The road to Derby starts in San Rafael

Two of the last five winners of the $150,000 San Rafael Stakes, which will be run today at Santa Anita, have gone on to glory in the Santa Anita Derby.

Came Home won both races in 2002 and Brother Derek upset Stevie Wonderboy in the San Rafael before winning the local derby.

Whether any of the seven 3-year-olds entered in the one-mile San Rafael can complete the same double remains to be seen, but one will be a graded-stakes winner after the race is official. The Grade II is the first major prep for the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 7.

Only the seemingly outclassed Half Famous has won more than once, earning two victories in four starts in Arizona after failing three times at Del Mar last summer, but two of the three primary contenders are coming off maiden wins.

Grapelli, a son of 1995 Kentucky Derby winner Thunder Gulch, won last month at Hollywood Park after suffering four defeats at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., and Keeneland.

Tenfold, a son of two-time Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Tiznow, won in his second start for the Bob and Beverly Lewis Trust and trainer Bob Baffert on Dec. 26.

Garrett Gomez, who rode both colts to their victories, stays with Grapelli, who is trained by Michael McCarthy.

McCarthy is in charge of Todd Pletcher’s local operation while Pletcher serves a 45-day suspension, which ends at the end of the month.

*

Hours after the San Rafael, Brother Derek will try to end a six-race losing streak in the $200,000 San Fernando Breeders’ Cup, a Grade II at 1 1/16 miles.

The 4-year-old Benchmark colt, who hasn’t won since taking the Santa Anita Derby more than nine months ago, will be reunited with jockey Alex Solis. Solis chose to ride Arson Squad in the Malibu on Dec. 26 but is back on Brother Derek today for owner Cecil Peacock and trainer Dan Hendricks.

Gomez, who rode Brother Derek to a seventh-place finish as the 2-1 favorite in the Malibu, takes over on Arson Squad, but the one to beat today is the Baffert-trained Midnight Lute.

*

Barbaro, who had a setback earlier in the week in his continuing battle with laminitis, was reported to be doing well Friday at the New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa.

“We do not believe this setback puts him back to where he was in July,” said chief surgeon Dean Richardson. “He has much more healthy tissue on the bottom of the foot than he had at that time.”

*

Trainer Noble Threewitt, who saddled his first winner at Santa Anita five days into the track’s inaugural meet in 1934, will retire Feb. 24, his 96th birthday.

Threewitt, who had his first winner at Caliente in Tijuana in 1932, has had more than 2,000 winners.

The best horse he trained was Correlation, who won the 1954 Florida Derby before finishing sixth as the 3-1 favorite in the Kentucky Derby.

*

Downthedustyroad, impressive in winning the La Brea Stakes for Baffert earlier in the meet, was sold for $1.5 million to Tim McMurry’s Fleetwood Bloodstock on Thursday at the Keeneland January sale.

*

California Horse Racing Board hearings have not yet been scheduled for trainers John Sadler and Vladimir Cerin, who had horses fail drug tests.

The Sadler-trained Cat And A Half tested positive for hydroxyzine, an antihistamine, and its metabolite cetirizine, after winning a race Nov. 11 at Hollywood Park.

Cerin, meanwhile, had two positives for norpseudophredrine and phenylpropanolamine, which are said to be decongestants or appetite suppressants, during the Fairplex Park meet last September.

The horses who tested positive were North Fleet Street, who won on Sept. 25, and Off The Richter, who finished third on Sept. 10.

*

bob.mieszerski@latimes.com