Came Home Is Right on Schedule for Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —  Not many jockeys exercise horses wearing stopwatches, but Chris McCarron does. McCarron, in fact, has been using a workout watch for at least 10 years.

On a raw, frigid morning Monday at Churchill Downs, after an overnight flight from Los Angeles that was delayed because of equipment problems, McCarron was asked by Paco Gonzalez, the trainer of Came Home, to work the Santa Anita Derby winner five furlongs. Gonzalez usually gives specific instructions to his workout riders, and for this exercise, five days before Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, he wanted McCarron to bring the smallish colt home in 1:01.

Sitting in a hotel coffee shop earlier, only a couple of hours after his plane had landed, McCarron heard that Proud Citizen, another Derby contender, had worked five furlongs in a blazing 584/5 seconds. News travels that fast during Derby week. McCarron deduced from Proud Citizen’s time that the Churchill track would be playing much faster than it was last week, when he made another commute from California to work Came Home six furlongs in 1:123/5.

A little after 8:30, McCarron, wearing a mustard-yellow windbreaker, a souvenir from the Santa Anita Derby, got a leg up on Came Home from Gonzalez. McCarron and the colt paused at the backstretch gap that leads to the track, the jockey making small talk with Gonzalez and reporters as he waited his turn. McCarron and Gonzalez talked about the new safety reins that Came Home was wearing. McCarron recalled a morning two years ago at Del Mar when one of his reins snapped, and a horse he was scheduled to work got loose along the outside fence at a breakneck clip.

“Pow!” McCarron said, harking back to 2000. “My horse took off at something like 22 [seconds] for the first quarter [of a mile]. It made it exciting.”

Came Home stood in the middle of this small crowd, seemingly happy to be surrounded.

“He bounced me pretty good when we went around [the shedrow at the barn],” McCarron said, “but all he does out here is stand with that back leg cocked.”

Came Home finally left for the track. Gonzalez and John Toffan, one of the colt’s owners, climbed several stairs to a topless wooden platform on the backstretch, beside the glass-enclosed clockers’ booth. The platform was packed with people. Half of the 20 horses scheduled to run in the Derby had workouts Monday, and rubbernecking was in high season.

Came Home sprinted past the platform, heading for the five-eighths pole where the workout would begin. Toffan was dead center with Churchill’s historic twin spires.

When Came Home reached the finish line in the distance, several unofficial clockers shouted times. Toffan lighted a cigarette. He’s Derby-seasoned, as are his partner Trudy McCaffery, who also owns a piece of Came Home, and the stolid Gonzalez. They finished third in the 1991 Derby with Mane Minister, and were third again with Free House in 1997.

Mane Minister also ran third in the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, the only horse to finish third in all three Triple Crown races. Free House was second to Silver Charm in the Preakness, beaten by a head in one of Pimlico’s most memorable runnings, and was third in the Belmont. So Toffan-McCaffery, with one second and five thirds in six Triple Crown starts, have earned $535,086 without winning a race. A flat $2 across-the-board bet on their two horses in the six races would have netted a profit of $14.50.

“It doesn’t matter what the [workout] time is,” Toffan said as he headed for the barn. “It’s the way he comes out of it. But he sure looked good doing it.”

Back at Barn 25, off the horse, McCarron rolled back his left sleeve and read his stopwatch. It showed 1:01. Officially, Came Home’s time was 1:003/5.

“Maybe you can let me brag,” he said, smiling. “That’s just about what we were looking for.”

Then he smiled again.

“Of course I could have set it before we even went out,” he said.

Some other Derby trainers and many handicappers are sacrilegiously throwing out the Santa Anita Derby winner for this Kentucky Derby. His winning time for 11/8 miles at Santa Anita was 1:50, slowest for the race since Candy Spots in 1963, and Came Home’s final eighth of a mile didn’t break any clocks either.

“First they said he could only run a mile,” Toffan said. “Then when he won at a mile and an eighth, they said he didn’t do it fast enough.”

A fever and a minor stall injury for Came Home at Santa Anita forced Gonzalez into an irregular workout pattern. At one point, the colt went 20 days without a workout. Then he tore off a shoe two days before the Santa Anita Derby, and Gonzalez and his crew had to feverishly soak the foot in the hours before the race.

“All I know,” Toffan said of Came Home, “is that he doesn’t make many bad moves. He’s won six out of seven, and all of his wins are by daylight. We think we’ve got a good shot. Let them knock him. Maybe that’ll drive his price up.”

McCarron, 47, has ridden in the Derby 17 times, winning with Alysheba in 1987 and Go For Gin in 1994. His first mount, Cojak in 1976, was a 38-1 shot trained by the late Sonny Hine.

“That was a special year in many respects,” McCarron said. “My brother Gregg was also riding in the race, and my dad was there. I finished sixth, but I vaulted off Cojak just like Angel Cordero or Frankie Dettori might have done after they’d won a big race. I was just happy because I had ridden in my first Kentucky Derby.”

Hine, standing on the track waiting to talk to McCarron, couldn’t fathom why his jockey was so ecstatic about finishing ahead of only three horses.

“Sonny Hine, bless him,” McCarron said. “He wasn’t that happy when he saw what I did. He was disappointed because I wasn’t disappointed.”

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In other Kentucky Derby workouts Monday, there were five-furlong times of 59 seconds for Blue Burner, 1:01 for Lusty Latin, 1:012/5 for Easy Grades and 1:02 for Saarland. Trainer Steve Asmussen’s horses each worked half a mile, Private Emblem in 483/5 and Windward Passage in 484/5. At six furlongs, Medaglia d’Oro worked in 1:134/5, and Sunday Break was clocked in 1:142/5. Sunday Break, short on earnings in graded stakes, may not be able to run because of an overcrowded field.

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From Derby to Derby

Came Home will try to become the ninth Santa Anita Derby winner to win the Kentucky Derby. A look at how Santa Anita Derby winners have fared in the Kentucky Derby since 1952* (Kentucky Derby winners in bold type):

*--* 2001--Point Given 5th 2000--The Deputy 14th 1999--General Challenge 11th 1998--Indian Charlie 3rd 1997--Free House 3rd 1996--Cavonnier 2nd 1995--Larry The Legend DNR 1994--Brocco 4th 1993--Personal Hope 4th 1992--A.P. Indy DNR 1991--Dinard DNR 1990--Mister Frisky 8th 1989--Sunday Silence 1st 1988--Winning Colors 1st 1987--Temperate Sil DNR 1986--Snow Chief 11th 1985--Skywalker 6th 1984--Mighty Adversary DNR 1983--Marfa 5th 1982--Muttering 5th 1981--Splendid Spruce 7th 1980--Codex DNR 1979--Flying Paster 5th 1978--Affirmed 1st 1977--Habitony DNR 1976--An Act DNR 1975--Avatar 2nd 1974--Destroyer 6th 1973--Sham 2nd 1972--Solor Salute DNR 1971--Jim French 2nd 1970--Terlago 11th 1969--Majestic Prince 1st 1968--Alley Fighter DNR 1967--Ruken 8th 1966--Boldnesian DNR 1965--Lucky Debonair 1st 1964--Hill Rise 2nd 1963--Candy Spots 3rd 1962--Royal Attack 10th 1961--Four-And-Twenty 7th 1960--Tompion 4th 1959--Silver Spoon 5th 1958--Silky Sullivan 12th 1957--Sir William DNR 1956--Terrang 12th 1955--Swaps 1st 1954--Determine 1st 1953--Chanlea DNR 1952--Hill Gail* 1st

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Note: Six nonwinners of the Santa Anita Derby have won the Kentucky Derby--Charismatic in 1999 (finished 4th in the Santa Anita Derby); Real Quiet in 1998 (2nd); Silver Charm in 1997 (2nd), Ferdinand in 1986 (3rd), Gato Del Sol in 1982 (4th), Gallahadion in 1940 (13th).

*Hill Gail was the first Santa Anita Derby winner to win the Kentucky Derby.