SANTA ANITA : Dinard Gets Derby Favorite’s Role

Jeff Tufts, the Santa Anita linemaker, has been wrestling all week with which horse to favor in Saturday’s $500,000 Santa Anita Derby. Came entry time Thursday and Tufts could wrestle no more--he installed Dinard at 2-1 and put Best Pal behind him at 5-2.

Ian Jory, the super-confident trainer of Best Pal, had no quibble. After all, Dinard was favored in the San Rafael Stakes a month ago and beat Best Pal, the third-place finisher, by a half-length.

“My horse has hardly ever been favored,” Jory said. “So it doesn’t make any difference.”

Where Tufts ran into trouble with his line was listing Conveyor at 30-1. Trained by Henry Moreno, Conveyor has been rated worse. In mid-January, making his seventh start, Conveyor finally won a race and paid $129.20 for a $2 win bet.

“I’m so embarrassed to be 30-1, I’m thinking about scratching,” Moreno said sarcastically. “I thought we had a chance, but after looking at the line, I guess not. What’s my horse been doing, running with a bunch of cattle?”

Conveyor went straight from maiden races into stakes and didn’t fare badly in losing to Mane Minister, another Santa Anita Derby starter, and General Meeting, a top 3-year-old who has been injured. But in the San Felipe Stakes, against top-of-the-line Kentucky Derby aspirants, he was sixth, more than eighth lengths behind the winner, Sea Cadet.

If it will make Moreno feel any better, there’s one runner in the nine-horse Santa Anita Derby who is higher on the morning line. Bounding Back, a maiden with three seconds and three thirds in eight starts, was listed at 50-1.

In post-position order, here’s the field, with jockeys and odds: Mane Minister, Alex Solis, 30-1; Compelling Sound, Corey Nakatani, 8-1; Conveyor, Rick Faul, 30-1; Bounding Back, Frank Alvarado, 50-1; Best Pal, Gary Stevens, 5-2; Dinard, Chris McCarron, 2-1; Scan, Jerry Bailey, 5-1; Sea Cadet, Eddie Delahoussaye, 7-2; and Media Plan, Jose Santos, 12-1. All of the horses will carry 122 pounds.

Maidens such as Bounding Back seldom pop up in major races, but in 1984, trainer Wayne Lukas entered a non-winner, Double Cash, in the Santa Anita Derby. Mighty Adversary, at 32-1, won the race, and Double Cash finished last, beaten more than 13 lengths.

Lukas, who since 1980 has won the Santa Anita Derby with Codex, Muttering, Marfa and Winning Colors, is running newly acquired Media Plan, and Thursday at the post-position draw, he may have borrowed some material from M.C. Hammer, the Grammy-winning rap-music star who is the latest in his never-ending roster of deep-pocketed owners:

“We’re not here as entertainers,

“We’re here as racehorse trainers.

“We’re not here to cause no trouble,

“We’re just here to win the daily double.

“M.C. Hammer and all his clan

“Have got a Derby horse in Media Plan.”

Charlie Whittingham, the trainer of Compelling Sound, was asked a question after Lukas. “It’s tough to follow Mark Twain on my left,” Whittingham said. “Let me turn this over to Jerry (Moss), and maybe he’ll sing a song.”

Moss, who paid $450,000--the same price that Media Plan cost Hammer and his family--for Compelling Sound, founded a record company with Herb Alpert.

“I guess a song title might be, ‘We’ve Only Just Begun,’ ” Moss said.

Compelling Sound, a son of Seattle Slew, has run only three times, and in his first stake appearance he finished third behind Sea Cadet and Scan in the San Felipe.

Whittingham is adding blinkers for the colt Saturday. “He’s still green,” Moss said. “He used to stop and start in races. When Gary Stevens rode him, he said he was only doing 70%. He’s worked well in blinkers, and we’re hoping he shows more than 70% Saturday.”

Chris McCarron rode Compelling Sound the first time he ever ran and was aboard Sea Cadet for his three-length victory in the San Felipe, but he’s the only rider Dinard has ever had and is sticking with him Saturday.

“It was a difficult decision,” McCarron said. “But I think the horse merits my selecting him, because he’s beaten the best. Sea Cadet is a professional, but Dinard has been a professional from the word go. The first time I rode him, he walked out of the gate and was seven-wide on the turn, but he still won convincingly.”

McCarron won the Kentucky Derby in 1987 with Alysheba, but in 11 tries he’s never won the Santa Anita Derby, his best finish being a second with Precisionist in 1984. McCarron remembers being around Dinard last summer before the horse had ever run a race.

“He wasn’t a rogue, but he was trying to get people hurt all the time,” McCarron said.

Consequently, Dinard has been gelded, joining Best Pal and Media Plan as geldings in the field, so there’s a good chance that the race will be won by a gelding for only the third time and the first time since Sweepida in 1940.

Horse Racing Notes

Rick Faul will ride Conveyor because Laffit Pincay, who has won the Santa Anita Derby seven times, has a commitment to ride Mineral Ice in the Gotham Stakes for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct. . . . Others in the Gotham are Stately Wager, Dodge, Kyle’s Our Man, Vouch for Me, King Mutesa, Colonel Hill and Another Review. . . . Cahill Road, the highly regarded stablemate of Fly So Free and Scan, is running Saturday in the Preview at Gulfstream Park. There will be only four challengers--Shotgun Harry J., Happy Jazz Band, Shoot to Kill and Chihuahua.

Fred Capossela, who called races in New York with a distinctive voice for 37 years, died Wednesday in Upland after suffering his second stroke in less than a week. Capossela, 88, was a track announcer in New York from 1934 to ’71. . . . Another race on the Santa Anita card Saturday is the $75,000 Santa Gertrudes Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on grass for older horses. The high weight at 117 pounds in a seven-horse field is Neptuno.

Jolie’s Halo’s trainer, Happy Alter, announced that his undefeated colt will go to Oaklawn Park to face Farma Way, the Santa Anita Handicap winner, and Unbridled, last year’s champion 3-year-old colt, in the Oaklawn Handicap on April 13.

Julio Garcia was fortunate to escape serious injury when Island Madness, his mount in Thursday’s fourth race, clipped the heels of another horse coming out of the far turn and spilled her jockey. A couple of trailing horses just missed trampling Garcia, who was taken to a nearby hospital, where X-rays showed no broken bones and he was expected to be released.