Sunday, April 11, 1999
BLUE GRASS STAKES NOTEBOOK
Baffert has early Derby favorites
BY NEIL SCHMIDT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Mike Battaglia has 17 more days to deliberate. But after Saturday's final round of major Kentucky Derby prep races, the Edgewood, Ky., oddsmaker has a pretty good idea how he'll set the Derby's morning line.
At this point, he's mostly waiting to see if super filly Silverbulletday runs in the Derby or the fillies-only Kentucky Oaks.
“The Derby is really wide open,” he said. “If you can say, "If the filly goes, she could be the favorite,' you know it's a wide-open race.”
Battaglia had set Santa Anita Derby winner General Challenge and Santa Anita runner-up Prime Timber, respectively, as the top two choices last week in the final Derby Future Wager pool. Though it was assumed Vicar or Wondertross could become the favorite if either won Saturday's Blue Grass Stakes, Menifee's victory didn't have the same impact.
“Assuming Silverbulletday doesn't go, those two from Cali fornia probably stay the top two,” Battaglia said. “The favorite has to be General Challenge. He only lost one race, and he had an excuse for that (a near-fall at the start).”
Battaglia said Menifee and Vicar, who finished third in the Blue Grass, could be a co-third choice.
“Vicar is still more accomplished than Menifee. And (trainer) Carl Nafzger likes to keep a little in the tank for the Derby.”
Stephen Got Even and Worldly Manner, the phenom being trained exclusively in Dubai, loom as the next possible choices.
WONDERLOSS: Wondertross raced like an albatross Saturday, stumbling to a sixth-place finish. The 2-1 favorite ranked as the day's biggest disappointment, tiring down the stretch and clouding his immediate future.
“I'm confused,” trainer Nick Zito said. “I don't know what happened. We'll have to wait until we see how he looks tomorrow before we talk about the Derby.”
Zito cited Louis Quatorze as a possible comparison. In 1996, that Zito-trained colt ran poorly in the Blue Grass and the Derby but rebounded to win the Preakness in track-record time.
“We had this happen with Louis,” Zito said. “Maybe we can throw this (race) out.”
DERBY PLANS: Of the other Blue Grass entrants, only two have ruled out the Derby. The trainers of Pineaff and Prado's Landing, who finished seventh and eighth, said they won't go to Louisville.
Cat Thief, Vicar and Kimberlite Pipe, who finished second through fourth, respectively, all will run in the Derby. Fifth-place finisher Lemon Drop Kid is questionable.
“I'm very pleased,” Cat Thief trainer D. Wayne Lukas said. “I think we got what we needed.”
Said Nafzger: “It was a great race. I think we stepped up and, hey, the Derby is a new ballgame.”
Sports Stories
CARDINALS 4, REDS 2
Eric Davis: small fries to Big Mac
REDS NOTEBOOK
Box, runs
A layman's plan to fix the Bengals on draft day
Bengals best athlete plan words in Round 2
Picking the draft order is dumb, but my boss made me
Geoff Hobson's mock draft
Browns couching their bet
