For the week of April 9 - 15, 2003

Buddy Gil grabs
Santa Anita prize

Next stop, Churchill Downs

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In the final West Coast rehearsal for the May 3 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, bay gelding Buddy Gil and jockey Gary Stevens showed they were up to the task in Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Derby.

Buddy Gil, at odds of 6-1, came from the middle of the nine-horse field to beat 35-to-1 shot Indian Express by a head in 1:49.36. It was the second-smallest margin of victory in the Derby’s 66-year history.

Buddy Gil paid $14.60, $5.80 and $3.80.

Afterwards, trainer Jeff Mullins, who started his career at Les Bois track in Boise, said Buddy Gil will run in the Kentucky Derby and seek to become the first three-year-old since Sunday Silence in 1989 to win at Santa Anita and Churchill Downs.

The victory at 1 1/8 miles was worth $450,000 to Buddy Gil’s owners and increased the Desperado Stables’ colt’s earnings to $730,000, having won five of nine career starts.

Don McFadden of Billingsley Creek Ranch in Hagerman, who is the father of Kristi Barsotti of Ketchum, is one of five owners of Buddy Gil.

Caldwell-born jockey Stevens rode a record ninth Santa Anita Derby winner in 19 starts, breaking a tie with Hall of Fame jockey Bill Shoemaker. Stevens will now aim for his fourth Kentucky Derby win.

Buddy Gil, seeking to become the first gelding to win the Derby since 1929, will be sidelined for two weeks after bleeding from his nose at Santa Anita. Stevens said the horse took a lot of dirt in the face and had trouble breathing in the last quarter-mile.

 

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