,” said McCaffery.

Just as, somehow, in 1989, an owner named Arthur Hancock was not meant to sell a horse that he peddled twice before giving up.

That would be Kentucky Derby winner Sunday Silence.

And remember the horse that ran in a $62,500 claiming race only three months before the 1999 Derby?

A Derby that Charismatic would win?

The speed numbers from Saturday may not look great for Came Home in Kentucky.

But watching 36,025 fans screaming for the neighborhood pony in the final seconds Saturday, it became clear this is about more than that.

McCarron said he was worried even while steering Came Home into the lead in the stretch.

“I just hoping some horse didn’t fly out of the clouds,” he said.

Oh, but one just did.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.