Buddy Gil Makes Name for Himself

The real Buddy Gil -- Tom Gilmer -- was in New Orleans on Saturday, watching college basketball, while his namesake was winning the Santa Anita Derby and punching his ticket for some other Derby that’s being run in Kentucky in four weeks.

“We found out we can exist without him,” said Donnie McFadden, the breeder and 20% owner of Buddy Gil, who named the 3-year-old gelding after Gilmer, his old classmate from their days at the University of Redlands. Turns out Gilmer also won’t make the Kentucky Derby on May 3 -- his daughter is getting married that day -- but that’s all right with Buddy Gil’s five-man ownership group. If Buddy Gil wins at Churchill Downs, Gilmer may be banned forever from watching the horse run.

The 66th Santa Anita Derby, worth $750,000, provided one of the race’s closest finishes, and at the end of 1 1/8 miles Buddy Gil was only a head better than the flinty Indian Express, who at 35-1 was considered the least likely of trainer Bob Baffert’s three contenders. Another Baffert horse, Kafwain, finished third, 2 1/4 lengths behind Indian Express. Between Kafwain and Baffert’s Domestic Dispute was Atswhatimtalknbout, the 3-2 favorite whose fourth-place run was without excuses and left trainer Ron Ellis with the thought that the Kentucky Derby might be another day.

Sharing top billing with Buddy Gil was his 40-year-old jockey cum actor, Gary Stevens, who after playing the immortal George Woolf in the upcoming “Seabiscuit” movie has returned to his day job with all of his old gusto, and arthritic knees that are better for the riding layoff. Stevens, who has won the Santa Anita Derby with almost every quadruped but a mule -- geldings, colts and even the filly Winning Colors -- racked up his ninth victory in the stake, passing Bill Shoemaker, who had been the co-record holder. Stevens’ nine wins have come in the last 16 years, a remarkable feat.

“This win is very special because of the horse’s connections,” Stevens said. “[Trainer] Jeff Mullins and Donnie McFadden are guys I’ve known for years. To get a shot at the Kentucky Derby for them, it seems like destiny.”

Although Buddy Gil had beaten Atswhatimtalknbout by a nose three weeks ago, and was the 5-2 second choice on the morning line, he went off the fourth choice and paid $14.60. One of the horses Buddy Gil didn’t have to worry about was Ministers Wild Cat, who was scratched because of a bruised right hind foot. Buddy Gil, whose time was 1:49 1/5, has won five of nine starts and is undefeated in three tries since his owners moved him to Mullins’ barn from Chuck Jenda in Northern California.

When both were 17, Mullins won his first race with a horse ridden by Stevens at obscure Les Bois Park in Boise, Idaho. Stevens found out just Friday that years ago he had also ridden Forever Rise, Buddy Gil’s great-granddam, to an 11-length win at Les Bois.

Mullins, a nomadic horseman whose stops included such outposts as Wyoming Downs, Beulah Park, Rillito Park, SunRay Park and Turf Paradise before he landed in Southern California in 2001, finished 15th in last year’s Kentucky Derby with Lusty Latin. In four weeks, Mullins gets another chance and will try to give the Derby its first gelding winner since Clyde Van Dusen in 1929.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Mullins said after Saturday’s race. “I would have liked to have gotten two workouts into him before this race, but it didn’t work out that way. He came up lame one of the days he was supposed to work, with a foot bruise, but we worked on it and worked on it so that he could train again.”

The pacesetters were Ocean Terrace, who would finish last while bleeding from the lungs, and Indian Express and Domestic Dispute. Buddy Gil was sixth, five lengths from the lead, after the first half-mile. Indian Express, ridden by Tyler Baze, overtook Ocean Terrace on the far turn, but Buddy Gil, closing from the outside, went half a length in front with an eighth of a mile to go. Indian Express wasn’t finished, however, and came back to almost win in a gallant effort. The Panamanian import was making only his second start in the U.S. and fourth overall.

“He just got a little tired,” Baze said. “It was his first time trying two turns.... He’s going to be fitter for the next one.”

As Buddy Gil was being pulled up past the wire, Stevens could hear loud coughing from his horse.

“He took a lot of dirt in his face, and couldn’t get any air the last quarter of a mile,” said Stevens, who’s won the Kentucky Derby three times. “I don’t think [1 1/4 miles] should be a problem. This horse should fit back there.”

Atswhatimtalknbout, unraced as a 2-year-old and making his fifth start in three months this year, was beaten by almost four lengths.

“[Jockey] David Flores said he didn’t have a lot of run in him,” Ellis said. “I thought he was in a perfect spot, but at the three-eighths pole David had to start riding him, when the horse usually would have been doing it on his own. He wasn’t the same horse today.”

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Derby Delight

Gary Stevens rode his record ninth Santa Anita Derby winner Saturday. Only one (Winning Colors) went on to win the Kentucky Derby:

*--* YEAR HORSE TIME 2003 Buddy Gil 1:49 1/5 2001 Point Given 1:47 3/5 1999 General Challenge 1:48 4/5 1998 Indian Charlie 1:47 1995 Larry The Legend 1:47 4/5 1994 Brocco 1:48 1/5 1993 Personal Hope 1:49 1990 Mister Frisky 1:49 1988 Winning Colors 1:47 4/5

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Note: Bill Shoemaker rode eight Santa Anita Derby winners; Laffit Pincay Jr. has seven.