Columnist Ralph Siraco: Derby Day coming down homestretch

Ralph Siraco

Monday, April 22, 2002 | 8:51 a.m.

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday-Sunday.

T-minus 12 days and counting.

With only the Derby Trial to be run on Saturday, the 128th Kentucky Derby is a dozen days away. Although the opening day feature at Churchill Downs is more a symbolic event than a prep for the Kentucky Derby in normal years, this is anything but a normal year of sophomores heading for the most famous start of their young lives.

The Derby Trial is a one-mile, one-turn race that will highlight the beginning of an event-filled week in Louisville leading up to the May 4 Kentucky Derby. While no trainer has seriously used the Derby Trial as a steppingstone to the following week's Derby since gas was 10 cents a gallon, this year the book on normal has been thrown away.

Trainer Neil Drysdale has a German-bred runner, who has never raced on dirt, trying to wiggle a late entry into the Derby field with a victory on Saturday.

To put some perspective on this unlikely of all scenarios you must remember that ultraconservative Drysdale was the same trainer who pulled eventual Belmont Stakes winner and 1992 Horse Of The Year AP Indy from the Derby on the morning of the race.

Should Flying Dash, who happens to be owned by the same connections as Fusaichi Pegasus, pull off the Derby Trial, then Drysdale will wheel him back for the Derby seven days later.

Imagine, an English-born trainer living in the United States, winning America's most famous horse race with a German-bred runner who has campaigned across the pond and is owned by a Japanese businessman.

That is indicative of the Derby itself this year, which is expected to attract a huge field of runners, most of dubious credentials.

Fortunately, a rule limiting the size of a logjam was devised after a record 23 horses raced in the centennial Derby in 1974, when Cannonade survived that cavalry charge. Since then, a 20-horse limit has been set, with the highest Graded earnings followed by all earnings being the criteria.

And, this year's renewal is expected to trigger the limit rule.

The latest entrant into the crowded Derby picture is Proud Citizen. The D. Wayne Lukas trainee captured Saturday's Grade II Lexington Stakes at Keeneland to push his total earnings to $226,083 from the $325,000-added purse. Lukas, who has started more runners in the Kentucky Derby than any other trainer, will return to the Derby scene after a one-year absence that broke a record 20-year run.

Here are the top 20 qualifiers for this year's Kentucky Derby, listed by earnings with their last start in parentheses:

1. ESSENCE OF DUBAI (won the UAE Derby in Dubai), $1,518,000.

2. HARLAN'S HOLIDAY (won the Blue Grass at Keeneland), $1,286,064.

3. JOHANNESBURG (2nd in Gladness Stakes at the Curraugh), $1,006,489.

4. CAME HOME (won the Santa Anita Derby at Santa Anita), $844,440.

5. BUDDHA (won the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct), $450,000.

6. PRIVATE EMBLEM (won the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park), $300,000.

7. WAR EMBLEM (won the Illinois Derby at Sportsman's Park), $300,000.

8. PERFECT DRIFT (won the Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park), $300,000.

9. MEDAGLIA d'ORO (2nd in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct), $300,000.

10. SAARLAND (4th in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct), $235,000.

11. BLUE BURNER (5th in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct), $234,500.