Thursday, May 03, 2001
Point Given early Derby favorite
Super-sized horse about 200 pounds heavier than most
By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Prince Ahmed bin Salman al Sauud of Saudi Arabia kisses his horse, Point Given, at Churchill Downs.
(Gary Landers photo)
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LOUISVILLE — Gary Stevens understands Kentucky Derby hype and the rush to canonize his colt.
“We can make him a superstar right now,” Point Given's jockey said Wednesday, “or wait until the winner's circle Saturday.”
If not yet a superstar, the Derby favorite certainly is super-sized. Weighing 1,254 pounds — about 200 heavier than the average thoroughbred, and down from an earlier weight of 1,300 — he is the King Kong of the sport of kings.
“He's a monster,” said Derby handicapper Mike Battaglia of Edgewood, Ky., who installed Point Given as the 9-5 favorite Wednesday in the morning line. “And (talent-wise), he's in a class by himself.”
Stevens needs an extra-wide saddle aboard Point Given. Trainer Bob Baffert has described the horse as being so big “that when you take him out of the stall, he just keeps on coming and coming out.”
But bigger isn't always better, for most giant horses have trouble changing speeds. This one came with a gear shift.
“He's the kind of horse that, if you were going to sit in a lab and put all these concoctions together and say, "I want to build a Derby horse,' that you'd build,” Baffert said. “He's got the size (and) has stamina, the power, the body, the mind — all the ingredients you'd want in a horse, a Derby horse to go a mile and a quarter. And he's fast.”
The power game — Baffert likens Point Given to a locomotive — speaks for itself.
But versatility is the key when banging around in a 17-horse race, and it's the reason Point Given is being touted as a potential Triple Crown winner.
“He gives me the feeling of Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant,” Stevens has said. “He's the guy who can slam dunk when he needs to or hit the 3-point shot. It surprises me how he can change directions so quickly out on the racetrack.”
Ironically, Baffert is the man most likely to unseat his star. That's because another of his horses, Congaree, is the Derby's second choice at 5-1. Congaree has shown the most rapid improvement recently but is relatively untested with just four career starts.
This is being called the strongest pair of stablemates in the Derby since the Jones boys, Ben and Jimmy, had Citation and Coaltown finish 1-2 in 1948. Citation won that year's Triple Crown.
Baffert's horses would have been the heaviest of favorites if they were coupled. But each horse in the Derby now runs as a separate entry.
Millennium Wind and Monarchos are tied for the third-best odds at 6-1. Congaree beat Monarchos by 2 3/4 lengths in his last start, the Wood Memorial.
But it's his stablemate who tops every 3-year-old poll. The son of Thunder Gulch, who won the 1995 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, Point Given enters off a strong 2-year-old season and three consecutive victories.
He has been awesome even in defeat. In the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last fall, he came from last place and 10 lengths back to lose by only a nose.
Point Given cruised to a 5 1/2-length victory in the Santa Anita Derby last month. Rival trainer Jim Cassidy summed up the sentiment by saying: “I thought these Derby races were for 3-year-olds only. He made it look like a race for 3-year-olds and up — and he was the up.”
TURFWAY CONNECTIONS: Balto Star, who won the Grade II Turfway Spiral Stakes on March 24 and followed with a victory in the Arkansas Derby, is the Derby's fifth choice (8-1).
The last entrant Wednesday was Keats, who finished a disappointing eighth in the Spiral Stakes but rebounded April 21 with a victory in the Grade II Lexington Stakes at Keeneland. Keats is a 30-1 choice.
Point Given is the other member of the field to have raced at Turfway, having won the Kentucky Cup Juvenile Sept.16.
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Point Given early Derby favorite
