Run for Roses Is What They’re Talking About

It’s going to be a Wayne’s World Santa Anita Derby after all.

Trainer Wayne Lukas, who has won the race four times, won’t be running a horse for the first time since 1978, but Saturday’s crucial Kentucky Derby prep will still have a Wayne, and in fact might even be considered top-heavy with Waynes. Atswhatimtalknbout, the 9-5 morning-line favorite, is owned by Bradley Wayne Hughes and trained by Ronald Wayne Ellis.

Hughes goes by his middle name and Ellis answers to the shortened version of his first name, and their horse -- well, he goes by whatever anybody can sputter without a double-clutch or two. It’s even money that Trevor Denman, the Santa Anita race caller for 20 years and one of the best there is, will stumble at least once before Atswhatimtalknbout and his nine rivals finish the 1 1/8-mile race.

Turf writers -- and headline writers -- also will battle with Atswhatimtalknbout’s name right through the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown if the big colt goes that far. The best spell check is to count the letters and if they total 18 -- the maximum the Jockey Club allows for naming a horse -- then you have a 50-50 chance of being right. Hughes and Ellis are forewarned: No Kentucky Derby winner has ever had a name this long. The longest monikers have been Foolish Pleasure, who won in 1975, and Fusaichi Pegasus, the 2000 winner. They had 16 characters apiece, counting the space.

Such Kentucky Derby marginalia, and the historical reference that no Derby winner since Apollo in 1882 has won the race without running as a 2-year-old, are of no import to Ron Ellis, who is a $750,000 race away from his first Churchill Downs appearance on the first Saturday in May. A 43-year-old trainer not known for pushing his horses, Ellis will be running Atswhatimtalknbout for the fifth time since Jan. 4. The colt goes into the Santa Anita Derby as the solid favorite even though he has yet to win a stake and was second, a nose short of Buddy Gil, in the San Felipe Stakes on March 16. At 5-2, Buddy Gil is Saturday’s second choice.

“Four races at the meet might seem like a lot of racing, but not all of these races have been that hard on him,” Ellis said. “His first race [a win against maidens Jan. 4] was like a workout. His second race, he was far back early again and while he got third, it didn’t take that much out of him. His third race, I told [jockey David Flores] to have him closer earlier, and he won again. Then there was the San Felipe. We were a nose ahead just before the wire, got nosed out on the wire, and then got a neck in front one more jump past the wire. He did everything right but win. He took some dirt in his face that day and responded to it well. He’s gained some experience with each race. I think he’s a special horse, and I just hope that he’s picking the right time to really shine.”

Ellis had to shut down early on Atswhatimtalknbout as a 2-year-old because of sore shins. He worked the colt six furlongs at Santa Anita in July, and was two more workouts removed from running him at Del Mar, when the shins flared. “If it was going to happen, it happened at the right time,” Ellis said. “If it came later in the year, we wouldn’t be where we are now.”

If there is an owner in California overdue for a major horse, it is Wayne Hughes, who has been buying pricey bloodstock for the last 15 years with only a scintilla of success. Hughes, 70, is co-founder and president of Public Storage, which has more than a half-million tenants in 38 states. Forbes magazine figures his bankroll at about $1.6 billion.

According to The Blood-Horse magazine, Hughes has spent more than $40 million to buy yearlings and unraced 2-year-olds at auction, but he has won only one Grade I race. Ellis, who has been with Hughes for six years, ran some horses during Kentucky Derby week last year, stayed to watch his first Derby and on the plane back to California he and Hughes concluded that they would start focusing on the Derby.

A few months before, at a Florida auction, Hughes had outbid Japanese interests to buy the then-unnamed A.P. Indy-Lucinda K colt for $900,000. While liking Atswhatimtalknbout, Ellis had put a pre-sale ceiling of $800,000 on the horse.

“It’s Wayne’s money,” Ellis says now, smiling his toothy smile. “It’s not the first time he’s spent more on a horse than I thought he should have. I don’t know how much more he’d have gone if the bidding had continued.”

A week before the San Felipe, for a reported $500,000, Hughes took in some marquee partners. Moviemakers Stephen Spielberg, Gary Ross and Frank Marshall and his wife, Kathleen Kennedy, now own 10% of Atswhatimtalknbout. All of them were brought together by the retired Hall of Famer Chris McCarron, who rode frequently for Ellis and recently became general manager of Santa Anita. McCarron was a technical advisor for the upcoming movie “Seabiscuit,” which Ross directed and Marshall and Kennedy co-produced.

“I think most of them will be here Saturday,” Ellis said. “If they come, they should have good connections in getting seats.”

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Azeri, horse of the year for 2002, runs for the first time since winning the Breeders’ Cup Distaff when she faces six opponents in Saturday’s $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park. Also running are Affluent and Take Charge Lady, who’ll carry 118 pounds, five less than Azeri, who won the Apple Blossom last year.... Also in Arkansas on Saturday is the $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap. Medaglia d’Oro, after skipping the Santa Anita Handicap and the Dubai World Cup, will carry 122 pounds and spot four rivals between seven and 14 pounds.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Santa Anita Derby

When: Saturday. Post time: 2:35 p.m. (sixth race of an 11-race card). TV: ESPN (coverage starts at 2 p.m.) Purse: $750,000. Conditions: Grade I race to be run at 1 1/8 miles. All horses carry 122 pounds.

*--* PP HORSE BRED IN JOCKEY ODDS 1 Ocean Terrace Kentucky Kent Desormeaux 6-1 2 Indian Express Utah Tyler Baze 30-1 3 Iron Lad Ireland Mark Johnston 50-1 4 Buddy Gil Kentucky Gary Stevens 5-2 5 Ministers Wild Cat Kentucky Victor Espinoza 10-1 6 Atswhatimtalknbout Kentucky David Flores 9-5 7 Flirt With Fortune Florida Martin Pedroza 30-1 8 Kafwain Kentucky Patrick Valenzuela 4-1 9 Logician California Jose Valdivia Jr 15-1 10 Domestic Dispute Kentucky Corey Nakatani 15-1

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