The Long & Winding Road to the Roses

It's a long and winding road to Churchill Downs and the first Saturday in May, but the Thoroughbred set is atwitter about Breeders' Cup Juvenile champion Stevie Wonderboy, who is slated to make his 3-year-old debut Saturday in the $150,000 San Rafael Stakes at Santa Anita. No Juvenile champion has ever gone on to capture the Kentucky Derby. The thoroughfare to Louisville is as wrought with hazards as a championship golf course, from ill-timed injuries to missteps on the track. Some folks forget the fact that fillies and colts go through a great many major physical changes between their two and three-year-old seasons; it's simply the maturation process. Many among the horsey set, however, contend Wonderboy is their best hope yet. "He's certainly one of the ones to watch," said John Avello, who oversees racing operations at Wynn Las Vegas. "Bluegrass Cat and First Samurai are two others." Wonderboy came from behind to knock off favored First Samurai in the Juvenile, one of his four triumphs in five outings. "To me it's any one of the first three Juvenile finishers: Stevie Wonderboy, First Samurai and Henny Hughes," added Gordon Jones, a former turf editor at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner who now gives racing seminars ar Sam's Town. "I haven't seen anyone out there even close. Nobody who has caught my attention, anyway." Wonderboy, who is owned by TV impressario Merv Grffin and named after his sire, Stephen Got Even as well as singer/songwriter Stevie Wonder, is considered racing royalty when it comes to bloodlines. "We've had three interesting storylines with the Triple Crown races the last three years and this could be a blockbuster fourth," Jones said. "Funny Cide was a good story, Smarty Jones was a good story and Afleet Alex was a good story. "If Stevie Wonderboy wins, the media will go nuts with all that horse's Hollywood connections." Stephen Got Even is a son of A.P. Indy and Summer Squall is his grandsire. Wonderboy banked more than $1 million in his two-year campaign and is a favorite to capture an Eclipse Award later this month. Early winter racing will be concentrated at Santa Anita in Southern California and Gulfstream Park in Florida, with other tracks gradually moving into the picture. "All roads to Churchill will go through Oaklawn Park this year," Jones forecast. "With Hurricane Katrina shutting down the Fairgrounds (in New Orleans) , Oaklawn will have better jockeys, trainers and horses than it has ever had," Jones said. The San Rafael, one of the first stepping stones to the Run for the Roses, will be contested at one mile, two furlongs shorter than the Derby distance of one and one-fourth miles.