A Small Step Toward the Derby
None of the nine starters in today’s Santa Catalina Stakes at Santa Anita is less than 35-1 in the Kentucky Derby future-book line at Bally’s racebook in Las Vegas.
But then this is mid-January and the Derby at Churchill Downs is more than three months -- and dozens of prep races -- away. The Santa Catalina, like another of today’s races, the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park, is only a steppingstone toward May 1.
When Ferdinand won the Santa Catalina in 1986, it was his first stakes win and only his second victory in seven starts.
Ferdinand didn’t win another prep -- he was second in the San Rafael and a well-beaten third in the Santa Anita Derby -- but his trainer, Charlie Whittingham, and jockey Bill Shoemaker were undeterred. A month after the Santa Anita Derby, Ferdinand was more than two lengths the best in the Kentucky Derby.
There are similarities between St Averil, the likely favorite in today’s Santa Catalina, and Ferdinand. St Averil’s only victory was against maidens, and like Ferdinand this $500,000 yearling ended his 2-year-old season with a promising but non-winning effort in the Hollywood Futurity. Ferdinand was third at Hollywood Park, where Snow Chief won; St Averil finished second in the cross-town race to Lion Heart, who is undefeated and the 10-1 favorite in a wide-open list of 3-year-olds at Bally’s.
The most intriguing entry in the Santa Catalina field is Master David. The Kentucky-bred colt ran well on the grass in England, made his first start on dirt by running second in the Remsen at Aqueduct in November, and now runs for the first time for trainer Bobby Frankel.
Trainer Nick Zito, who won the 1994 Holy Bull with Go For Gin, the eventual Derby winner, is running the longshot El Prado Rob at Gulfstream today. El Prado Rob has been overmatched in three stakes starts, including a sixth-place finish in the Remsen, but Zito has his Derby big guns -- Birdstone, Eurosilver and The Cliff’s Edge -- awaiting their first outs as 3-year-olds. The favorite today is likely to be Second Of June, who beat the 4-5 choice, Silver Wagon, in the What A Pleasure Stakes at Calder on Dec. 13. Silver Wagon, a hot item after his Hopeful victory at Saratoga in August, is looking for redemption in the Holy Bull.
*
Another Isaac Murphy Award, another addition to the trophy case of Russell Baze in Northern California.
Baze, sidelined for the last month of 2003 because of a broken collarbone, won the Murphy Award -- given to the jockey with the highest winning percentage nationally -- for the ninth consecutive year. In 2003, he batted .300 for the first time, clicking with 410 out of 1,359 mounts for 30.2%.
Ramon Dominguez, the Maryland rider who led the country with 453 victory, finished second to Baze in the Murphy standings with 27.8%.
Baze said that he planned to resume riding at Golden Gate Fields on Jan. 28.
*
The well-traveled Bare Necessities, whose last two victories were in Kentucky and Illinois, won for the first time in California since March when she scored a three-length victory Friday in the Paseana Handicap at Santa Anita.