Santa Anita Derby

The spotlight illuminating the Kentucky Derby trail shines this weekend on California.That's good for Easterners, who don't often see the West Coast's top 3-year-olds until they step up, seemingly out of nowhere, and deliver a kick in the rear every now and then on the first Saturday in May.Last year, the first four finishers in the Kentucky Derby had raced in California. This year, if a West Coast runner is to win the roses May 3, he -- or she -- likely will be among the expected 10 starters today in the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- A mountain of handicapping logic couldn't stop Larry the Legend, but a little bone chip did.The popular colt, whose upset victory in the Santa Anita Derby made him a contender for the Kentucky Derby, will miss the Triple Crown races after X-rays revealed a bone chip in his left front knee, owner-trainer Craig Lewis said yesterday."

LOUISVILLE -- Funny, how fate plays a fickle game at the racetrack. One day a horse is box-office in the Kentucky Derby lineup. Then he loses a race. Nobody thinks much more about him.Falling short by a head in the Santa Anita Derby to a colt who isn't even in the Kentucky Derby has put Afternoon Deelites in this curious position.A few months ago he was widely hailed as the next superstar of the game. His status this week at Churchill Downs is that of forgotten former favorite.He's so forgotten that he's nearly invisible.

The list of stakes races for 3-year-olds run before the Kentucky Derby has grown to an arm's length in recent years and several are important, but only the three run over 9 furlongs during April are pivotal.The first of these was run this past Saturday and Larry The Legend's victory over Afternoon Deelites, Jumron and Timber Country in the Santa Anita Derby leaves the connections of the first four with well-grounded reasons for optimism. The Wood Memorial and Blue Grass will be run this coming Saturday.

NEW YORK -- Santa Anita Derby winner Brocco made it through a five-furlong workout yesterday at Churchill Downs, clearing the way for him to start in the Kentucky Derby.Brocco was placed on the vet's list at Santa Anita following the Santa Anita Derby when a veterinarian representing the state racing commission detected some unsoundness in his right front leg. He became ineligible to race until completing a workout to the satisfaction of a state or track vet, which he did yesterday.The work was completed in 1:03 under exercise rider Alfredo Garcia.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- The countdown to the Kentucky Derby took an unexpected twist yesterday, when Brocco ended up on the Vet's List for sore horses at Santa Anita Park.The action was taken by California state veterinarian William Bell, but quickly disregarded by the horse's jockey and trainer. Bell said the horse came back "slightly off" in his right foreleg after his victory on Saturday in the Santa Anita Derby.Bell said he noticed the apparent soreness when the horse was cooling out in the test barn.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- The horse Jeff Lukas will be rooting for to win the Santa Anita Derby this afternoon is the same animal that almost killed him four months ago.Lukas will be sitting in a car on the backstretch at Santa Anita Park, well away from the roar of the crowd, but still close to the action.It will be Lukas' first trip to the races since Tabasco Cat, a horse he helped his father, D. Wayne Lukas, train, ran him down in the barn area on Dec. 15, after he stepped out and tried to flag down the scared animal.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Trainer Ron McAnally threw a shocker into the Santa Anita Derby proceedings yesterday when he failed to enter probable second choice Valiant Nature and announced he would run the horse instead a week from Saturday in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.The Santa Anita field still includes nine horses, headed by 7-5 favorite Brocco, who drew the three-post. Tabasco Cat is now picked second by track oddsmaker Jeff Tufts at 5-2, followed by Soul Of The Matter at 3-1."

ARCADIA, Calif. -- The Santa Anita Derby lost one starter, Wild Invader, yesterday and could lose another one, Maryland-sired Soul Of The Matter, today.Trainer Bobby Frankel officially scratched Wild Invader yesterday and said he is making shipping arrangements to run the son of Seattle Slew, owned by Prince Khalid Abdullah, next Saturday in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.Dick Mandella, trainer of Soul Of The Matter, said it's 60-40 that his horse, owned by composer Burt Bacharach, will not start.

NEW YORK -- Santa Anita Derby winner Brocco made it through a five-furlong workout yesterday at Churchill Downs, clearing the way for him to start in the Kentucky Derby.Brocco was placed on the vet's list at Santa Anita following the Santa Anita Derby when a veterinarian representing the state racing commission detected some unsoundness in his right front leg. He became ineligible to race until completing a workout to the satisfaction of a state or track vet, which he did yesterday.

Pioneerof the Nile has won the Santa Anita Derby, holding off Chocolate Candy by one length. Saturday's victory sends Pioneerof the Nile into next month's Kentucky Derby for trainer Bob Baffert, a three-time Derby winner who hasn't had a starter in the Run for the Roses since 2006. Pioneerof the Nile ran 1 1/8 miles on the artificial surface in 1:49.17. He was sent off as the 4-5 wagering favorite after main rival The Pamplemousse was scratched because of a soft-tissue injury in one of his legs.

NEW YORK -- So, this is how horse racing clears up the picture for its May 3 Kentucky Derby? A weekend of three Derby prep races and not one favorite wins? In the Wood Memorial, here at Aqueduct Racetrack, favorite War Pass ran hard but was beaten by a half length by Tale of Ekati, who had finished sixth in his previous race. In Chicago, Illinois Derby favorite Denis of Cork suffered his first career defeat, finishing fifth. Recapturetheglory, whose only other victory had come in a maiden race, won for trainer and owner Louie Roussel.

War Pass, the 2-year-old champion, finished last in his last Kentucky Derby prep race. Double or Nothing, a 3-year-old who won the Private Terms Stakes at Laurel Park last Saturday, earned a higher Beyer's speed figure (the scale used by many prognosticators to determine a horse's effort) than Adriano, who won the Grade II, $500,000 Lane's End at Turfway in Kentucky the same day. Elysium Fields, who could wind up the betting favorite in today's Florida Derby because of his big second-place performance in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, was 0-for-3 as a 2-year-old and couldn't break his maiden at Laurel Park in two November attempts.

Trainer Todd Pletcher's office has become the major intersection of all roads to Louisville as his assault on the 133rd Kentucky Derby unfolds with clockwork precision. Circular Quay's relentless winning rally from some 17 lengths behind in the Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds and Cowtown Cat's score in the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct over the weekend illustrate the strength of Pletcher's herd of talented Derby prospects. A week earlier, the Pletcher-trained Scat Daddy upset Nobiz Like Shobiz in the Fountain of Youth Stakes and King of the Roxy took the Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park in Florida.

Horses trained by John Shirreffs and Kiaran McLaughlin came from nowhere a year ago to finish 1-2 in the Kentucky Derby. Giacomo, the gray son of Holy Bull trained by Shirreffs for Jerry and Ann Moss, won at 50-1, edging the McLaughlin-trained long shot Closing Argument. After what happened Saturday on opposite coasts, the two trainers might have another shot at the world's most famous race May 6 at Churchill Downs. A.P. Warrior, a huge disappointment in his first start of 2006 in the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows, bounced back with a 7-1 surprise in the $250,000 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita Park.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The road led to Churchill Downs after all. And you didn't think it would, did you? Your doubts were understandable. Whenever Americans tried to focus on their most famous horse race, the Kentucky Derby, they kept seeing extreme long shots win and respected favorites falter in key preparatory races. You couldn't tell who was coming, who was going or whether any of them deserved a chance to win the coveted rose-adorned blanket the first Saturday in May. Check your calendar.

Bob Baffert says the same thing every winter: Don't get excited until the Kentucky Derby contenders start racing 1 1/8 miles. If that's the case, then the fun begins Saturday with the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park in South Florida. The California-based Baffert knows his way along the Kentucky Derby trail. He has won three, and he uncovered another contender yesterday in Wimbledon, surprise winner of the Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. The Louisiana Derby doesn't fit Baffert's criteria for a significant Kentucky Derby prep.

You can stretch it and call the $2 million UAE Derby a Kentucky Derby prep, but the race today in the Middle East - part of the seven-stakes Dubai World Cup program - features only one Derby contender, Inamorato, the favorite today but a long shot if he makes it to Kentucky. A son of Tale of the Cat, Inamorato has won both his races and is considered the Dubai-based Godolphin Racing's top prospect for America's spring classics. The Daily Racing Form ranks him ninth among its top 25 Derby candidates, but acknowledges that a horse with only three starts, as he would have May 3, faces an almost-insurmountable task in the Kentucky Derby.

Tom Keyser's comments USS Tinosa He was a highly regarded Kentucky Derby contender until finishing fifth in the Santa Anita Derby. He encountered much trouble in that race, and then he was excluded from the Derby because of insufficient earnings. He's ready now, and he could light up the board with a late charge against tiring front-runners. Magic Weisner What else can be said about this Cinderella horse? Longtime local horsewoman Nancy Alberts bought his crooked-leg dam for $1, nurtured her, raced her and then bred her to local sire Ameri Valay.

Not many of the 19 horses in today's 128th Kentucky Derby can be completely dismissed, and none can be selected with any real confidence. Morning line favorite Harlan's Holiday (No. 14), has won two major prep races while turning in moderate clockings that give him no apparent edge over several evenly matched rivals. Juvenile champion Johannesburg (1) has had only one prep, a seven-furlong turf race in Ireland in which he was caught from behind. Santa Anita Derby winner Came Home (15)