After a long layoff, Klimt hopes to shake off the rust in Los Alamitos Derby

Expectations were high for the 2-year-old colt named for an Austrian painter. Five races into his career he had a win and place in Grade 1 races and a win in a Grade 2.

Then came the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and a disappointing eighth-place finish in the 11-horse race in early November.

That was the last time we saw Klimt run for real.

But now as a 3-year-old, he will make his return Saturday in the very competitive $200,000 Los Alamitos Derby over 1 1/8 miles.

“He’s been away a long time,” said trainer Art Sherman, who got the horse at the beginning of the year when owner Kaleem Shah moved him from Bob Baffert’s barn.

“It’s a pretty big question mark if he’ll be tight enough,” Sherman said. “You can only work them so much and go so far without running a race. There’s going to be a little bit of speed in the race. He’ll be off the pace and we hope the field comes back to him.”

Baffert bought the horse for Shah as a 2-year-old for $435,000, so naturally they thought a lot of his potential ability.

Shah named the horse Klimt, after Gustav Klimt, the famed Austrian symbolist painter.

“I started naming horses after German soccer clubs, but a lot of the names started getting taken by others,” said Shah, who raced Bayern, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and Dortmund, winner of the Santa Anita Derby.

“So I tried my hand at painters,” he said, admitting he didn’t own any of Klimt’s artwork.

Klimt, the horse, won three of his first four starts last year.

“Me and Bob were excited at that time,” Shah said. “But I’ve been in the game long enough that I go one race at a time. The expectations were sky-high. But he came up empty in the stretch [at the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile].”

The initial thought was to point Klimt toward the UAE Derby in Dubai, but Sherman decided as soon as he got the horse that the animal needed some rest.

“He wouldn’t have been able to perform at a top level,” Sherman said. “There is no need to ship a horse that far unless they are at their best.

“He was a little ouchy and had ankle issues so we needed to back off. We gave him 60 days off and then lightly trained him. We hope we have him good and tight. He’s been training forwardly.”

There was talk of his return coming in last week’s Iowa Derby at the slightly shorter distance of 1 1/16 miles, but there were no direct flights and the colt would have had to endure an eight-hour van ride to Prairie Meadows.

“I thought this was a good spot,” Sherman said. “He trains here and he’s stabled here. I thought for his first race back this would be a good spot for him.”

Sherman said he isn’t concerned that Klimt ran his best races at sprint distances.

“The way he finishes after he relaxes and kicks it in makes me pick my head up,” he said. “He finishes really well. He will be a good two-turn horse.”

The favorite in the race is Baffert-trained West Coast, who was a decisive winner in the Easy Goer at Belmont five weeks ago. He’s won three in a row and is 9/5 on the morning line.

Cistron, a three-time winner for John Sadler, is the second favorite at 7-2. Colonist, a two-time winner for Jerry Hollendorfer, is listed at 9-2, and Kimbear, second to American Anthem in the Laz Barrera Stakes for Eric Kruljak, is 4-1.

Klimt is 5-1 on the morning line.

Doug O’Neill has three horses in the race: B Squared (12-1), Term of Art (15-1) and Milton Freewater (20-1).

“Horses take their own time,” Shah said of Klimt. “You can’t decide for them what races they run, they decide their own races.”

By 5 p.m. Saturday, it should be clear if Klimt picked the right race.

john.cherwa@latimes.com

Twitter: @jcherwa