Could Be Another Seven Years of Tears for Solis

By T.J. Simers

April 30, 2004 12 AM PT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Pat Day was sitting on a wooden horse in the jockey’s room at Churchill Downs, stretching, when Alex Solis spotted him Thursday.

“That man there saw me come in here crying after I finished second in the Kentucky Derby,” Solis said.

Day nodded. He remembered and said, “Victory Gallop.”

“Lost to Real Quiet,” Solis replied of one of the three times he has placed second in the big race, including once by a nose. “Pat grabbed me and told me, ‘It took me 20 years to win my first Kentucky Derby.’ ”

So, seven years from now, I guess, Solis can start looking forward to his first Kentucky Derby victory. I understand now why his daughter stayed home for the prom this weekend.

I can only imagine the scene the crybaby will make when we play golf together later this month, and he loses again. Like Day, I will grab him, of course, and inform him it will probably be a lifetime before he can ever think of winning.

“Maybe we should invite Bill” Dwyre, The Times’ sports editor, Solis said, even though that would be like inviting a cheap maiden claimer to join the Kentucky Derby field. At least we know who would finish last.

SOLIS IS the No. 1 rider in the country, his mounts having won $2.5 million more than his nearest competitor’s.

He dominated the Breeders’ Cup, received the Bill Shoemaker Award as top jockey of the day, donated $1,000 to the Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA, won the Dubai World Cup, won three stakes races last weekend at Hollywood Park, donated another $1,600 to Padua Village, and as a charity-minded L.A. athlete, he might be having a better year than anyone else in our backyard.

Not bad for someone who moved from Florida to California in 1985 to find himself competing on the same tracks with Bill Shoemaker, Laffit Pincay, Chris McCarron, Gary Stevens, Eddie Delahoussaye ...

“I was the little fish,” he said.

“But now the fish is growing up,” he added.

Or, as trainer Bobby Frankel, who has hired Solis to ride Master David in the Kentucky Derby, put it, “No one in the country is riding better now than Alex Solis. He always had the ability, and now he has the confidence to go with it.”

That’s nice, but can he and Master David beat Castledale, the fluky winner of the Santa Anita Derby? It’s kind of essential.

The Times and I have each agreed to donate $100 to charity for every horse Castledale beats in the Kentucky Derby, and if, by some Phil Mickelson stroke of luck, Castledale wins the Derby, The Times and I will each donate $2,000 to charity.

“I’m going to finish ahead of everybody,” said Solis, as if I believe that.

Lyons The Loser, the TVG horse-racing analyst who doesn’t know anything about racing, owns 15% of Castledale -- or in other words, the tail. He’s agreed to donate $100 to the Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA for every horse that beats his nag.

Greg Knee, who owns the parts of the horse that count, will also pay $100 for every horse that beats Castledale, and to make it potentially a very nice day for the children’s hospital, TVG is also going to match the Loser’s charitable donation. If the horse finishes last, they have agreed to donate a total of $6,000 to the hospital.

I’ve asked Solis to do what he can to demoralize Castledale as soon as they break from the gate, but he muttered something about his desire to mind his own business and try to win the race. I’ll remember that when he asks for two strokes a side when we get together for our golf match.

SOLIS’ THREE sons will be here for the Derby, and when you consider that a jockey will be paid less than $100 if his horse finishes out of the money Saturday, Dad’s going to take a financial bath if he doesn’t get Master David home.

“When I lost by a photo, my youngest son hugged me and cried,” Solis said, and I wonder where the kid learned that. “I’ve visualized winning the race, and I think I’m on a horse that gives me the chance to win this year.”

If not, I guess, he’ll cry.

THE SAME names continue to be mentioned by trainers when hazarding guesses on who will win the 130th running of the Derby: The Cliff’s Edge, Tapit and Smarty Jones. Smarty Jones, 6-0, would be great for the sport, giving the public an undefeated hero to follow in the next two legs of the Triple Crown.

Trainers Bob Baffert and Frankel, who are not prone to gushing about other horses, both said Smarty Jones appeared to be the real thing.

Frankel likes Borrego as a longshot who can finish in the money, but he also says he doesn’t expect much from the California horses.

“Now watch them finish 1-2-3 and make me look like a fool,” he said, while I was telling him I certainly wouldn’t try to make him look like a fool in the paper. “You probably have it already written,” he said, and I have no idea where people get this stuff.

L.A. handicapper Bruno DeJulio said he liked Baffert’s horse, Wimbledon.

“The way the horse has trained has given me goose bumps,” he said, and while I don’t recall getting goose bumps from any horse, after 31 years I still get ‘em when I see the wife ... or, they could be hives, I guess.

THE PICK here is a trifecta box, which means these three horses: Tapit, Master David and Wimbledon can finish 1-2-3 in any order. I also like Smarty Jones. And Borrego. I’d probably throw in The Cliff’s Edge too, along with Lion Heart.

And I feel strongly about my picks.

T.J. Simers can be reached at [email protected]. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.