Gormley charges late to win the Santa Anita Derby

Two men who know all about winning the Kentucky Derby with a long shot will be heading to Louisville with a chance to utilize that experience.

Jockey Victor Espinoza and trainer John Shirreffs teamed Saturday to win the $1-million Santa Anita Derby with Gormley, who won’t be at the top of anyone’s list of Kentucky favorites.

The son of Malibu Moon might not be a 50-1 outsider, as Giacomo was when Shirreffs trained him to victory in the 2005 Kentucky Derby. More likely he’ll be closer to the 21-1 odds at which War Emblem won the 2002 Derby, the first of Espinoza’s three Derby victories (the others came aboard favorites California Chrome and American Pharoah).

Either way, it’s doubtful anyone connected with Gormley — including owners Jerry and Ann Moss, who also owned Giacomo — was worried about that Saturday. They were too busy celebrating a victory worth $600,000 and a spot in the Derby starting gate.

In fact, Espinoza sounded like he was ready to celebrate about midway through the 1 1/8-mile race, even though he was trailing by more than five lengths. Shirreffs had ordered a strategy change: Instead of asking Gormley to utilize his natural speed and race on or near the lead, the trainer told Espinoza to take the colt off the pace.

So while Gormley broke out of the gate quickly, Espinoza let Battle of Midway, American Anthem and Royal Mo duel through a fast half a mile (46.55 seconds) while he waited. Gormley began making up ground leaving the backstretch, caught the leaders entering the stretch and finally earned a half-a-length victory over Battle of Midway, with Uncle Mo another half a length back in third. The final time was an unimpressive 1:51.16.

“I had a little bit of a hard time taking him back but all I had to do was jerk him one time, a bit harder than I wanted, and that’s all it took. He relaxed very nice,” Espinoza said.

“Down the backside, I started laughing to myself because I knew I was in a good position and I knew all the horses in front of me were going to stop. He showed me he’s capable of going the distance. The only problem is his size; he’s not very big but he’s tough and that’s what I like about him.”

The victory was the fourth in six starts for Gormley, including the Grade I FrontRunner last fall and the Sham this year. But he ran poorly in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and last month’s San Felipe. The winner of the latter race, Mastery, was injured and taken off the Derby trail, leaving a wide-open Santa Anita Derby with 13 horses, the largest field since 1981. Gormley was the third choice, but at 6-1 odds even handicappers clearly were unaware what to expect. He returned $14.40 for a $2 win bet.

“Gormley is an evolving horse,” Shirreffs said. “He’s very precocious and very excitable. I just need to turn that energy of his into positive use. It’s a lot of growing pains with a talented horse.”

Reach the World and Iliad, the co-favorites at 3-1, finished fourth and fifth, respectively. The only other horse Saturday with enough points to qualify for the Derby is likely Battle of Midway, and even his participation is not guaranteed.

“He ran really well,” jockey Corey Nakatani said of the runner-up. “I wish we could’ve gotten a breather at some point, but it didn’t work out that way. He ran dynamite.”

Meanwhile, Bob Baffert, who failed to hit the board with any of his three starters, including Reach the World, could miss the Derby for only the second time in the last decade. Baffert has trained four Derby winners, including War Emblem and American Pharoah.

Kentucky preps

--Trainer Doug O’Neill started four horses in the Santa Anita Derby, including Iliad, but his only success Saturday came about 1,900 miles east at Keeneland, where the maiden Irap posted a 31-1 shocker in the $1-million Blue Grass.

A distant fourth last month in the Sunland Derby in New Mexico, Irap held off Practical Joke by three-quarters of a length to earn a spot in the Kentucky Derby. McCraken, the favorite, was third.

“He’s a son of Tiznow; he has a lot of ability,” O’Neill said on NBCSN. “The fact he was still a maiden was just kind of unfortunate but he was always a talented horse.”

--A more predictable result occurred at Aqueduct, where Irish War Cry rebounded from a poor performance in the Fountain of Youth to win the $750,000 Wood Memorial by 3 1/2 lengths over Battalion Runner. Irish War Cry, trained by Graham Motion, won the Holy Bull this year.

--The most impressive winners of the day were fillies on opposite coasts heading for the Kentucky Oaks: Paradise Woods by a stakes-record 11 3/4 lengths in the Santa Anita Oaks and Miss Sky Warrior by 13 lengths in the Gazelle at Aqueduct. Paradise Woods, ridden by Flavien Prat for trainer Richard Mandella, was making only her third start and her first in a stakes race; she broke her maiden only four weeks ago at Santa Anita.