Santa Anita Derby moves from racetrack to boxing ring

So, you think horse racing is one of those genteel sports, where elegant animals race and beautiful people dress up to sit in box seats, sip liqueur and watch.

Kind of polo with a finish line, eh?

Well, think again.

Sidney’s Candy won Saturday‘s Santa Anita Derby in impressive fashion. But what happened behind him, and after the race, pushed the news of his victory deep into the story of the day

This Santa Anita Derby, a prestigious West Coast prep race for the May 1 Kentucky Derby, ended up with more fussin’ and fightin’ than a NASCAR infield party. Pro wrestling fans may start coming to the races. Next up: jockeys with brass knuckles and tattoos.

When it was over, few cared about the race chart. Reporters were looking for CompuBox stats. Who threw the most jabs? Power punches?

It started in the final turn of the 1 1/8-mile race. Sidney’s Candy, second betting choice in this $750,000 Grade I annual classic and the expected pacesetter, was comfortably in front. A few lengths back, on the rail, was favorite Lookin At Lucky, ridden by the leading jockey in the country the last several years, Garrett Gomez.

“I was having a perfect trip,” Gomez would say later.

His trainer, Bob Baffert, would disagree.

“He shouldn’t have been in that position,” Baffert said. “It was a horrendous ride.”

According to Gomez, the horse ridden by Victor Espinoza, Who’s Up, cut him off near the five-sixteenths pole, bumping him and his multimillion-dollar horse into the rail. Gomez stood in the saddle as Lookin At Lucky sort of planted his front feet so as not to fall.

“I thought I was going over the top,” Gomez said.

Gomez said Espinoza looked over at him and then “veered” his horse into him, rather than letting him get through the hole at the rail.

“He did it on purpose,” Gomez said, adding that the two had had words over a race last week and Espinoza had indicated he’d get even. Gomez also said Espinoza had “some bad blood” with Baffert because Baffert had taken him off some of his prime horses recently. Baffert said later that Espinoza was unhappy when he was replaced by Martin Garcia on Misremembered, this year’s Santa Anita Handicap winner.

“It was a double whammy,” Gomez said.

Espinoza denied all. He said he and Gomez have been friends for a long time, that it was Lookin At Lucky that bumped him.

“I’m one of the safest riders around,” he said. “You can ask anybody.”

Before all the post-race questions were asked, the stewards had some. Gomez recovered enough to get Lookin At Lucky back up to third, following longshot Setsuko in second. Sidney’s Candy had gone rail to rail, won by 4 1/2 lengths and run the last eighth-mile in 12.1 seconds, without being urged by jockey Joe Talamo.

So Gomez and Espinoza, super flyweights unaccompanied by referees of any sort, went from the weight scales near the finish line, down steps to a room with a direct line to the stewards. It will, henceforth, be known as Madison Square Garden. They should hang boxing gloves on the wall.

Punches were thrown. Neither would say how many landed or who threw first. Neither showed any visible signs of damage afterward. Nor was there any indication that, before the fight, either did blood testing mandated by Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The stewards made no changes in the order of finish, but there was more to come.

Gomez balked, then met the press in the jockey room. Soon, Espinoza was surrounded right outside, after running the next race. In the midst of that media scrum, Baffert’s wife, Jill, waded in and let him have it with a verbal barrage. Had she been in the room for that chat with the stewards, Espinoza might have left on a stretcher.

Baffert himself didn’t particularly buy Gomez’s version of why this happened. He kept saying the jockey shouldn’t have been hemmed in at the rail. Asked if he might take Gomez off the horse, Baffert said, “I’m not even thinking about that now.”

Notice, he didn’t say no.

When the smoke cleared, there were several unavoidable conclusions.

Lookin At Lucky, co-favorite to win the Kentucky Derby before Saturday, will slip down the list, especially because the other co-favorite, Eskendereya, ran a huge race to win the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. Eskendereya, now the Derby darling, got the ultimate call from Aqueduct’s Tom Durkin as he approached the finish line.

“He’s ahead, from here to Egypt,” Durkin said.

Lookin At Lucky will certainly still go to the Derby, but Sidney’s Candy may get as much attention from the bettors now.

Second place Setsuko and fourth-place Caracortado may not have enough graded stakes winnings to make the Kentucky Derby field, even if they want to go.

Whether Gomez’s version of things was to be believed, he made the point that these are expensive racehorses and this was a potential life-and-death moment. If, indeed, Espinoza’s action was premeditated — a tough thing to prove — then people in big offices in racing should discuss penalties.

Or, they can play it loose and sign up the World Boxing Council to sanction next year’s Santa Anita Derby.

Jockeys and Jabs. Get Your Tickets Now.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com.