HORSE RACING / BLUE GRASS STAKES : Holy Bull Is Setting the Pace for the Derby

LEXINGTON, Ky. —  Any doubt about who should be favored in the 120th Kentucky Derby was cast aside Saturday when Holy Bull scored a 3 1/2-length victory in the $500,000 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, virtually duplicating his romp in the Florida Derby a month ago.

Before the Blue Grass, the role of Derby favorite was up in the air because of Brocco’s strong performance in the Santa Anita Derby and Holy Bull’s 5 3/4-length victory in Florida.

But after Holy Bull’s seventh victory in eight starts, owner-trainer Jimmy Croll’s gray colt seemed to be getting most of the votes, including those of Mike Battaglia, the Churchill Downs’ linemaker, and two California trainers whose horses were no match in the Blue Grass.

“The horse to beat is the horse we saw today,” Ron McAnally said after his Valiant Nature chased Holy Bull for the entire 1 1/8 miles. Valiant Nature, who beat Brocco in the Hollywood Futurity in December before losing a photo for second place with him as Soul Of The Matter won the San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita, finished second Saturday. He was five lengths better than Mahogany Hall in the seven-horse field. Kandaly, the Louisiana Derby winner, was another 2 1/4 lengths back, in fourth place, and after him came Chimes Band, Bonus Money and Warn Me on a damp, windblown track that had gone from good to fast by the time the race was run.

Said Wayne Lukas, who trains Chimes Band and Tabasco Cat, the second-place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby: “You’re asking the world’s worst handicapper, but I think that off of those two impressive races, Holy Bull should be the favorite. Another thing is that he’s sitting here, and he’s just going 70 miles up the road to Churchill Downs.”

Holy Bull’s time of 1:50 was ordinary--the track record is 1:47 2/5--but no one was giving him any demerits for this race. The colt’s breeding, by Great Above out of Sharon Brown, an Al Hattab mare, doesn’t translate into distance, but Lukas and Verne Winchell, the owner-breeder of Valiant Nature, don’t see him stopping in the stretch of the 1 1/4-mile Derby on May 7.

“He could be an exception to that pedigree,” Winchell said. “He could be a throwback. He could be a super horse, because my horse didn’t run that bad of a race. When I saw that 47 4/5 on the board (for the first half-mile), I knew he was going to be tough to beat.”

Before a crowd of 27,931, Holy Bull paid $3.20 in earning $310,000 for Croll, who inherited the colt and seven other horses last year after the death of Rachel Carpenter, the supermarket heiress who raced horses with the trainer for 37 years. Holy Bull’s only defeat, a last-place finish in the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 19, was attributed to a temporary breathing disorder.

“Where’s Fly’n J. Bryan when we need him?” said McAnally, referring to the California front-runner who led the Santa Anita Derby for six furlongs before fading to last. “Pace plays such an important role in this game, and we can only hope that there will be some horses like Fly’n J. Bryan who’ll run with Holy Bull in the Derby. But I’m not discouraged. I don’t think I’ve squeezed the lemon dry. My horse has had only five races. Look at Sea Hero. He was fourth in the Blue Grass last year and then went on to win the Derby.”

Knowing Holy Bull and his jockey, Mike Smith, would be taking the lead from their inside post position, McAnally told his rider, Laffit Pincay, to let them go. “Even if you’re 10 lengths behind, don’t go after them early,” McAnally said.

Holy Bull had a three-length lead on Valiant Nature after a half-mile, and Pincay moved to within 1 1/2 lengths at the eighth pole. Smith was unfazed. Holy Bull has felt the jockey’s whip only four times, and he didn’t add to the total Saturday.

Smith did look back at the top of the stretch. “I was just checking to see what Valiant Nature had left,” he said, “to see if I had to use him a little more than I was. Fortunately, I didn’t have to. I didn’t hit him, but I hand-rode him pretty good. I wanted a good race in him. I was hoping to have the kind of race where I could get a good race in him and yet not have to empty the tank on him.”

Croll likes his position going into the Derby. “I didn’t want him to have too tough of a race this time,” the trainer said. “If he’s not fit now, he’ll never be.”

Valiant Nature, who broke awkwardly, suffered a minor cut to the back of his left front ankle. “He either hit himself, or another horse,” McAnally said. “It doesn’t look like it’s serious.”

Louie Roussel III, who trains and owns 25% of the late-running Kandaly, feared the Blue Grass would be run as it was.

“They let Holy Bull get away with 47 and something,” Roussel said. “Didn’t I tell you? If that happened, it was going to be all over. I called the race. And if he’s not challenged in the Derby, he’s going to win again.”