Columnist Ralph Siraco: Point Given saves weekend for Baffert

Ralph Siraco

Monday, Aug. 6, 2001 | 10:02 a.m.

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday and his Southern California selections appear Tuesday-Sunday. Reach him c/o Las Vegas Sun, 2275 Corporate Circle Drive, Suite 300, Henderson, NV 89074.

Horse racing can be a humbling experience.

Breeders, owners, jockeys, trainers, players and fans have one thing in common. Anyone who participates in this great game will ride a roller coaster of emotions. And, just as in life itself, will ride the ups and downs of fate.

Latest case in point: This weekend's two major stakes races. The highs and lows of the game played out over the weekend for the nation's leading money-earning trainer Bob Baffert. The silver-haired conditioner with earnings teetering on $12 million ventured to the East Coast with his pair of top sophomores looking to knock down the Jim Dandy at Saratoga and the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.

Hall of Fame trainer and multiple Eclipse Award winner D. Wayne Lukas was trying to salvage a bad-owner day with a long shot chance at the Spa on Saturday.

Each conditioner has been down this road before, and, if they stay in the business long enough, will go down the path again.

Baffert's ride stems back to his disappointment in this year's Kentucky Derby, when he thought he would finish one-two in the run for the roses with Point Given and Congaree. Congaree finished a solid third after attending the fastest pace in Derby history while Baffert is still at a loss to explain the fifth-place effort of Point Given.

The burr under the inexplicable performance magnified after Point Given reeled off victories in the next two jewels of the Triple Crown, the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Then came the 60-day suspension handed down by the California Horse Racing Board on June 17 for an illegal substance found in the system of a filly under Baffert's care from a race in May of 2000. Baffert is currently appealing.

And, although Baffert's handicap star Captain Steve has suffered three recent losses, his pair of sophomore stars seemed to be shoring up that division for the stable. Saturday's $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes was the first stop. The 1 1/8-mile event is the Saratoga prep for the $1 million Grade I Travers to be run later in the meeting. Baffert signed Congaree up for duty in upstate New York and would meet A P Valentine again. The latter beat Congaree in the Preakness while finishing second after Congaree had dusted him in the Derby.

Over an off track, Congaree was sent off as the 2-5 favorite in the Grade I race. After stalking pacesetter Free Of Love, jockey Gary Stevens sent Congaree after the leader on the final turn. Congaree struck the front when something struck Congaree. Free Of Love regained the lead and Congaree faded uncharacteristically out of the running. Free Of Love looked home free when a horse called Scorpion stung him in the final strides to win. Ridden by Jerry Bailey, Scorpion is trained by Lukas.

Lukas was still smarting from the loss of a major part of his stable. The Padua Stables of Satish and Anne Sanan announced last week that they were taking a good portion of their horses out of the Lukas barn and spreading them across the country to several different trainers. Lukas, who is also a close friend and partner in some horses with the Sanans, had not been as successful with the expensive Padua horses as they would have liked, although the team enjoyed a Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies victory with Cash Run in 1999. Sanan's daughter Nadia, acting as the racing manager for her parents, said they were disappointed with the performance of Padua's runners under Lukas' care.

That sentiment was not shared, however, by the owners of Scorpion, who plan to start the Jim Dandy winner in the Travers next. Lukas, who once had a streak of six consecutive Triple Crown victories, remains as resilient as his remarkable accomplishments.

Congaree will not be starting in the Travers, or for that matter anywhere else this year. After his lackluster performance, jockey Gary Stevens relayed a concern to Baffert and post-race X-rays showed that Congaree had wrenched his right knee during the race.

Baffert said, "He just wrenched it (knee). That was the same knee he had problems with last year."

Although the son of Arazi could make it back to the races in 60 days or so, Baffert said the Wood Memorial and Swaps Stakes winner will be out for the rest of the year, preventing any participation in the World Thoroughbred Championships (Breeders' Cup) at the end of the year.

"We want to have a nice horse for next year," Baffert said.

So, that means the first three finishers in this year's Kentucky Derby -- Monarchos, runner-up Invisible Ink and now Congaree -- are out for the rest of the year.

The second and last stop on the Baffert "victory" train, which was still looking for a victory, was Sunday's Haskell Invitational in New Jersey.

Here the pressure was really on. Point Given had arrived at the shore spa as a prohibitive favorite to annex the Grade I race, which added $500,000 to the $1 million purse by his appearance, and an on-track crowd of 47,127 wanted no disappointments.

The son of Thunder Gulch had been training at Del Mar in a bar shoe, which indicates some sort of problem. The Thoroughbred Corporation color bearer had the same bar shoe before his dismal Kentucky Derby effort, but Baffert insisted that his star pupil was ready for the task.

A solid field of classmates that included the erratic Hero's Tribute, the hard knocking Burning Roma and a pair of late blooming new shooters, Touch Tone and This Fleet Is Due, were waiting to test the reigning sophomore champ.

Point Given was reluctant to load into the starting gate -- which was placed right in the middle of the homestretch in full view of the crowd that bet him down to 2-5.

As the field turned out of the backstretch and around the final turn, Point Given had ambled up to pacesetter Touch Tone and stalker Burning Roma. As they reached the straight, Point Given seemed to be laboring to get by the tenacious pair. At the finish Point Given had prevailed by less than a length. Touch Tone outnodded Burning Roma for second.

While we wait to see if Point Given will take a trip to Saratoga for a Travers meeting with Scorpion and others, both Baffert and Lukas will say that great horses make a trainer's life easier to handle.