Derby Horse’s Career Is Over

It was the kind of call that trainers say is the most difficult to make. Phoning from California, trainer Wayne Lukas reached Bob Lewis in Newport Beach at 5 a.m. Monday, telling him that Consolidator was injured and wouldn’t be running in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

Not only is Consolidator out of the Derby, his career as a racehorse is over, the result of a cracked bone at the rear of his right front ankle, suffered in a 1 5/8 -mile gallop at Churchill Downs on Sunday.

Consolidator, a son of Storm Cat who cost $1.25 million when Lewis and his wife, Beverly, bought him at a yearling auction in 2003, earned $661,760, winning three of 10 starts.

With Consolidator out, Greeley’s Galaxy, a 9 1/2 -length winner of the Illinois Derby, will now be able to run Saturday. Not nominated for the Triple Crown, the colt had been 21st in order of preference for a race that has a 20-horse limit.

B. Wayne Hughes, Greeley’s Galaxy’s owner, must pay a $200,000 supplement, which will also make the horse eligible for the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, the remaining races of the Triple Crown.

The 19 others running Saturday cost their owners either $600 or $6,000 in nominating fees, and will cost an additional $50,000 per horse in entry and starting payments. The Derby purse is $2 million, the first increase since it became a $1-million race in 1996. First place is worth $1.24 million.

Jockey Rafael Bejarano, who led North America last year with 455 wins, had been scheduled to ride Consolidator, but now he’ll be aboard Andromeda’s Hero for trainer Nick Zito.

Lukas didn’t indicate Sunday that Consolidator had any problems. Consolidator worked five furlongs Thursday in 1:01 2/5 .

“I slept on it Sunday night,” Lukas said. “He had a routine gallop but stumbled when he was being pulled up. He was tentative after that and didn’t look comfortable. First thing [Monday morning], I asked for X-rays, and they showed the crack.”

Consolidator, whose injury is not life-threatening, will begin a stud career next year.

He had gone from one of the Derby favorites to an outsider with a fifth-place finish, 13 1/4 lengths behind Bandini, in the Blue Grass Stakes on April 16. The race before that, at Santa Anita, he won the San Felipe by 6 1/2 lengths, over a speed-biased track that matched his running style.

He had broken his maiden at Churchill in July, and won the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., in October. Consolidator was fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, behind Wilko, Afleet Alex and Sun King, all Derby runners.

For the Derby, the Lewises and Lukas are left with Going Wild, a colt who has been beaten by more than 57 lengths in his last two starts.

“It’s too bad about Consolidator,” Bob Lewis said. “It’s a tragedy, but that’s what it’s like in this business. When you play with fire, you’re going to get burned once in a while.”

Hughes will now have two starters: Greeley’s Galaxy and Don’t Get Mad, winner of the Derby Trial at Churchill last Saturday. Kent Desormeaux will ride Greeley’s Galaxy, and Tyler Baze has the mount on Don’t Get Mad. Zito is starting five horses, including Bellamy Road; trainer Todd Pletcher has three horses.

*

Visa USA is pulling out of its Triple Crown sponsorship to start a five-year deal with the Kentucky Derby, beginning in 2006.

The credit card company joined Triple Crown in 1996 and through an insurance policy had guaranteed a $5-million bonus to any horse that swept the Derby, the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Six horses won the first two races during Visa’s years, but none of them was able to win the Belmont.

There hasn’t been a Triple Crown champion since Affirmed in 1978. A Triple Crown spokesman said the three tracks would begin a search for a new sponsor.

*

The Santa Anita Derby winner, Buzzards Bay, who is staying in California until Wednesday, worked six furlongs in 1:11 2/5 .

Other workouts, all at Churchill Downs: Coin Silver, 1:01, and Closing Argument 1:01 3/5 , both of them going five furlongs; Sort It Out, :47 1/5 for a half-mile.

The forecast calls for sunshine all week, with the exception of possible showers on Thursday. The forecast for Saturday is a high of 75 degrees.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Run for the Roses

Contenders for the Kentucky Derby, to be run Saturday at 3 p.m. PDT on Ch. 4:

*--* HORSE TRAINER Afleet Alex Tim Ritchey Andromeda’s Hero Nick Zito Bandini Todd Pletcher Bellamy Road Nick Zito Buzzards Bay Jeff Mullins Closing Argument Kiaran McLaughlin Coin Silver Todd Pletcher Don’t Get Mad Ron Ellis Flower Alley Todd Pletcher Giacomo John Shirreffs Going Wild Wayne Lukas Greater Good Robert Holthus Greeley’s Galaxy Warren Stute High Fly Nick Zito High Limit Bobby Frankel Noble Causeway Nick Zito Sort It Out Bob Baffert Spanish Chestnut Patrick Biancone Sun King Nick Zito Wilko Craig Dollase

*--*