HORSE SENSE

It was less than a week after he had hooped and hollered and rooted Silver Charm home to victory in the Kentucky Derby, and little more than a week before his colt would be racing again in the Preakness.

But there was Bob Lewis, out of bed at 5 a.m., and driving from his home on Lido Isle in Newport Beach to Santa Anita race track to watch another of his horses.

But not in a race. This time it was only to see a colt named Almost A Nine in an early-morning workout.

“You know what someone once said: Give an old man a 2-year-old, and he has a great deal to look forward to,” Lewis said.

Yes, and that’s how seriously Lewis, who turned 73 on Monday, takes his involvement in thoroughbred racing.

Ever since he turned over the daily operation of his Southern California beer distribution business in Pomona to his oldest son, Jeff, about seven years ago, racing has been his passion.

“It’s so nice to feel my glass is half-full, not half-empty,” he said.

And Saturday Silver Charm will heighten that passion again in the Preakness at Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore, the second jewel in the Triple Crown. The final race of the three is the Belmont at Belmont Park on June 7 in New York.

No horse has won all three since Affirmed in 1978.

“Anyone who comes into this business can’t help but have dreams and fantasies,” Lewis said, considering the possibilities. “I still go around pinching myself over our horse winning the Kentucky Derby.”

Silver Charm is one of 52 horses Lewis has at racetracks around the country. “I believe there’s strength in numbers,” he said.

Until this year, the most well-known of the horses owned by Lewis and his wife, Beverly, probably was Serena’s Song, a remarkable filly who was the sweetheart of thoroughbred racing through all of 1995 and won more than $3.2 million.

“She was in 30 races in 36 months,” Lewis said proudly.

Serena’s Song raced in the Kentucky Derby two years ago, but finished 16th in the field of 19 horses. She was one of two Lewis horses in the race. Timber Country, whose ownership they shared with two others and who was trained by Wayne Lukas, was third in that Derby, but won the Preakness two weeks later.

Serena’s Song has been retired for breeding, and is due to produce her first foal in a couple months. “We’re looking forward to the new arrival,” Lewis said.

The Lewises had hoped to have a Derby threat a year ago, but didn’t. Several of their horses never made it past the series of Derby prep races. A prize hopeful, Dr. Caton, also trained by Lukas, developed a minor hoof injury as a 2-year-old and wasn’t ready a year ago.

“But you haven’t heard the last of Dr. Caton,” Lewis said. “He may be only a few weeks away from racing again. Wayne is looking at an exciting late summer and fall for him if everything continues to go well.”

The Lewises obtained Silver Charm thanks to the keen eye of trainer Bob Baffert.

Baffert, who lives in Huntington Beach, spotted the colt on the list at the Ocala, Fla., sales 13 months ago, and paid only $85,000 for him.

Compared to the prices paid for many top thoroughbreds, Silver Charm was a bargain. About a year ago, Lewis paid $1 million for a weanling.

“Bob has been with us about as long as any trainer we have, and he’s never brought us a horse we didn’t buy,” Lewis said. “We have great faith and trust in him.”

Baffert watched the horse on tape, bought it and offered it to Lewis.

“I hadn’t had a horse with Bob in awhile, and I wanted to get back with him,” Baffert said. “I thought Silver Charm would be a good horse, but I didn’t know how good.

“I remember, though, that we joked at the time about this maybe being the Kentucky Derby winner for both of us. Any time you buy a horse, it’s like going to Vegas. You never know. Things can happen.

“The thing about Bob is that he doesn’t ever go into it with scared money. He’s a smart businessman, and that’s one reason he’s done so well. I’ve seen a lot of people spend millions and get nothing.”

Lewis says he realized he might have a special horse last year when Silver Charm won the Del Mar Futurity.

“Bob called me and said, ‘We not only have a good horse, we have potentially a great horse.’ But he told me then that it’s going to take a lot of patience and fortitude on the part of all of us. He said if we gave him permission, we might skip the Breeders Cup so we can have this horse at peak condition for the first Saturday in May.”

That’s what they did.

The Derby was only Silver Charm’s seventh race. “Bob wanted him to be fresh,” Lewis said. “He didn’t want to squeeze the lemon dry.”

Lewis says training Silver Charm hasn’t been easy for Baffert.

“Silver Charm is lazy, that’s what he is,” Lewis said, laughing. “Unless he’s got another young horse on the track with him, he doesn’t like to do much. But put him out there with another horse, and he gets a fire in his eye. Until then, he’ll gawk and look around and pay attention to every thing except what he should be doing.”

But he’s different on race day.

“I like to refer to him as a push-button horse,” Lewis said. “He’s very raceable. He responds to everything that our jockey Gary Stevens calls on him to do. I’m not suggesting that makes Gary’s job any easier. But nothing seems to bother him in a race. Silver Charm is one of those horses, like Serena’s Song, who likes to be running right there with another horse at his side and saying, ‘Come and get me.’ ”

Lewis doesn’t think Silver Charm would be bothered by an off-track. “I think he could run on ground glass,” said Lewis. “He’s a great athlete.”

But can he win the Preakness? The Triple Crown?

“Just like before the Derby, fantasies run through our mind,” Lewis said. “But we know the kind of competition we will be facing, and we know it will take a lot of luck. But the way things have been going, why stop now?”