Monday, Feb. 16, 2004 | 9:38 a.m.
Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday-Sunday.
For a horse owner, winning the Kentucky Derby is a long shot at best.
Some of the most famous horse owners in history have rows of trophies on the mantle but no Derby hardware. Some chase the elusive statue by spending millions of dollars at horse auctions after studying bloodlines of those who might produce a Derby champion. Others have purchased ready-made Derby contenders flashing dollar digits with commas spaced by trios of zeros.
Home-grown, ready-made or luck of the draw are all avenues to Derby glory or Derby demolition.
Owners play a big-league futures game.
For the regular horse players of the game, futures are limited to betting a bob on a promising sophomore at the wickets.
Those who risk the cash realize that their magnificent thoroughbreds are as delicate as a whispering breeze, as fragile as fine china and can spoil as fast as freshly pick fruit on a hot summer day.
Every year, as we move through the sport's right of spring, would-be Derby contenders fall by the wayside. Promising challengers have either not made the Derby grade or have exerted themselves to the Derby sick bay.
Every year.
As the first of three separate Kentucky Derby Future Book pari-mutuel pools wound up on Sunday, the first toll was taken in the sophomore class of 2004.
Saturday's Fountain Of Youth Stakes was the centerpiece Derby steppingstone of the weekend. The Grade I event was the final prep for the March 13 Florida Derby. Second Of June, who had won the Holy Bull Stakes at the same Gulfstream Park track in his previous outing, was making his seventh career start since August 2003 and was sitting on a three-race win streak. Read the Footnotes was making his sophomore debut after winning four of five starts as a 2-year-old. Both were considered forerunners in the exit polls for the Kentucky Derby primaries.
In a stirring stretch duel, Read the Footnotes and Second Of June distanced themselves from their foes as they staged a head-to-head run to the finish. Read the Footnotes prevailed in the shadow of the wire under Jerry Bailey. After the 'Youth victory, Read the Footnotes was bet down to 14-1 odds in the Kentucky Derby Future Book pool as Second Of June was held at 15-1 odds to turn the tables on the first Saturday in May at Louisville.
On Sunday, Derby Future Book players shared the first-but-certainly-not-last Derby trail agony. This with owner Barbara Cesare and trainer William Cesare when their Second Of June was found to have injured himself during his gallant Fountain Of Youth defeat.
Second Of June sustained a condylar fracture of a cannon bone and will miss the entire Triple Crown trail. Although his injury is not life-threatening, he will be out until at least November or December. On Sunday, Second Of June was taken out of the Kentucky Derby Futures wagering, but, not before early backers plunked $13,661 in what are now souvenir tickets.
Even last year's juvenile champion may live up to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile-Kentucky Derby parlay jinx. Action This Day, who won the Eclipse Award as the best juvenile of 2003, lost his sophomore debut against a second-tier group of peers in the Sham Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 8. Finishing a dismal fourth in a field of seven, Action This Day would need to turn his fortunes around to be a serious Derby consideration. He closed at 14-1 odds in the Future Book pool.
Last year's brilliant juvenile filly Halfbridled didn't make her scheduled sophomore debut on Saturday at Santa Anita. Citing a lackluster training performance, trainer Richard Mandella scratched the 2003 champion and now will search for a new 2004 debut spot. Although she would likely go in the Kentucky Oaks, backers who think she was the best juvenile of any gender last year took 22-1 in the Derby Future Book in case she puts it all together and Mandella's Action This Day doesn't.
On the up side, trainer Nick Zito had two of his big stars return to the races right where they left off -- as Kentucky Derby contenders. Lane's End Futurity winner Eurosilver won a 7-furlong allowance race in his 2004 debut at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 4 while stablemate Birdstone won the first race on Saturday, also at the Florida track. Eurosilver closed at 11-1 while Champagne winner Birdstone settled at 12-1 in the Derby Future odds.
Gradepoint, a striking son of 1992 Horse Of The Year A.P. Indy, pushed his way into the Kentucky Derby picture with a solid come-from-behind victory Sunday in the Risen Star Stakes at the Fair Grounds. Trained by the patient Neil Howard, his next step is the March 7 Louisiana Derby over the same track. Soon after he crossed the finish line in New Orleans, Gradepoint closed at 24-1 to win the run for the roses at Churchill Downs.
The wisest bet in the futures may have been the $30,000 laid on the field in pool one. The "all others" wager encompasses all other 3-year-olds on the planet besides the 23 individual horses listed on the Kentucky Derby Future Book offering. That chunk was bet just 15n minutes into the four-day wager. The large bet initially drove the proposition to 1-5 odds, but, after the pool closed on Sunday, the "all others" wager settled at 9-5.
Maybe taking quantity over quality is the future of the Kentucky Derby. At least the 2004 renewal.
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