Video Ranger, who trailed by 12 lengths early, passed the others but was never dangerous. Warcraft was unable to put in a late rally.
"At the quarter pole, I knew I was riding for second money, and I couldn't even hang on for that," said Chris McCarron, Warcraft's jockey.
Trainer Charlie Whittingham, who had won the Santa Anita Derby with Temperate Sil in 1987 and Sunday Silence last year, was running Warcraft for the sixth time in about nine weeks.
"We were trying to catch up," Whittingham said. "My horse ran a good race, but he hung. I think it's still a wide-open year. The bubble is bursting (for other horses) all over the country, but this (Mister Frisky) is one bubble who's staying alive."
Asked how good Mister Frisky was, Whittingham said: "He just keeps winning, doesn't he?"
Horse Racing Notes
Laz Barrera said that Mister Frisky would be flown to Kentucky next Saturday. . . . Barrera said he considered it an omen when he heard that Mr. Frisk, an 11-year-old gelding, had won the Grand National Steeplechase in England earlier in the day. . . . Affirmed also won the Santa Anita Derby for Barrera. "I can't compare Mister Frisky with Bold Forbes and Affirmed, because it's difficult to compare horses," Barrera said. "Affirmed was quiet and relaxed. Mister Frisky is smart, the way Affirmed was." . . . Video Ranger might run in the California Derby at Golden Gate Fields April 21, according to trainer Ian Jory. . . . Mister Frisky was not nominated to the Breeders' Cup and would have to be supplemented to the $3 million Classic at Belmont Park this fall at a cost of $360,000.
