Don’t Get Mad Stays in Picture

The Kentucky Derby plot took a twist like a Gordian knot Saturday when Don’t Get Mad, who has been unbeatable at Churchill Downs, won the $113,100 Derby Trial by seven lengths in front of 15,394 on opening day of the track’s spring-summer meet.

Over a track that changed from good to fast late in the day, Don’t Get Mad won for the third time in as many tries here to thrust himself back into the Derby picture. Trainer Ron Ellis would like to run Don’t Get Mad in next Saturday’s Derby, and so would his owner, B. Wayne Hughes, even though a horse out of the Trial hasn’t run in the Derby since Alydavid in 1991, and a Trial horse hasn’t won the Derby since Tim Tam in 1958.

Ellis said after the race that he believed Hughes would prefer to run another horse, Greeley’s Galaxy, in the Derby, and there may be room for only one. The Derby limit is 20, based on career earnings in graded stakes, but Greeley’s Galaxy’s purses of $300,000 don’t count because he was inadvertently not nominated for the Triple Crown. While Hughes could supplement Greeley’s Galaxy with a payment of $200,000, nominated horses get preference and Greeley’s Galaxy is 21st on the list.

Greeley’s Galaxy could still get in, however, as a substitute for Don’t Get Mad. Doug Bredar, Churchill Downs’ racing secretary, said that the rules allowed for such a maneuver.

“I’d like to run both horses,” Hughes said. “I’m thinking positive, and hoping that something happens between now and Wednesday that would allow both of them to run.”

Entries will be drawn on Wednesday. Assuming there are no surprise entrants, Hughes would need one more defection for both horses to run. There is no also-eligible list for the Derby, which means that after Wednesday scratched horses are not replaced in the field.

Bellamy Road, one of five Nick Zito-trained horses, will be the favorite. Zito’s others are High Fly, Noble Causeway, Sun King and Andromeda’s Hero. Trainer Todd Pletcher is running three -- Bandini, Coin Silver and Flower Alley -- and Wayne Lukas has a pair -- Consolidator and Going Wild. The other probables are Afleet Alex, High Limit, Buzzards Bay, Wilko, Greater Good, Giacomo, Closing Argument, Sort It Out, Spanish Chestnut and Don’t Get Mad.

Ridden by Gary Stevens, Don’t Get Mad ran the mile in 1:36 and paid $7 as the second choice. Gallardo was second, favored Vicarage third and Miracle Man fourth. With Stevens committed to Noble Causeway, Hughes said that he has lined up Kent Desormeaux for Greeley’s Galaxy and Tyler Baze for Don’t Get Mad. Desormeaux was aboard when Greeley’s Galaxy won the Illinois Derby by 9 1/2 lengths.

Two of Don’t Get Mad’s Churchill wins came last year, when Ellis’ brother-in-law, Paul McGee, trained the horse. Hughes blamed the hard surface at Santa Anita for Don’t Get Mad’s two recent losses there, including a sixth-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby. In a departure, Ellis ran Don’t Get Mad on Saturday without the bleeder medication Lasix, which sometimes can dull horses.

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Scrappy T became a candidate for the Preakness, at Pimlico in Baltimore on May 21, with a one-length win over Park Avenue Ball in the $150,000 Withers at Aqueduct. War Plan finished third.