A YEAR LATER, THE LEGEND STILL LIVES FOR CRAIG LEWIS
At all costs, Craig Lewis keeps things in perspective.
"Horse racing is a microcosm of life," said the 48-year-old trainer, who authored a fairytale finish to last year's Santa Anita Derby when he won the Grade I race with his bargain basement buy, Larry The Legend.
Larry The Legend hasn't raced since, and Lewis is hopeful his $2,500 purchase from a bankruptcy sale will make it back to the races. If not, he'll always have the memories.
"It's like living a dream," said Lewis of Larry The Legend's Santa Anita Derby victory. "The true significance of the horse's accomplishment is still sinking in daily."
Lewis is cautious when it comes to predicting Larry The Legend's comeback from knee surgery.
"It's hard to be realistic about that. In this situation, objectivity sometimes goes out the window. But the reality of it is, he's undergone two knee surgeries and he's had some cartilage damage in the top
joint . . . we're very hopeful, but, on the other hand, we don't want to set ourselves up for a big fall, because we're asking for a lot.
"But this horse already has been one miracle. To hope for another might be too much to ask for a mere mortal."
If Lewis had his druthers, it would be to have Larry The Legend as a healthy 3-year-old gunning for this year's Kentucky Derby on May 4.
"Some crops come along a lot stronger than others, and in my training career, I've had two realistic shots with (Kentucky) Derby horses. In 1989 I had Music Merci, but I had the misfortune of running into Sunday Silence and Easy Goer, so we didn't even run in the Kentucky Derby.
"We took him to the Illinois Derby and were fortunate to win that. I think Larry would have been a viable Triple Crown candidate. This year, as of yet, I don't think it's an overly impressive crop, and I think either Music Merci or Larry The Legend would have been at the head of the class, if they had come along in the right generation. They say timing is everything, and it really is in horse racing."
That's not to say a West Coast 3-year-old can't still emerge as the major challenger to Kentucky Derby favorite Unbridled Song.
"On the other hand," Lewis said, "some imposing horse might come upon the scene with suddenness. The West Coast has nothing like Unbridled Song right now, unless one suddenly comes to hand. But I haven't seen a horse out here yet that has really knocked my socks off."
Not since last year.
PLOT FOILED DOYLE, WHO MET HIS MATCH
Before veteran agent Harry (The Hat) Hacek left Santa Anita last week to return
to Chicago, he remembered when the late trainer Tommy Doyle set in place a scheme for
one of his horses.
"Typecast was a champion mare," Hacek recounted. "She had been beaten a head by Convenience in a match race (at Hollywood Park on June 17, 1972), and after the match race, there was an allowance race in the book where she would have been 1-9.
"But everybody knew she was eligible and, of course, wouldn't have entered against her. But Doyle, in order to get the race to go, went to each and every agent and told them, 'Don't say anything -- I'm going to put you on my horse.'
"All the agents wanted the race to go, so they went along and got to hustling the race big time.
"The moral of the story is, the race went with 14 horses, and Tommy Doyle got hung up on the also-eligible list. Typecast didn't get in the race, so his plan backfired."
THE HOMESTRETCH: Despite a $1 million pot, only six 3-year-olds were expected in Saturday's Santa Anita Derby. The probable lineup: Honour and Glory,Gary Stevens; Prince of Thieves, Shane Sellers; Super Mining, no rider; Alyrob, Rene Douglas; Matty G, Alex Solis, and Cavonnier, Chris McCarron. Alyrob worked
seven furlongs in 1:25.69 before Santa Anita's first race Friday, with Douglas in the
saddle. He galloped out a mile in 1:39 2/5. "This was my first time on him," Douglas
said. "He's in good shape, he finished real strong. I think he'll be tough . . . the last
quarter I picked him up and he just flew home." San Felipe winner Odyle has been sent
to Bradbury for a two-month break after heat was discovered in an ankle last week. San
Felipe runner-up Smithfield suffered a left front sesamoid fracture and will be out six
months to a year. . . The world's winningest female jockey, Julie Krone, will begin
riding in California full-time beginning this fall, and agent Vince DeGregory will book her mounts. "It's a situation I never expected, but it just happened," said DeGregory, who
will continue to handle assignments for Goncalino Almeida. DeGregory met Krone and
her husband, Matthew Muzikar, when Krone competed in the match race against
Stevens on March 23. Krone, 32, is due to start the final week of Oak Tree, following the
Breeders' Cup in Woodbine on Oct. 26 . . . Fairplex Park is expected to cut back from 19
to 17 days of racing when it opens in September. It seems insignificant, but it's a good-faith gesture, similar to Santa Anita's reduction from 89 to 87 days this meet. Some
horsemen recognize that less is more. Convincing Sacramento is another matter. Word is
that the Pomona oval will offer twilight racing on Fridays . . . Ron Anderson, one of the
best agents in racing, began booking engagements for Chris Antley on Monday.
Anderson is a major reason for the success of Gary Stevens. Anderson joins two other
agents whose jocks dominate business in Southern California: Scott McClellan (Chris
McCarron and Alex Solis) and Bob Meldahl (Corey Nakatani and Laffit Pincay Jr.). Nakatani, his request for a stay denied by the California Horse Racing Board, serves a five-day suspension Wednesday through Saturday . . . Jack Van Berg, who trained previous all-time money winner Alysheba, on Cigar: "He's a top horse, goddamn. He shipped clear around the world and still beat 'em. That horse (Soul of the Matter) came to him and he just went on. People say he didn't beat anything, but what the hell, they're crazy, and he beats 'em with authority. Records are made to be broken. Cigar deserves it.
He's done everything asked of him." Stevens on Cigar: "He's the best of my era. He's the
best I've seen in the 16 years I've been riding. I wasn't around to see Secretariat or
Spectacular Bid, or some of the other greats, although I've read a lot about them. Eddie Arcaro and I were on an interview together and he was saying that until Cigar really
packs a lot of weight, he doesn't think he can be considered a great, great horse. He said
in his mind, he is a great horse, but he doesn't think people can say that until he actually
carries the weight and beats these horses the way they did in the old days. He's definitely
the best I've seen in my era, but they're all beatable. I've never seen a horse that's
invincible. Given time and the right circumstances and the right horse, they can all get
beat." And that was from an interview two weeks before losing the Dubai World Cup on
Soul of the Matter, so imagine what he thinks of Cigar now . . . Nearly 1,000 fans
watched the 7 a.m. telecast of the Dubai World Cup at Santa Anita. They wagered
$62,493, with $59,437 bet at satellites and $121,930 statewide. The national handle was
$1,658,847, led by NYRA's $397,034 . . . Bob Baffert on Semoran's four-length victory in the rodeo-like Remington Park Derby: "(Aaron) Gryder on Rebecca's Storm tried to shut the hole off. That's what caused all the ping pong action. Russell (Baze, on Semoran) could have just stayed where he was and just looped the field and beat 'em easy. Usually, they spread a little bit. Russell came back and said these guys ride dirty here, but it was Gryder. Semoran took all that bumping and knocking around, and the
headwind (in the homestretch) was ferocious. But he was just drafting behind those
horses." On Semoran (heading for the Blue Grass at Keeneland on April 13; he'll be
stabled at Churchill Downs) and Cavonnier: "This the furthest I've ever made itwith my
3-year-olds. Argolid and Thirty Slews never got this far. These two have made it to the Sweet 16." . . .David Flores has completed a residential recovery program for substance abuse (cocaine) and was scheduled to resume riding on Wednesday . . . Santa Anita inter-track co-host Kurt Hoover points out this racing oddity: When Color Me Speed won the 1 1/4-mile Corn Husker Purse on Friday, his time was 2:01 4/5. When Corn Husker won the Santa Anita Handicap in 1957, his time for the 1 1/4 miles was identical: 2:01 4/5.
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