Columnist Ralph Siraco: Kentucky Derby ‘tournament’ lacks a Duke

Ralph Siraco

Monday, March 22, 1999 | 9:47 a.m.

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears on Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday through Friday on the scoreboard page. Write to him c/o Las Vegas Sun, 800 S. Valley View, Las Vegas, NV 89107.

Most sports competitions have regular seasons leading to some sort of playoff system that ultimately leads to a championship series and a final showdown. The playoff system is devised to whittle down competitors until the last two are standing, and then the finale to crown the winner.

Baseball leads up to the World Series, the NBA to its championship series and the Super Bowl hosts the NFL's best each year.

Even the NCAA Tournament started out with 64 teams and was pared to the Final Four by sunset Sunday.

Horse racing is no different -- most of the time.

Horse racing's playoffs are a series of races that lead to the main objective, or big race. Called "preps" or "stepping-stone" races, these renewals -- like the playoffs -- usually shake out the contenders from the pretenders to streamline the competition for the main event.

Each year at this time, racing's playoffs are on for the Kentucky Derby. No less than 36 prep races will be conducted. They began in mid-January in Florida with the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park, and will run right up to the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs the week before the Derby.

Each race is designed to shape the equine contenders for the sport's springtime ritual know as the Triple Crown, starting with the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May and concluding on Saturday, June 5 with the Belmont Stakes.

With the calendar officially turning to the season and with less than six weeks to go until the 125th Derby, horse racing's playoff system is doing anything but paring the field.

This season the preps have produced more competition for the Derby and have produced no outstanding favorite or favorites for the "Run for the Roses."

It's the NCAA Tournament in reverse. The more preps, the more candidates to fill the starting gate at Churchill Downs. In fact, this year may be the first in recent memory that track officials may have to invoke the maximum starters rule, whereby only the 20 top earners in graded races will be allowed to enter the 20-stall starting gate for America's most famous horse race.

So far, there are no Dukes in the Derby tournament.

Four more stepping-stone races ran over the weekend, bringing the total to 22 preps, and so far only one horse has won more than one of them. Vicar captured the Fountain Of Youth Stakes and repeated with another gutsy effort in the Florida Derby -- both at Gulfstream Park -- and he's getting as much respect as Rodney Dangerfield.

This Saturday the Gallery Furniture.com Stakes (don't ask) -- formerly known as the Jim Beam Stakes -- will be offered for $750,000 at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky. That will be followed by the April 3 $750,000 Santa Anita Derby at its namesake Southern California track. After that pair of important preps, the races' winners should join Vicar as top contenders for this wide-open Kentucky Derby.

Saturday at Oaklawn Park, Ark., the Rebel Stakes drew a full field of 11 in that track's final prep for the Arkansas Derby, which will be run as a group of four key Derby preps from around the country on April 10.

The Rebel went to Etbauer, who dogged the pace and held off a fast-closing Desert Demon to win his first career stakes. That pair would have to step up with repeat performances in the Arkansas Derby to seriously enter the Kentucky Derby picture.

Sunday, the Gotham at Aqueduct, N.Y., and the Tampa Bay Derby at Tampa Bay Downs, Fla., added another pair of upsetters.

The Tampa Bay Derby was supposed to produce a victory for the promising Menifee, but he had to settle for second while Pineaff, who won the Juvenile late last year at Hawthorne, rejuvenated his hopes with a win. Menifee's runner-up effort may have been just enough to keep his Derby hopes alive.

The Gotham was a pivotal race for California invader Apremont, but when he reeled off sizzling fractions of 22:1, 44:3 and 1:09:2, the brick wall he hit came in the form of 11-to-1 shot Badge. The winner benefited from the shape of the race, but may have produced enough fever for his owners to consider a Derby trip. Apremont staggered home second and may have to go back to the drawing board, although pre-race plans were to keep him in the Big Apple for the Wood Memorial on April 10.

Finally, you may remember a horse by the name of Worldly Manner. He was the late-developing juvenile flash last year who won the Del Mar Futurity, then was snatched up by the Godolfin Racing Stable for $5 million and shipped off to Dubai. Well, they had a simulated Derby prep race at Nad Al Sheba race course over the weekend and Worldly Manner won with flying colors. They plan on returning the son of Riverman for the Kentucky Derby.

And wouldn't it figure that in a year like this, a former American runner who prepped in the sands of Dubai may return to the states and give his Arabian Oil Royalty a Derby in the heart of Bluegrass country.