Personal Hope Rallies to Win : Horse racing: After briefly losing the lead to Eliza, he holds off Union City for the victory.

Gary Stevens was not where he wanted to be, but he was astride a horse who didn’t seem to care.

Forced to take the tiring path near the rail, favored Personal Hope shook off a stubborn filly, Eliza, and outfinished Union City by three-quarters of a length to win the $500,000 Santa Anita Derby on Saturday.

It was Stevens’ third victory in the stake, all in the last six years.

Smaller than most males, not bred for distance and coming off a tough race against fillies, Eliza was a half-length in front at the quarter pole. Personal Hope regained the lead with a little less than an eighth of a mile to go, and won, despite Union City’s late run. Union City finished a neck in front of Eliza. It was another 1 1/2 lengths back to Devoted Brass in fourth place, and Only Alpha, Earl Of Barking and Gavel Gate completed the order of finish.

The trainers of Personal Hope and Union City said that their horses would head for the Kentucky Derby on May 1, with no additional prep races. Allen Paulson, who owns Eliza, said that she would run in the Kentucky Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at Churchill Downs on April 30.

Even though Paulson’s standout colt, Corby, was sent to Keeneland to run in the Blue Grass Stakes next Saturday, there were enough serious challengers to Personal Hope, who lost by 2 3/4 lengths to Corby in the San Felipe three weeks ago.

Eliza, trying to become only the fourth filly to win the Santa Anita Derby, was sent up to test Personal Hope before Stevens said he thought she would, and Pat Valenzuela, the filly’s jockey, also angled her to the inside at the half-mile pole, leaving Personal Hope stuck on the fence.

“It was good race-riding on Pat’s part,” Stevens said. “I didn’t want to get in a bumping situation, so I moved my horse over. I wasn’t comfortable doing that, but I had no other choice. My horse ran all out on the deep part of the track for the last three-eighths of a mile, which shows the kind of a colt he is.”

Personal Hope was bought at a Saratoga yearling auction for $75,000 by Wayne Lukas, who trains Union City. Lee Lewis of Lubbock, Tex., whose father had raced quarter horses with Lukas, called Lukas and bought Personal Hope shortly thereafter.

“Wayne has one of the best eyes for horses,” Lewis said. “And when I saw that he bought only two horses at the sale, I wanted one of them. I also liked the breeding (Storm Bird out of All The Years, an Alydar mare).”

After one race, a last-place finish against maidens at Belmont Park last June, and after a layoff because of sore shins, Personal Hope was turned over to Mark Hennig, who was developing his own stable after spending five years as a Lukas assistant.

Lewis, and his wife, Debi, and Hennig find questions about the Lukas connection awkward. Lukas said Saturday: “I saw Mark before the race and told him that if Union City didn’t win the race, I hoped he would.”

Hennig, who will turn 28 next Saturday, has been described by one client as “in his late 20s, but going on 50.” The son of a trainer, he saddled Personal Hope for the first time at Hollywood Park in December for a 3 1/2-length victory. That was followed by two consecutive victories at Santa Anita this winter, then the second-place effort against Corby.

Before the San Felipe, Hennig gave Personal Hope only two light workouts. “We didn’t want him peaking too soon,” the trainer said.

Five days before the Santa Anita Derby, Personal Hope startled clockers at Hollywood Park, where Hennig stables his horses, with a very fast 57 2/5-second workout for five furlongs.

Neither Hennig nor Stevens believed the workout was too fast. “For one thing, he usually has a 150-pound exercise rider on him,” Stevens said. “With me, he was getting only 114 pounds. The important thing was that he finished strong and got something out of the work.”

Hennig said the workout played an important part in Saturday’s stretch run. “That 57 2/5 helped him in the last sixteenth of a mile,” he said.

For his fourth victory in six starts, Personal Hope earned $275,000 and paid $5. His time for the 1 1/8 miles was 1:49, only a fifth of a second slower than A.P. Indy’s time a year ago, but the final eighth of a mile was run in a slow 13 3/5 seconds.

Personal Hope carried 122 pounds, the same as the other starters, except the 117 for Eliza, and four pounds less than what he will carry in the Kentucky Derby.

“The final time looks all right to me,” Lee Lewis said. “I don’t care what they ran the last eighth of a mile in. That 1:10 1/5 looks pretty good for the first six furlongs, too.”

Both A.P. Indy and Dinard, winners of the Santa Anita Derby the last two years, would have been favored to win the Kentucky Derby had they not been injured before the race.

This year’s favorite might come out of the Blue Grass, a field that includes Corby and the undefeated Louisiana Derby winner, Dixieland Heat.

Union City, winner of two of nine starts and winless in two stakes, was listless in the post parade, concerning jockey Chris McCarron.

“I didn’t remember him acting so quiet before,” McCarron said. “Then when I got up to the gate, I chirped to him and tapped him on the shoulder. Boy, he jumped up on his toes and got with it right away.

“When the two leaders got even, that automatically made them quicken. So I started riding my horse, and I couldn’t quite get to the winner. I thought I had a great shot at the eighth pole, but I just couldn’t get to him.”

* NOT SO GRAND

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