Columnist Ralph Siraco: Regional rivalry brewing between 3-year-olds

Ralph Siraco

Monday, March 19, 2001 | 10:50 a.m.

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday, and his Southern California selections run Tuesday through Friday. Reach him c/o Las Vegas Sun, 2275 Corporate Circle Drive, Ste. 300, Henderson, NV 89014.

Racing fans, players and industry leaders were all patiently waiting for a colt -- or for that matter a filly -- to break out from either mediocre group of 3-year-olds and take the lead on the road to the Kentucky Derby this year.

That role was filled last week at Gulfstream Park when Monarchos won the Grade I $1 million Florida Derby and sprinted to the top of the Derby leaderboard as quickly as he circled his rivals on the far turn en route to the solid victory in the 1 1/8-mile event.

But after this past weekend, with less than seven weeks to the Derby, there are now two horses at the top of the leader board.

What racing fans may be treated to is an old fashioned rivalry. And it might be the most popular of rivalries -- East vs. West.

The much anticipated 2001 debut of Point Given took place Saturday at Santa Anita, and the promising Derby hopeful did not disappoint.

The West Coast's big gun made his debut in the San Felipe Stakes. And make no mistake about it, Point Given has thrown down the gauntlet against the upstart Monarchos.

Point Given, a Bob Baffert trainee, swept five-wide around the final turn for home in Saturday's 1 1/16-mile prep and moved effortlessly into the lead by the time the field straightened away in the homestretch.

Jockey Gary Stevens gave his mount a friendly reminder, paddling the son of 1995 Kentucky Derby winner Thunder Gulch with his whip as I Love Silver menaced in mid-stretch. But the physically imposing Point Given flicked away that challenge while coasting to the comeback victory. Stevens said afterward that Point Given tends to get lazy when he hits the front, but this time he felt like an accomplished 5-year-old racing against raw 3-year-olds in his sophomore debut.

Baffert, who won back-to-back Kentucky Derbies in 1997-98, was relieved that Point Given didn't have to overwork himself to get the victory, and said the next start for his ace 3-year-old will be the April 7 Santa Anita Derby.

While Point Given was not fully cranked up for his comeback effort, Baffert knows how to get what he needs from a horse on the first Saturday in May. So Saturday's victory underscored the colt's dominance on the West Coast.

Point Given finished a successful freshman season with a solid victory in the December 16 Hollywood Futurity after just missing -- by a nose -- in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. Many observers believed that Point Given, given the trip he got in the Breeders' Cup outing, was better than winner Macho Uno, who eventually garnered the Eclipse Award as a result of that victory.

While Point Given's 2000 record boasted three victories and three seconds from six starts -- with two wins and two seconds in stakes competition -- the homebred by The Thoroughbred Corporation has filled out impressively over his three month sabbatical.

A well-muscled silhouette who stands a monstrous 17-plus hands high, the chestnut colt paints an imposing figure by stature and actions on the race track.

In many ways the two rivals mirror each other.

Monarchos also is a tall mighty mass of racehorse, cut from the cloth of 1995 Juvenile Eclipse Award winner Maria's Mon, and has matured quickly during his winter at Gulfstream Park.

Now racing fans can start dreaming of the Yankees-Dodgers series that a Point Given-Monarchos rivalry can match. It's a regional rivalry that has been absent in racing since Victory Gallop and Real Quiet mixed it up during the 1998 Triple Crown series.

That year, Real Quiet got the best of Victory Gallop in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes while Victory Gallop got even when he nailed his nemesis in the Belmont Stakes to rob a Triple Crown from Real Quiet by a nose.

Baffert also trained Real Quiet and returns with another leading contender in Point Given this year. The silver-haired conditioner can only hope if the budding rivalry brewing between Monarchos and Point Given gets as far as a Triple Crown, then the margin of victory (or defeat) doesn't hang on the given point of a nose.