Johannesburg’s Defeat Clouds Tabor’s Picture

Michael Tabor’s weekend had an unsettling start when there was a mix-up in the turf club about the well-known international horse owner’s Santa Anita Derby day reservations.

Things would get worse. Mayakovsky, the second choice, led going into the stretch Saturday at Santa Anita, but finished fourth, four lengths behind Came Home. Then Sunday, Johannesburg, another Kentucky Derby candidate that runs for Tabor, suffered the first loss of his career when a 4-year-old filly, Rebelline, beat him by a short head in the Gladness Stakes at the Curragh near Dublin.

With the Kentucky Derby to be run in less than four weeks, those results left Tabor’s plans for Churchill Downs as unclear as his lunch reservations. The former London racebook owner won the Derby with his first shot, Thunder Gulch in 1995, but he hasn’t finished better than seventh with five subsequent starters.

Johannesburg’s defeat, the first in eight starts for last year’s champion 2-year-old male in North America, probably knocked him out of the Derby, because the seven-furlong grass race was his first outing of the year and there isn’t time for another prep. But his trainer, Aidan O’Brien, said he would take more time to decide.

“Everything is still up in the air,” O’Brien said. “It would have been [up in the air] even if he had won.”

In Castle Gandolfo, O’Brien has another Derby hopeful--not owned by Tabor--and this colt, who’s by Gone West, the sire of Came Home, helped his chances with a 21/2-length win at a mile Saturday in the Fosters International Trial at Lingfield Park near London.

A likely scenario is that O’Brien would send Castle Gandolfo, who won at the Derby distance (11/4 miles) when he was a 2-year-old, to Churchill Downs and save Johannesburg for the 2000 Guineas, the first race in England’s Triple Crown. The Guineas will be run at Newmarket May 4, the same day as the Kentucky Derby. If Johannesburg doesn’t show up in Louisville, he would become the 18th consecutive winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile not to win the Derby.

In the Gladness, which was run on softer ground than Johannesburg probably wanted, O’Brien gave the colt a target with Shoal Creek, another of his horses. Johannesburg, ridden by Mick Kinane and favored at 2-5, went by Shoal Creek, but then he couldn’t hold off jockey Declan McDonogh riding Rebelline, who carried 136 pounds, 11 more than her rival.

“Johannesburg was fresh and over-raced himself early,” O’Brien said. “He got tired in the last 50 yards and was beaten by a good filly. The race told us nothing, really.”

Nokoma, another horse owned by Tabor, is expected to run Saturday in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. He’ll be a longshot, after running a badly beaten seventh in the Florida Derby. Other Kentucky Derby preps Saturday are the Toyota Blue Grass at Keeneland and the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park. Should Harlan’s Holiday, the Florida Derby winner, also win the Blue Grass, he would solidify his position as the Derby favorite.

Ken McPeek, who trains Harlan’s Holiday, has two other Derby prospects that ran with mixed results Saturday. His filly, Take Charge Lady, was a convincing winner of the Ashland at Keeneland, but Repent, who had won the Louisiana Derby, finished an unthreatening second to War Emblem in the Illinois Derby at Sportsman’s Park.

Jerry Bach, who owns Take Charge Lady and Repent, doesn’t seem to be getting Derby fever over his filly. “She was nominated [for the Triple Crown] because nobody has a crystal ball,” said Bach. “But she doesn’t belong in the Derby.”