Unblemished High Limit Tries to Join Elite Club

Since 1915, 18 horses have entered the Kentucky Derby undefeated. There will be a 19th if High Limit wins today in the $750,000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

Trained by Bobby Frankel, who won the Blue Grass with Peace Rules in 2003, High Limit is an unknown quantity despite his unbeaten record.He has only three starts and only one under Frankel. Even Frankel, who saddled High Limit for his victory in the Louisiana Derby after Tony Dutrow won two races in Delaware with the colt in October, isn’t sure what caliber horse he has.

“The Blue Grass might not tell us much about the Derby, either,” Frankel said. “Keeneland’s a gimmick racetrack. Horses that love it there can win off by 10 lengths. Then there are horses that do well at Keeneland but don’t do well at Churchill Downs.”

Smarty Jones was the 18th undefeated Kentucky Derby starter when he won the race last year. Regret, Morvich, Majestic Prince and Seattle Slew also got through the Derby undefeated.

In the Blue Grass, there are several bona fide candidates for the Derby, which will be run three weeks from today. High Limit is the morning-line favorite at 9-5, followed by trainer Nick Zito’s Sun King, 2-1; Consolidator, 7-2; Bandini, 4-1; and Closing Argument, 10-1. Completing the seven-horse field are Spanish Chestnut and Mr Sword. On a track that has historically favored speed, there’s an abundance of quick horses. High Limit, Sun King, Bandini and Spanish Chestnut all have a good turn of foot leaving the gate.

“I expect High Limit to be in front,” said Edgar Prado, who rides Sun King, the Tampa Bay Derby winner. “Bandini should be placed second or third. I would like to place my horse just behind those horses.”

Zito, who could have five Derby starters, is running a longshot, Andromeda’s Hero, in today’s $750,000 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. That’s the race Smarty Jones won in his final Kentucky Derby prep last year. Greater Good, who has won both of his starts at the Oaklawn meet, is the second choice at 5-2. Afleet Alex, favored at 2-1, had five victories and two seconds in seven starts before he finished last, 12 1/2 lengths behind Greater Good, in the Rebel on March 19. Afleet Alex was diagnosed with a lung infection after that race.

High Limit’s owners, Gary and Mary West of Omaha, sent their colt to Frankel, a five-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer, in November. High Limit’s light campaign this year is due, Frankel said, to minor problems, including a cracked hoof.

“I was lucky I’ve been training this horse in Florida,” Frankel said. “If he had been with my horses in California this winter, with all the rain out there, I don’t think he would have made it this far.”

Ramon Dominguez, who has been mostly based in Maryland while winning 836 races in the last two years, will ride High Limit for the fourth consecutive time in the 1 1/8 -mile Blue Grass.

“I won’t give him any instructions,” Frankel said. “He knows the horse better than I do. My horse has been on the lead in all three of his wins, but I don’t necessarily think he has to be up front in this one. He can track horses if he has to.”

The Blue Grass has produced 22 Derby winners, but only four since 1989, when the date of the stake was changed from 10 days to three weeks before the Derby. The last two Blue Grass graduates to win the Derby -- Thunder Gulch in 1995 and Sea Hero in 1993 -- ran fourth at Keeneland and became longshots at Churchill Downs.

Zito could become the first trainer to sweep the Florida Derby, the Wood Memorial and the Blue Grass with different horses. He won the Florida Derby with High Fly and the Wood with Bellamy Road.

“Obviously,” Frankel said, “Bellamy Road is the most talented [Derby] horse right now. But the Wood might have been his best race.

“That’s the gamble that [Zito] will take when he runs him in the Derby.”

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Round Pond, trained by John Servis and ridden by Stewart Elliott, the horsemen behind Smarty Jones last year, prepped for the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 6 with a 4 1/2 -length victory in the $250,000 Fantasy at Oaklawn Park. Rugula was second, R Lady Joy ran third and the 11-10 favorite, Sharp Lisa, finished fourth. Bred by Californians Trudy McCaffery and John Toffan, and owned by Fox Hill Farm, Round Pond would have to be supplemented for $25,000 to run in the Oaks. She paid $5.80 in the Fantasy.... At Keeneland, favored Artie Schiller, making his first start since running 12th as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, beat Gulch Approval by 2 1/4 lengths to win the $250,000 Maker’s Mark Mile. Artie Schiller, ridden by Edgar Prado, paid $5.