History Lesson

This shapes up as the wannabe Kentucky Derby. Eight of the 14 trainers have never started a horse in the race. Six of the 16 jockeys are Derby rookies. Nine of the 16 horses have never won a graded stakes race, and only three of them have ever won a Grade I. So, the 129th Derby, to be run over a fast track at 3:04 p.m. PDT today, has boiled down to Empire Maker et al.

Even frank Bobby Frankel has been caught up in the Empire Maker mania. If they know what’s good for them, trainers of Derby favorites are circumspect, giving visitors to the barn the time of day -- literally -- and little else. That’s not Frankel.

“The script’s been written,” he said Friday morning, after Empire Maker had done a do-si-do with his exercise rider at the start of a 1 1/4-mile gallop. “This horse was meant to win. But they [presumably, the racing gods] don’t want me to have too easy of a time beforehand.”

Empire Maker, winner of the Grade I Florida Derby and Wood Memorial, is 6-5 on the morning line, and for more than a generation that alone has been 2 1/2 strikes against a Derby horse. In 2000, favored Fusaichi Pegasus won the Derby, the first post-time choice to score since Spectacular Bid in 1979. Since Fusaichi, two more longshots -- Monarchos and War Emblem -- have won, so the tally is 23 years, one winning favorite. Frankel and Empire Maker would appear to be in need of some rare generosity from those racing gods.

Frankel has a second horse running today, the afterthought Peace Rules, winner of the Louisiana Derby in March and the Blue Grass Stakes in April, but Peace Rules has been eclipsed by his better-bred stablemate in the Derby build-up. Peace Rules is 8-1, the third choice on the morning line, and figures to be one of the speed factors.

Before the Louisiana Derby, Frankel told Peace Rules’ owner, Ed Gann of Rancho Santa Fe, to stay home because they were mostly running for second or third money. Gann watched from California, and after Peace Rules surprised even his trainer at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans, Frankel figured the best reason for running in the Derby was that his longtime client “would finally get a chance in the race.” But since the Blue Grass, Frankel has made at least a mild case for Peace Rules.

“He’s a hard trier,” he said. “On his pedigree, he doesn’t figure for mile and a quarter, but if he turns for home in front, it’ll be tough getting by him.”

Only two trainers in the race, Bob Baffert and Wayne Lukas, have won a Derby.

Lukas, who has won four, most recently with Charismatic in 1999, has Ten Cents A Shine, a 50-1 shot, and Scrimshaw, a late-blooming colt who won the Charismatic prep, the Lexington, at Keeneland two weeks ago.

Baffert, who won his third Derby in the last six when War Emblem stole the race a year ago, has had a tough year. Vindication, the undefeated 2-year-old champion, was waylaid by injury, and Kafwain came out of the Derby when he went wrong only three days ago. Baffert is left with Indian Express, another colt with up-front speed, who was a gritty second, beaten by only a head, against Buddy Gil in the Santa Anita Derby.

Except for Jerry Bailey on Empire Maker, Gary Stevens on Buddy Gil, Kent Desormeaux on Outta Here and Pat Day on Ten Most Wanted, the jockeys all are looking for their first victories.

So what’s a rider like Tony Farina doing in a place like this?

Farina, 23, is a project of Patrick Biancone, a fellow Frenchman and the trainer of Brancusi, who was second, but well behind Peace Rules, in the Blue Grass. Farina, who learned the trade at a riding school near Chantilly, moved from France to Santa Anita last fall, with scant success.

He has won six races this year, but he may know more about Derby history than any other rider in the race. Earlier in the week, he spent several hours in the Kentucky Derby Museum, on the Churchill Downs grounds, watching dozens of Derby runnings on video. Day, who won the Derby with Lil E. Tee in 1992, has ridden in the race 20 times, the last 19 in succession, but his streak appeared in jeopardy earlier in the week. Something about coming in second best to a trash bag and a dumpster at his home, the outcome a strained back. Day took three days off, returned to the saddle Friday, and is headed for No. 20 in a row.

Bailey may be racing’s premier rider right now, and he might already have won the Derby twice, but Empire Maker will be only the second favorite he has ridden in the race. It was Bailey who recommended to Frankel, two races back, that Empire Maker be fitted with blinkers to sharpen his focus. Victories in the Florida Derby and the Wood have ensued.

Blinkers or not, Empire Maker was distracted during his scheduled gallop Friday morning.

With veteran exercise rider Jose Cuevas aboard, the colt tried to take a right turn, toward a gap in the fence that leads to the barn, just as the gallop was getting underway. Cuevas had to muscle the horse obliquely, toward the opposite rail, to keep him on the track. The rest of the gallop went as scheduled.

Both Frankel and Cuevas put positive spins on the shenanigans.

There apparently was no further damage to Empire Maker’s bruised hoof.

Frankel said that the colt did the same thing a few days before the Florida Derby, but unlike Friday there was not a gaggle of journalists to report it.

“This horse is so strong,” Cuevas said. “This shows how strong he is. He’s just ready to run. Remember Go For Gin? He did the same thing the day before his race.”

When Go For Gin won the 1994 Derby, nobody remembered what had happened the day before.

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Not Prime Position

How the Kentucky Derby favorites have fared since 1980 (* favorite coupled with another horse):

*--* YEAR FAVORITE ODDS FINISHED WINNER ODDS 1980 Rockhill Native 2-1 5th Genuine Risk 13-1 1981 Proud Appeal* 2-1 18th Pleasant Colony 7-2 1982 Air Forbes One 5-2 7th Gato Del Sol 21-1 1983 Marfa* 2-1 5th Sunny’s Halo 5-2 1984 Life’s Magic* 5-2 8th Swale 3-1 1985 Chief’s Crown 6-5 3rd Spend A Buck 4-1 1986 Snow Chief 2-1 11th Ferdinand 17-1 1987 Demons Begone 2-1 Eased Alysheba 8-1 1988 Private Terms 3-1 9th Winning Colors 3-1 1989 Easy Goer* 4-5 2nd Sunday Silence 3-1 1990 Mister Frisky 9-5 8th Unbridled 10-1 1991 Hansel 5-2 10th Strike The Gold 9-2 1992 Arazi 4-5 8th Lil E. Tee 16-1 1993 Prairie Bayou 4-1 2nd Sea Hero 12-1 1994 Holy Bull 2-1 12th Go For Gin 9-1 1995 Timber Country* 3-1 3rd Thunder Gulch 35-1 1996 Unbridled’s Song 7-2 5th Grindstone 5-1 1997 Captain Bodgit 3-1 2nd Silver Charm 4-1 1998 Indian Charlie 5-2 3rd Real Quiet 8-1 1999 Excellent Meeting* 9-2 5th Charismatic 31-1 2000 Fusaichi Pegasus 2-1 1st Fusaichi Pegasus -- 2001 Point Given 8-5 5th Monarchos 10-1 2002 Harlan’s Holiday 6-1 7th War Emblem 20-1

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