Horse Racing / Bill Christine : Early Start Is Not Necessary for Kentucky Derby Hopefuls

Many of the early bulletins on the candidates for this year’s Kentucky Derby have been negative.

King Glorious is hurt, and sidelined indefinitely. Is It True underwent knee surgery, as did Fast Play. Winners Laugh looks like no more than a sprinter. Houston is in exile. Rob an Plunder can beat only second-rate horses. Great Genes is dead, even though a future book in Las Vegas keeps taking bets on him.

The best healthy 3-year-old in California is To Be Announced. The second best 3-year-old in Florida is Could Be Anyone.

Easy Goer, last year’s champion 2-year-old, has avoided the ill winds, safely stabled at Florida’s Gulfstream Park, where his 3-year-old campaign has consisted of 2 workouts. Easy Goer is not scheduled to run until March 4, in a 7-furlong race at Gulfstream.

But what’s right for Easy Goer has been right for many of the Kentucky Derby winners in the last 20 years. Since 1969, only 6 of the 20 Derby winners made their 3-year-old debuts as early as January. Nine of the winners first raced in March of their victorious years, and five others didn’t get started until February.

It’s not even necessary for a Kentucky Derby champion to win his first race as a 3-year-old. In the 1980s, only 4 Derby winners--Swale, Sunny’s Halo and the 2 fillies, Winning Colors and Genuine Risk--started off their years with victories. Alysheba and Gato Del Sol were winless as 3-year-olds going into the Derby, although Alysheba finished first in the Blue Grass at Keeneland and was then disqualified for fouling another horse in the stretch.

Here’s a rundown on previous Derby winners, starting with last year’s and going back to 1969:

Horse--1st Race as 3-year-old; 1st Win As 3-year-old.

Winning Colors--Jan. 20, Jan. 20

Alysheba--March 8, Derby

Ferdinand--Jan. 4, Jan. 29

Spend a Buck--March 23 April 6

Swale--March 7, March 7

Sunny’s Halo--March 26, March 26

Gato Del Sol-- Feb. 25, Derby

Pleasant Colony--Feb. 16, April 18

Genuine Risk--March 19, March 19

Spectacular Bid--Feb. 7, Feb. 7

Affirmed--March 8, March 8

Seattle Slew--March 9, March 9

Bold Forbes--Jan. 24, Feb. 28

Foolish Pleasure--Feb. 12, Feb. 12

Cannonade--Feb. 20, April 27

Secretariat--March 17, March 17

Riva Ridge--March 22, March 22

Canonero II--Jan. 9, Jan. 9

Dust Commander--Jan. 10, April 8

Majestic Prince--Jan. 7, Jan. 7

The Kentucky Derby game has changed for trainers since 1974--the year Cannonade won--because not only must they have their horses ready to run 1 1/4 miles on the first Saturday of May, they must also have enough earnings for their horses to qualify to start if the field exceeds the 20-horse limit.

“On one hand, you don’t want to do too much with a horse, but on the other hand you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the purse money to get in,� says trainer Charlie Whittingham, who won the Derby with Ferdinand in 1986.

Sunday Silence, whose sire, Halo, was represented in the Churchill Downs winner’s circle by Sunny’s Halo in 1983, is Whittingham’s best 3-year-old. After running second to Houston at Hollywood Park on Dec. 3, Sunday Silence was on the shelf, but he resumed workouts at Santa Anita last weekend.

The 7-furlong Hutcheson, the stake that Swale and Spectacular Bid both used to launch their Kentucky Derby campaigns as 3-year-olds, will be run Saturday at Gulfstream. Tricky Creek, who won the Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs last November, is expected to run.

Western Playboy, who ran second to Tricky Creek, is another probable for Saturday. With 129 horses eligible, the Hutcheson should draw a large field.

Rusty Arnold, who trains Tricky Creek, plans to run him in the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth Feb. 18 and then in the 1 1/8-mile Florida Derby March 4. Arnold has 3 other promising 3-year-olds--Trapp Mountain, Traskwood and Harperstown--in Florida.

When Awe Inspiring won a 7-furlong allowance at Gulfstream Jan. 14, his jockey, Jose Santos, was impressed, or at least his agent was.

“This horse might be something,� said Frank Sanabria, the agent for the rider who will be at the Century Plaza Hotel to receive his 1988 Eclipse Award a week from Friday.

Awe Inspiring won the first race of his life last September at Belmont Park, then 3 weeks later led early and faded to fourth on an off track. Coming back from a 3 1/2-month layoff at Gulfstream, the son of Slew o’ Gold rallied from 7 lengths off the pace to win by a half-length.

Awe Inspiring is trained by Shug McGaughey, who also has Easy Goer.

Pat Day, who rode Easy Goer to 4 victories and 2 seconds in 6 starts as a 2-year-old, has won 3 Eclipse Awards in the 1980s, but is 0 for 6 in the Kentucky Derby. Day got off Alysheba a race before the Derby in 1987, opening the mount for Chris McCarron, and wound up on Demons Begone, the Derby favorite who hemorrhaged and didn’t finish.

Day said that one of the reasons he abandoned Alysheba was that he thought the horse had “second-itis.� Alysheba, who will be formally named horse of the year for 1988 on Saturday during a ceremony at Santa Anita, had won only once going into the Derby.

If Easy Goer makes it to the Derby, he will give Day his second favorite there in 3 years. Last year, Day and Forty Niner just missed catching Winning Colors at the wire, finishing a neck short.

“Easy Goer was second (to Is It True) in the Breeders’ Cup, but I think he’ll come back and vindicate himself,� Day said. “He’s right mentally and he’s very mature for a young horse. My confidence in him hasn’t diminished a bit.�

Horse Racing Notes

Double Quick, winner of the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows, is headed for Oaklawn Park in Arkansas. Trainer Mel Stute is considering 3-year-old stakes in Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Florida for the colt. . . . Mohamed Abdu is among a 5-horse Santa Anita contingent that will run Sunday in the $100,000 Turf Paradise Handicap. Sandy Hawley will ride Mohamed Abdu, who will carry the high weight of 121 pounds in the 1 1/8-mile grass race. . . . Santa Anita, which has had only 8 grass races this season because of problems with the turf course, has a grass race scheduled for Friday.

Corey Black, who rode Annoconnor to 3 stakes victories last year, has been replaced by Chris McCarron, in an owners’ decision, for Saturday’s $125,000 Santa Maria Handicap at Santa Anita. Annoconnor will carry top weight of 122 pounds. . . . Jockey Antonio Castanon, who had 2 victories in 51 mounts at Santa Anita going into this week, is moving to Oaklawn Park. . . . Johnny Campo is no longer training any of Thomas Mellon Evans’ horses in the East. Campo, who won the Kentucky Derby in 1981 for Evans, trained Cherokee Colony, Pleasant Colony’s son, for Evans before the colt was sent to Chris Speckert at Santa Anita and now he’s the favorite for the Strub Stakes on Feb. 5. Evans’ Florida trainer is Ross Pearce, who was successful with No Review before she became a stakes winner for Speckert.