Santa Anita Derby

ARCADIA, Calif. - Twenty-five fillies have challenged males in the Santa Anita Derby. Three have won. Sweet Catomine will attempt to become the fourth when she takes on 10 males in the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on Saturday at Santa Anita Park near Los Angeles. Yesterday, she drew post No. 2 and was named the 7-5 favorite in the 1 1/8 -mile race with a Kentucky Derby berth on the line. The Santa Anita Derby will feature the first meeting of winners of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies in the 21-year history of the Breeders' Cup. Wilko, who won last year's Juvenile after racing on turf in Europe, will break from post 11 as the 9-2 third choice in the morning line.

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)

Can Monarchos repeat his stellar Kentucky Derby victory in the 2001 Preakness? Sure, he can. But there is no guarantee that he will be quite as strong for the Preakness after running a sub-2- minute 1 1/4 miles in the Derby two weeks ago, or that he would be able to handle a slightly less favorable pace with similar ease, or a possible wet track. Certainly, the blistering pace of the 2001 Kentucky Derby helped influence his performance. Almost every horse positioned anywhere near the red-hot early fractional splits finished the 1 1/4 -mile race rubber-legged or gasping for air. Meanwhile, Monarchos and the second-place finisher, Invisible Ink, were under reserve before unleashing their well-timed rallies.

ARCADIA, Calif. - You get the impression out here in Fantasyland that the deal's all done. Suspense has been suspended. Chance has been removed. You've got the horse. You've got the trainer. You've got the jockey. You've got the race. You've got ... the Kentucky Derby winner? That Point Given likely will be the odds-on favorite Saturday in the Santa Anita Derby here at Santa Anita Park seems incidental. His victory seems to be a foregone conclusion. "We just want to get this race out of the way and go on to Kentucky with a sound, fresh horse," said Bob Baffert, Point Given's trainer.

Monarchos catapulted past Point Given in the Kentucky Derby rankings last weekend with a spectacular performance in the Florida Derby. Today, Point Given will try to keep pace in California. If Point Given dominates the San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita Park as emphatically as Monarchos dominated the Florida Derby, the battle for supremacy on the road to the Kentucky Derby will turn into a battle of East vs. West. For Point Given, runner-up in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, the San Felipe marks his 2001 debut.