Santa Anita Derby Horse Race

Copyright 2000 by Equibase and LATC. Run as fifth race on Santa Anita program 36441 1/8 miles. Three year olds. Purse: $1,000,000. First: $600,000, Second: $200,000, Third: 120,000, Fourth: $60,000, Fifth: $20,000. Index Horse and Jockey Wt. PP ST To $1 3528 The Deputy (Ire), McCarron 120 5 5 2.40 (3433) War Chant, Bailey 120 4 3 2.30 3227 Captain Steve, Albarado 120 2 1 4.10 3528 Anees, Nakatani 120 3 6 4.20 (3484) Surfside, Day 115 1 2 5.60 3433 Cocky, Solis 120 6 4 16.

Jenine Sahadi had just become the first woman trainer to win the Santa Anita Derby and couldn't remember a thing about the race. Except for the finish. She knew that her horse, The Deputy, was first, that favored War Chant was second and . . . the rest, she said, was a blur. "I don't know who finished third," she said. "Captain Steve," she was told. One of The Deputy's owners, Barry Irwin, grinned. "Who trains Captain Steve?" he asked.

Who'll make the lead is almost as good a question as who'll win today in the 63rd Santa Anita Derby. Few horses have won this race on the front end, and all of the jockeys and trainers involved today would rather have a target than be one. "Maybe we'll inherit the lead," said trainer Wayne Lukas, who's running the filly Surfside against five colts. "If that's the case, we'll be in good shape, because we've got the best guy [Pat Day] in the world to milk a horse."

Post-position draws for big races are usually ho-hum events. They draw the names of the horses, roll some numbered pills out of a bottle and then the trainers, jockeys and horse owners make a few innocuous comments about what's ahead. But Thursday's draw for the 63rd Santa Anita Derby was different. Only two of the six horses running were represented, and that's all it took for one trainer to storm off the stage, leaving a few hundred people speechless.

Charlie Whittingham would like this. It is early April, exactly a month to the day that Churchill Downs will run the 126th Kentucky Derby, and there has been no widespread trashing of the crop of 3-year-olds that will make up the field. When he was alive, forging a Hall of Fame career that included Derby wins at ages 73 and 76 with Ferdinand and Sunday Silence, Whittingham abhorred the annual denigration of the breed.

Bob Baffert said after another triumphant Santa Anita Derby on Saturday that he had to call Kentucky and make a hotel reservation. But he didn't rush to the telephone. You can bet he had taken care of his accommodations for the first Saturday in May a long time ago, probably on the first Sunday of May last year. There was no chance that Baffert, who won the last two Kentucky Derbys with Silver Charm and Real Quiet, was going to pass up a chance to become the first trainer to win three in a row.

About 30 years ago, Aaron Jones began his rocky adventures in horse racing at Portland Meadows in Oregon. "I had grown up on a farm, and was used to riding horses, so I thought I'd buy a few," Jones said. "I figured it would take my mind off my business." The horses cost Jones about $20,000. "They were four bums," he said. "Then one day, my trainer disappeared, and he took my [track] bank account with him. But I still had the four bums."

The navy-blue silks come with "NO BULL" on the back, in big, bold yellow letters. Hal Earnhardt, the breeder and one of the owners of Indian Charlie, runs his colt in those silks because his auto-dealership uses the same slogan. You wonder about Earnhardt a little bit. He says he's not like California counterpart Cal Worthington, he just knows the man, yet Earnhardt has been known to ride a steer in some of his TV commercials. You don't wonder about Indian Charlie. Not any more.