KENTUCKY DERBY : From Big Shot to a Longshot : Horse racing: Will Panama’s El Bakan be the next Canonero II?

Jockey Craig Perret stood several yards from El Bakan’s barn on a sunny, deceptively chilly morning at Churchill Downs.

“I’ve never been on him, won’t be on him until Saturday, but that’s no problem,” Perret said. “I’ve looked at all of his races on tape. After 10 minutes on him in the post parade, I’ll be able to adapt. You can figure out horses pretty quick.”

In eight races, El Bakan has seven victories and a second. But he still will be a longshot in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, because all of the victories have come at a track in Panama, where the purses are small and the horses questionable.

In Panama, El Bakan lived on feed pellets instead of hay, and was galloped without a saddle. The richest race he ran was worth $13,000, and all of his starts but one were sprints. Robert Perez, an Argentine-born construction contractor from New York, bought him for an undisclosed price in February with the specific objective of running in the Derby.

El Bakan’s seven victories came by 56 lengths. In five of his Panamanian starts, the track refused to take bets on him. In the other two, his payoffs were $2.60 and $2.40.

In his only start for Perez, El Bakan led most of the way in the 1 1/16-mile Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on April 18. The race was worth $125,000, more than double the total purses for El Bakan’s seven starts in Panama. Carrying 113 pounds, 13 less than what he will carry in the Derby, El Bakan was overtaken by Grand Jewel in the stretch and finished second, beaten by half a length. Grand Jewel, unraced as a 2-year-old and making his fifth start this year, will wait for the May 15 Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown, instead of running in the Derby.

Jose Santos had a one-race deal with Perez and trainer Alfredo Callejas to ride El Bakan. With Santos scheduled to ride Kissin Kris in the Derby, Perret has been hired. The last time the 42-year-old veteran rode in a Derby, in 1990, he was aboard the 10-1 Unbridled for a 3 1/2-length victory.

Perret is having fun being associated with this Derby curiosity, who has evoked memories of Mister Frisky, a Puerto Rican sensation who finished eighth as the favorite here in 1990; and Canonero II, the knock-kneed $1,200 Venezuelan horse who scored one of the Derby’s biggest upsets when he won in 1971.

Told that loose translations of El Bakan’s name meant “the big shot,” or “gigolo” or even “pimp,” Perret said: “We’ll find out Saturday what (name) fits him better. I know one thing, though, if they want me to talk to him in Spanish, they’re going to have a problem.”

No one wanted the lead in the Lexington, so El Bakan galloped to the front in a slow 49 2/5 seconds for the half mile and six furlongs in 1:13 2/5. Grand Jewel’s victory came in a race generally considered the weakest of all the Kentucky Derby preps.

“On the tapes, he showed me that he’s not the type of horse who tugs you out of the saddle,” Perret said. “His jockey had to stay after him all the way. The Lexington was the only race that he ran against the bridle. And the Derby will be run much faster than that race. There’s some quality speed (Wood Memorial winner Storm Tower and Personal Hope, the Santa Anita Derby winner) in the Derby.”

In the 1982 Derby, Perez and Callejas ran a nervous filly, Cupecoy’s Joy, who led for a mile before fading to 10th.

Perez bought El Bakan without seeing him run, even on tape.

“I had people from down there saying to me, ‘Bob, this horse has won three races.’ Then they’d say, ‘Bob, he won his fourth race.’ Finally, I went down there with a veterinarian. He looked at the horse and the deal was made in three days.

“He got to Florida in late February and spent 10 days in quarantine. The thing I liked about him is that he didn’t get sick. If 120 horses have been shipped up from down there over the years, 110 of them have got sick. We couldn’t get a plane in Florida, so this horse was trucked to New York from Florida. It was 100 degrees when he left Panama, and 20 degrees in New York.

“He’s a calm horse, so calm that it’s unbelievable. We started feeding him hay right away. He went crazy over it. We’ve put about 60 or 70 pounds on him.”

Perez doesn’t look at El Bakan as a Panamanian horse. “He was born here, “ the owner said, pointing to the ground. “He’s come back home, that’s all.”

Bred in Kentucky, El Bakan’s sire and dam--Yukon and Bridlewood Road--never won a race. He was first sold at a yearling auction for $8,000.

“They call him ‘the big shot?’ ” Perret said. “Well, he’s been a big shot already for those first owners. I’m sure he gave them a lot of thrills.”

On Tuesday morning, El Bakan was being fitted with a special mask that he wears for training. He looked like an equine version of one of those villains in a pro wrestling match. “We use the mask for protection for his throat,” Perez said. “The cool weather is still new to him.”

Perret wasn’t aware that Callejas, brought to New York from Argentina by Perez to train in 1977, would need his services, but then the call went out for the American jockey to hop on El Bakan for a gallop.

“I’ve got to go,” Perret said. “Does he have irons on?”

To Perret’s relief, El Bakan had stirrups and a saddle. The Derby makes no exceptions for horses from Panama.