A Derby Field of Unusual Suspects

By Bill Christine

May 1, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — One of the first horses Bobby Frankel started in the Kentucky Derby was a maiden. The ridiculous changed to the sublime last year when Frankel saddled the Derby favorite. Today at Churchill Downs, for the 130th Derby, the Hall of Fame trainer takes the middle ground. His Master David is the kind of in-betweener, a horse beaten in his last prep, who sometimes wins the Derby.

Whether Master David, Frankel and jockey Alex Solis can convert a second-place finish to Tapit in the Wood Memorial into a win at Churchill Downs won’t be known until late this afternoon, after 18 horses have completed 1 1/4 miles over what might be a muddy racetrack. Post time is 3:04 p.m., Pacific time, with a crowd of more than 140,000 expected.

Two horses were scratched Friday morning. Wimbledon has an injured tendon and St Averil is still experiencing sore feet that bothered him in California. Their departures are in character with this very unpredictable Derby, one that has a horse, Pollard’s Vision, with sight in only one eye; another horse, Castledale, with an extra knee (his majority owner is Greg Knee of Redondo Beach), and no clear-cut favorite.

Because no horse dominated the preps -- unless you count the undefeated Smarty Jones, who campaigned in the hinterlands of Arkansas -- it is fashionable to say that there are fewer throw-outs today than in most Derbies. Smarty Jones’ trainer, John Servis, says that any of at least eight horses can win.

But Frankel isn’t so sure. He is a figures man, a pedigree man, and emotion has not been known to tug at his sleeve.

“I don’t give as many horses a chance as a lot of people,” he said. “I think a lot of the horses in this field are suspect at the distance.”

One of the horses ignored by Frankel earlier, however, has caught his eye as post time looms. That’s Lion Heart, who has never won beyond 1 1/16 miles but has the front-running style that has carried Spend A Buck, War Emblem and a few others to victory at Churchill. The more Frankel analyzes the race, the more he ponders Lion Heart’s chances.

“I’m starting to get a little afraid of that horse,” he said Friday. “He’s the only speed, he gets an inside post [No. 3], and he ought to get clear. The question is, when will the other speed horses attack him? If they let him go too far by himself, he might be gone. But I think -- and hope -- that they’ll go after him early. Smarty Jones should go too. If Lion Heart takes enough heat early, it opens the race up for everybody else.”

Despite his Hall of Fame credentials, Frankel waited a long time for his first Breeders’ Cup win, and he’s still after that first Derby victory. Last year, he ran second and third here, with Empire Maker, the race favorite, and Peace Rules. Empire Maker had beaten Funny Cide, the Derby winner, in the Wood three weeks before.

Frankel has started six horses in the Derby, beginning in 1990 with Pendleton Ridge, the winless colt, and Burnt Hills. Both finished far back. Frankel had another Derby second with Aptitude in 2000.

Only three of the last 12 Derby winners came into the race with victories in their final preps. Two of the last three years, horses that didn’t win the Wood -- Funny Cide last year, Monarchos in 2001 -- won the Derby.

So Frankel, who studies these things, seemed almost pleased when Master David finished half a length behind Tapit in this year’s Wood. Although not a winning effort, it was still a solid race for Master David, who missed the Florida Derby because of a temperature and hadn’t run in two months. Frankel’s horse should be tighter today.

Master David landed with Frankel because Bobby Barbara, an East Coast trainer, didn’t winter in Florida this year. The colt’s four owners, who are New Yorkers, wanted their horse to train in a warm climate, so Frankel’s barn at Hollywood Park seemed like a good option.

One of the owners, Peter Minikes, bought Master David after he had run three times on grass in England. In the U.S., Master David has been known by the company he has kept. As a 2-year-old, he was second to Read The Footnotes in New York, and this year, for Frankel, he was third in a race won by St Averil at Santa Anita; first, ahead of Borrego, and then a close second to Tapit. Read The Footnotes, Borrego and Tapit are also running in the Derby.

Students of time are not doing flips over the 1:49 3/5 for the 1 1/8-mile Wood. Frankel is married to speed figures, and based on his number for the Wood, Master David is one of the throw-outs.

“I’m hoping the figures are wrong,” Frankel said. “They’re basing them, in part, on how fast the sprinters ran that day. But there was a headwind, and they only had to face it once. In the two-turn races, like the Wood, a horse had to buck the wind twice. At least that’s my theory.”

The Derby purse is $1,154,800, with $854,800 going to the winner. Smarty Jones, however, is running for an extra $5 million -- the bonus Oaklawn Park promised to any horse who swept its Rebel and Arkansas Derby, and then won the Kentucky Derby.

“We’d like to be laying three to five lengths off the lead, with a clear trip,” said John Servis, who’s making his Derby debut with Smarty Jones.

“We’ll try to bottle up our horse’s speed until the last eighth of a mile. My horse wants to win, he loves to train and he’s matured. That’s a pretty good combination.”

Servis does not act like a man who might be able to cut himself in on an estimated 10% of the riches.

“Is this scary?” he said. “It’s not scary at all. I’m loving it.”

The Kentucky Derby

* Post: Today at 3:04 p.m. PDT

* Where: Churchill Downs, Louisville, Ky.

* TV: Ch. 4, beginning at 2 p.m.

* Field: 18 3-year-olds.

* Distance: 1 1/4 miles

* Favorite: The Cliff’s Edge, 4-1

* Total purse: $1,154,800

* Winner’s share: $854,800

* Weather forecast: Scattered thundershowers, temperature in the low 70s