This May Come Out in Wash

It’s unusual for a trainer to pooh-pooh another trainer’s horse, especially during the week of the Kentucky Derby, but Bob Holthus said Tuesday that Afleet Alex, the probable third choice Saturday, didn’t have the look of a Derby winner.

“Afleet Alex is a very talented horse, but he’s not in as good a physical condition as he was when he won the Arkansas Derby,” Holthus said. “The hair on his coat isn’t as good. He looks like he’s dehydrated.”

Holthus trains Greater Good, a longshot Saturday after his fifth-place finish, 12 lengths behind the victorious Afleet Alex, in the Arkansas Derby on April 16. In Afleet Alex’s only loss this year, he ran sixth as Greater Good won the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark.

Holthus’ opinion aside, Afleet Alex worked half a mile in a sharp 48 2/5 seconds Tuesday. Only three horses, out of 37, turned in faster times for that distance.

“It was just what we wanted,” said Tim Ritchey, who trains Afleet Alex. “I think if he runs his race, he will be right there. I really think he has a legitimate shot.”

Greater Good’s washing out before the Arkansas Derby could mean he’ll have more trouble Saturday. The Kentucky Derby crowd, an estimated 150,000, will be more than twice as large as the one for the Arkansas Derby.

Holthus said that the horses were saddled in the infield, instead of in the paddock, and blinking lights on the tote board spooked his horse. Greater Good’s family, including his dam, Gather The Clan, has a history of getting washy.

Holthus will school Greater Good in the Churchill Downs paddock before Saturday. The horse has a win over the track, having won the Kentucky Jockey Club last year.

“I really like the way he’s coming around,” said John McKee, who has ridden Greater Good in all of his races and has the mount Saturday. “I think he gives every indication that he is going to handle the distance. We are just hoping for a fast pace, and hopefully [the leaders] will back up.”

Holthus, 70, has run three horses in the Derby, his best finish a fourth by Proper Reality in 1988.

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B. Wayne Hughes, who will run Greeley’s Galaxy and Don’t Get Mad in the Derby, put in the winning bid of $37,000 for a breeding to the stallion Northern Afleet, Afleet Alex’s sire, at a charity auction Tuesday. Northern Afleet’s published stud fee is $12,500. The Kentucky farms that stand Northern Afleet, Taylor Made and WinStar will donate the money to a research fund for children’s cancer.

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Magna Entertainment, which owns Santa Anita and 12 other tracks in North America, is off to a slow start. The Canadian company’s first-quarter earnings report showed that Magna lost $4.1 million, compared to last year, when there was a profit of $21.1 million for the first quarter. Magna’s revenues sank from $291.8 million to $252.3 million.

The company cited record rainfall that hampered the Santa Anita meet, and the makeshift tent setup at Gulfstream Park, the Hallandale Beach, Fla., track that is undergoing remodeling.

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Jerry Bailey, who’ll ride High Fly, the Florida Derby winner, in the Kentucky Derby, will consider retirement again at the end of the year.

“Three or four weeks after the Breeders’ Cup [Oct. 29 at Belmont Park], I’ll start to decide,” said Bailey, 48.

Bailey, whose biography, written with Tom Pedulla of USA Today, details his battle with alcohol, said that he has been sober since Jan. 15, 1989.

“If I hadn’t quit drinking, I would be one of three things now,” he said, “in jail, dead, or in an insane asylum.”

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NBC, which is televising all three races of horse racing’s Triple Crown this year, announced Tuesday that it would continue to televise the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness through 2010.

The Belmont Stakes moves to ABC next year, and there had been reports that ESPN was close to a deal to begin carrying the Preakness.

Joe De Francis, president and chief executive of the Maryland Jockey Club, said on a conference call that ESPN’s offer for rights to the Preakness had been considered.

“After evaluating it, we decided it would be in our best interest to stay with NBC,” he said.

Staff writer Larry Stewart contributed to this report.