Zakaroff unlikely to set foot on Derby trail

On Saturday, locally based runners finished first, second, and third in the Grade 3, $200,000 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields, but you are unlikely to see any of them being pointed to the Kentucky Derby.

Zakaroff won the El Camino Real Derby in a $99.60 upset, with More Power to Him running third and Tribal Storm fourth. Favored Ann Arbor Eddie finished second, but was disqualified to fourth for interference, resulting in More Power to Him and Tribal Storm being placed second and third.

Trainer Steve Specht says he’ll be “taking it step by step” with Zakaroff, but concedes the Slew’s Tiznow gelding is “not in the Triple Crown picture.”

Zakaroff, a Kentucky-bred gelding, is a son of the California sire Slew’s Tiznow. So is More Power to Him.

A $25,000 Barretts yearling purchase, Zakaroff was picked out for owner Antone Metaxas by longtime Northern California trainer Greg Gilchrist.

Zakaroff has run only on Golden Gate’s Tapeta surface, and Specht said he’d want to test him on the dirt at Santa Anita before even thinking about sending him east for a race.

Zakaroff was the longest shot on the board in the El Camino Real. While Specht was surprised by Zakaroff’s victory and said he would have run him in a first-condition allowance race had the race gone, he didn’t think the gelding was overmatched.

Specht noted that Zakaroff finished in front of More Power to Him in a maiden race last November and was not badly beaten by him the other two times they met. He was third behind the winning More Power to Him, beaten 1 1/4 lengths, in an allowance race, and 4 1/4 lengths behind his rival in fifth in the California Derby. More Power to Him finished second in that race.

Zakaroff was stuck on the rail in the California Derby. “I thought he struggled that last sixteenth,” Specht said.

There was no struggling in the El Camino as Kyle Frey swung him out for a clear run. Though the margin of victory was only a half-length, there was no doubt from midstretch that Zakaroff would win.

Ann Arbor Eddie, coming off a victory in the California Cup Derby, took the lead in the lane of the El Camino but tired and drifted out despite right-handing whipping by Mario Gutierrez. He bothered Tribal Storm badly.

Tribal Storm ran third behind Ann Arbor Eddie in the California Cup Derby, and trainer Ed Moger Jr. noted that turf races are an option for the Papa Clem ridgling, who won on grass in his debut. Tribal Storm is eligible to compete in the Golden State Series for California-breds, which includes the $100,000 Silky Sullivan on the Golden Gate turf on April 30.

More Power to Him finished well in the El Camino and, like his other two local rivals, came out of the race in good shape.

“He’s just getting it all together,” said trainer Faith Taylor.

Taylor said that no plans have been made for More Power to Him’s next start, but that she is considering running him at Santa Anita and perhaps on on turf.

No problem for Quick and Silver

Quick and Silver went wire to wire in Monday’s Lost in the Fog Stakes, and trainer Bill Delia said the horse was already all cooled out in the receiving barn after the race, looking as if he had not even raced.

Quick and Silver, 6, has won 10 of 19 starts at Golden Gate Fields.

“He does seem to relish this track,” said Delia. “There are days when horses are on top of their game, and when he left the gate, I knew he’d be tough to beat.”

Quick and Silver has now won five of his last six starts.

Delia said he might consider a turf sprint or even stretching out Quick and Silver, who right now has to rate as Northern California’s top sprinter.