HOLLYWOOD PARK : Garcia Forced to Watch From Afar

It will be standing room only for the Mister Frisky entourage at Churchill Downs on Saturday, where the chestnut colt from Puerto Rico will put his unbeaten record on the line in the Kentucky Derby.

Juan (Guengo) Rodriguez, who trained Mister Frisky through his first 13 starts before Laz Barrera took over in January, will be on hand from San Juan. So will Ronald Chak of Newchance Farm in Florida, who bred Mister Frisky and sold him for $15,000 as a 2-year-old to Jose and Marta Fernandez.

In fact, the only key player who will miss the Derby celebration is jockey Julio Garcia. Garcia, currently competing at Hollywood Park, rode Mister Frisky to 10 of his 13 victories in Puerto Rico, including the colt’s debut on May 19, 1989.

If Garcia’s name sounds vaguely familiar, it should. A powerfully built rider who set a record of 193 victories in Puerto Rico as an apprentice in 1983, Garcia rode in Southern California in 1984. He emerged as the leading apprentice at the Santa Anita meeting, where his 31 wins were good enough for 10th in the final standings.

Garcia, 27, lost his five-pound apprentice allowance in March of 1984, after which the victories began to dwindle. By season’s end he had won only 75 races, but his share of the $1.6 million earned by his mounts made a lasting impression.

Garcia returned to Puerto Rico in 1985 and picked up where he left off. By 1989 he was so dominant, breaking his own record with 323 victories, that once again he set his sights on Southern California. Having earned a college degree in business administration, Garcia was hoping for the finish line and the bottom line to mesh.

“The money is very good in California,” Garcia said recently at Hollywood Park. “But I wasn’t going to come back unless I could get a good agent. That is important.”

Garcia got his wish in April when agent Tony Matos and Laffit Pincay split after a nine-year association. Garcia jumped at the chance to hire Matos, a friend and fellow Puerto Rican, and was on the next plane bound for Los Angeles.

It has been a slow start, but Garcia is patient. In 20 rides during the final weeks of the Santa Anita meet he won three races, and he was off to a 1-for-19 start through the first five days at Hollywood Park.

Garcia was ready and willing to join Mister Frisky in California earlier this year. He was aboard for the colt’s final San Juan race, a 10 3/4-length victory in track-record time for seven furlongs on Jan. 6.

“I ride all the horses for Mister Frisky’s owners,” Garcia said. “I told them I would come to California if they wanted me. But they said that Mr. Barrera should choose his own jockey.”

Ironically, Matos had arranged for Pincay to ride Mister Frisky in his California debut, the San Vicente Stakes on Feb. 10. But when Pincay broke his collarbone in a charity harness race at Los Alamitos on Jan. 26, Barrera turned to Gary Stevens.

Garcia recalled the only time Mister Frisky was beaten in competition. The scene was an impromptu training heat one morning at El Commandante race track, before the colt had made his first start.

“There were four horses in the starting gate and we were going a half mile,” Garcia said. “He finished second.”

Garcia was not overly impressed, but his opinion changed dramatically after Mister Frisky’s first start.

“He was different in the afternoon,” Garcia said. “He left the starting gate--whoosh!--and won by three lengths, very easy. I thought, ‘Oh, nice horse.’ ”

Garcia’s fifth successful collaboration with Mister Frisky was perhaps the most significant, as far as the rider is concerned. That was Oct. 8, in an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles, the colt’s first try over a long distance. Mister Frisky won by seven lengths.

“After that race, I tell his owners that he should go to the Breeders’ Cup,” Garcia said. “The way he ran, he was better going long. And I never really asked him to run until the three-eighths pole in any of his races.”

Mister Frisky will need to run the race of his life Saturday, but Garcia says the colt is up to the task.

“Sure he can win the Derby,” Garcia said. “But I will be a little bit nervous, because he is running for all of Puerto Rico.”

Horse Racing Notes

For the first time since 1985, Charlie Whittingham does not have a colt in Kentucky preparing for the Derby. “They can get along fine without me,” Whittingham said. “Anyway, I’ll catch up with them in the Preakness.” Whittingham plans to run Warcraft in the second leg of the Triple Crown. But first, the son of Ack Ack will contest Saturday’s Spotlight Handicap at a mile on the Hollywood Park turf. Russell Baze will substitute for Chris McCarron.

In his farewell riding appearance before a partisan hometown crowd, Fernando Toro finished 10th aboard Par de Reyes in the prestigious Gran Premio last Saturday in Santiago, Chile. Toro, 49, will return to Hollywood Park later this month for a final ride before beginning his retirement. . . . Santa Anita Handicap winner Ruhlmann worked a mile in 1:37 1/5 Wednesday and will be shipped to Baltimore for the $1-million Pimlico Special on May 12.