Best Derby Bet Has Two Legs

A future-book bet on a jockey to win the Kentucky Derby should be easier to cash than a bet on a horse, if only because there are fewer jockeys than horses.

At Harrah’s racebook, which says that it’s the only emporium in Las Vegas that offers future-book Derby betting on jockeys, there are only 17 rider choices--16 by name and a “field” bet, which includes everybody else. Try to place a bet on a horse to win the Derby, and you’ll be handed a list of hundreds of 3-year-olds.

Ben Naples, who juggles the racebook odds at Harrah’s, lists Jerry Bailey, Chris McCarron, Mike Smith and Gary Stevens as the favorites to win the Derby, at 6-1 apiece. Naples doesn’t pay much attention to what horses the jockeys might ride May 3 at Churchill Downs, because at this date the jockeys themselves aren’t certain about their Derby mounts.

“Take Bailey,” Naples said. “He’s been riding Boston Harbor, the 2-year-old champion. But if Boston Harbor preps for the Derby at Santa Anita, you wonder if Bailey would come out from Florida to ride him every time. By the time they actually run the Derby, Bailey may have found some horse back East that he prefers to ride.”

Bailey has won two of the last four Derbies, with Grindstone last year and Sea Hero in 1993, but he’s drawing little interest at Harrah’s.

“I guess most people think that it’s too hard to repeat,” Naples said.

Only four jockeys--Eddie Delahoussaye in 1982-83, Ron Turcotte in 1972-73, Jimmy Winkfield in 1901-02 and Isaac Murphy in 1890-91--have ridden consecutive winners in the Derby.

“We’re getting no action at all on Mike Smith,” Naples said. “He’s following the same pattern as Pat Day in the Derby. They’re both riders who are blessed with a lot of talent, but it took Pat a long time to win the race, and Mike’s had a lot of bad luck in the Derby.”

Day rode nine times in the Derby, finishing second three consecutive years, before he won with Lil E. Tee in 1992.

Smith is winless in seven Derby chances, and has never finished better than fifth. He rode the favorites--Prairie Bayou, Holly Bull and Unbridled’s Song--in three of the last four years and was aboard the second choice, Talkin Man, in 1995.

This is Harrah’s current line on other jockeys to win the Derby:

Pat Day: 8-1

Corey Nakatani: 8-1

Shane Sellers: 10-1

Craig Perret: 12-1

Alex Solis: 12-1

Kent Desormeaux: 15-1

Rene Douglas: 15-1

Eddie Delahoussaye: 18-1

Julie Krone: 20-1

Tony Black: 20-1

Rick Wilson: 20-1

Russell Baze: 30-1

The field at 6-1 includes top jockeys such as Laffit Pincay, Jorge Chavez, John Velazquez, Robbie Davis and Richard Migliore. Velazquez has been riding Ordway, who ran third as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Migliore rides The Silver Move, another leading 3-year-old who is training in Florida.

Naples, who grew up near Santa Anita and remembers accompanying his father to the track when he was 10, was slightly apologetic about having Delahoussaye at 18-1 and Pincay lumped in with the field.

“I know they’ve both won the Derby but Laffit’s 50 years years old and Eddie D., while he’s a great rider, I think he’s past his prime,” Naples said. “I will say this, though: There was some money coming in on Eddie when he opened at 20-1, and now we’ve moved him down.”

The 15-1 seems low for Douglas, a jockey who has never ridden in the Derby. But he did replace an injured Gary Stevens last year and rode Editor’s Note to victory in the Belmont Stakes.

Krone and Baze would be better suited in the field. Women have had only five Derby mounts, none of them winning, and Krone, with two tries, is the only woman to have ridden in the race more than once.

“I put Julie in there only because I think she’s the only woman who’s got a chance to get a Derby mount,” Naples said.

Baze has ridden more than 400 winners in each of the last five years, an extraordinary accomplishment, but few top 3-year-olds come out of Northern California, where he rides. Baze’s only Derby mount, Semoran, finished 14th last year.

As for the horses, Harrah’s lists Boston Harbor as the lukewarm 7-1 favorite, followed by Acceptable (Sellers) and Ordway, both at 8-1; Traitor (Bailey), 10-1; and The Silver Move and Mud Route, both 12-1.

Mud Route hasn’t even run in a stake and has started only three times, but the last two have been solid efforts, an 11-length victory against maidens at Hollywood Park in December and another victory in allowance company at Santa Anita last Saturday. Mud Route has been ridden in all three outings by McCarron, also a two-time Derby winner.

“He does things in a real classy way,” McCarron said of Mud Route. “I like the way he carries himself. He’s got a beautiful stride.”

Horse Racing Notes

The California Horse Racing Board has cleared the way for Santa Anita to negotiate a contract that would permit the telecasts of the track’s races in Nevada racebooks. At its meeting Friday, the racing board reversed an earlier decision that prevented Santa Anita from signing with the racebooks unless the track was paid a minimum commission of 4.2% on betting in Nevada. Without the simulcasts, Santa Anita and horse owners have lost an estimated $414,000 since the meet opened Dec. 26. The Nevada books have refused to pay 4.2% and may wind up giving Santa Anita 3.5%.

Trainer John Sadler, who scratched Track Gal twice earlier at the meet, is hoping for a fast track today for the 6-year-old mare in the Santa Monica Handicap. Track Gal has won 11 of 19 starts--eight of 12 on dirt--and earned $468,203. Grab The Prize, who has been bothered by a cough, will try for her second win of the season if she runs. The 5-year-old mare won the Monrovia Handicap on Jan. 4 and has four wins and two seconds in her last six starts.

There will be an 11 a.m. post time Sunday, with High Heeled Hope and Rexy Sexy heading the $100,000 Santa Ynez Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. High Heeled Hope had won three in a row before finishing a distant third in the Hollywood Starlet. At 123 pounds, Rexy Sexy, winner of two stakes for California-breds, is the high weight. High Heeled Hope will carry 121 pounds in the 11-horse field. . . . Swiss Yodeler, winner of the Hollywood Futurity, is scheduled to run in the $100,000 Santa Catalina Stakes on Feb. 2. . . . Gary Biszantz, owner of Running Flame, has sold the Hollywood Turf Cup winner to Prince Mitab Bin Abdullah and the 5-year-old’s career is expected to continue in Saudi Arabia. . . . Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, who has dominated Northern California racing for more than a decade, saddled the winners of five races Thursday at Bay Meadows, tying the Bay Meadows record set by Walter Greenman in 1970. . . . Dashing Folly, the 3-year-old filly who won all 10 of her starts in 1996, was voted world champion (horse of the year) by the American Quarter Horse Assn.