Weekend Racing at Del Mar : Traveling Prince Bobby B. Will Drop By to Take His Chances in Sunday’s Derby

DEL MAR — If Prince Bobby B. steals away with Sunday’s $125,000 Del Mar Derby, people might start calling the 3-year-old colt the Commuter Bandit.

Prince Bobby B. may have already earned that moniker, since he opened the Del Mar season July 23 with a wire-to-wire win in the Oceanside Stakes after being shipped here from Hollywood Park the night before.

David Bernstein, who both owns and trains Prince Bobby B., keeps the horse at Hollywood, about 100 miles away, even though Bernstein has a 10-horse string at Del Mar.

“This colt bruised his feet when he ran a race at Churchill Downs in June,” Bernstein said. “With no racing on the turf at Hollywood Park now, it’s easier on him training up there.”

Not only that, Prince Bobby B. is in the hands of Sam Copeland, Bernstein’s assistant, who supervises 15 other horses for the head trainer at Hollywood.

“Sam deserves a lot of credit for the development of this horse,” Bernstein said. “He’s awfully headstrong and hard to handle, and Sam has had much to do with keeping him calmed down.”

When Prince Bobby B. arrives tonight for the 42nd running of the Del Mar Derby, his eight opponents in the 1 1/8-mile grass stake will be waiting for him.

The field, which was drawn Friday, shapes up like this, starting with the No. 1 post:

Full Charm, with Fernando Toro riding, carrying 112 pounds; Air Display, Pat Valenzuela, 115; Mazaad, Bill Shoemaker, 119; Bright Tom, Gary Stevens, 113; Tripoli Shores, Laffit Pincay, 116; Kimridge Road, Darrel McHargue, 113; Prince Bobby B., Frank Olivares, 119; Vernon Castle, Eddie Delahoussaye, 123, and Caro’s Hollywood, Corey Black, 113. Tripoli Shores and Air Display will run as an entry for betting purposes.

Not only is Vernon Castle the high weight, but he also will go off as the favorite. Both Vernon Castle and Prince Bobby B. are stakes winners at the meeting, but Vernon Castle’s victory came in the La Jolla Mile Handicap, a more important race than the Oceanside. In fact, four of Sunday’s starters--Tripoli Shores, Mazaad, Kimridge Road and Full Charm--also ran in the La Jolla, finishing between 2 and 11 lengths behind Vernon Castle.

Vernon Castle also owns a victory over Prince Bobby B., having won the California Derby at Golden Gate Fields in April when Bernstein’s colt finished third, four lengths back. But that race was on dirt, and both colts have shown since then that grass is their better surface.

“The turning point for my horse was when he worked well on grass just before the Cinema Handicap,” trainer John Sullivan said of Vernon Castle. “Then he went out and gave us a good race as well.”

The Cinema, run at Hollywood June 7, was Vernon Castle’s first grass start, and the son of Seattle Slew finished second, 2 1/2 lengths behind Manila.

Last Saturday, Manila was a convincing winner of the United Nations Handicap at Atlantic City, N.J., and he could be the best horse in a rather ordinary crop of grass runners in the East this season.

Bernstein didn’t bring Prince Bobby B. back to run against Vernon Castle in the La Jolla because it would have been the colt’s third race in less than a month. Prince Bobby B. is undefeated in his only two turf starts, having also won the Charles Whittingham Stakes coming down Santa Anita’s hill in March.

Sunday, Prince Bobby B. will be trying to win at a distance longer than a mile for the first time in his career, but stamina is not one of Bernstein’s doubts. “In the Oceanside (which was a mile), he was as strong at the end as he was at the beginning,” the trainer said. “He really exploded in that last eighth of a mile.”

Prince Bobby B. won the Oceanside by 4 1/2 lengths, with Full Charm finishing second. Quite obviously, the Commuter Bandit didn’t leave his race on the highway, between Hollywood Park and Del Mar.

Horse Racing Notes

Chris McCarron and Bill Shoemaker are at Monmouth Park today, McCarron riding Precisionist and Shoemaker aboard Roo Art in the Iselin Handicap. Roo Art is trained by Wayne Lukas, who is also sending out Lady’s Secret against males for the second time this month. Lady’s Secret won the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga in her last start. “We think she can be Horse of the Year,” Lukas said, “and running her and winning with her in these kinds of races is the way to get the voters’ attention.” . . . Horsemen here were surprised not so much that Persevered won Wednesday’s Sanford Stakes at Saratoga, but that the 2-year-old son of Affirmed galloped home by 10 lengths. Persevered ran sixth in the Hollywood Juvenile Championship, although his trainer, Laz Barrera, said he was victimized by a bad start. . . . Mel Stute, trainer of Prince Sassafras, who was fourth in the Juvenile, is thinking about sending him to Chicago for the $500,000-plus Arlington-Washington Futurity Sept. 1. Captain Valid, winner of the Juvenile, is scheduled to run in the rich Arlington Park race. . . . Prince Spellbound, who spent two seasons at stud, is back in training and the 7-year-old may run before the Del Mar season ends. Prince Spellbound won the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar in 1983. . . . Trainer John Sullivan says the most promising 2-year-old colt he has seen in California this year is the Charlie Whittingham-trained Temperate Sil, who broke his maiden by 2 1/2 lengths Aug. 3. Temperate Sil, a son of 1980 Belmont Stakes winner Temperence Hill, has been favorably compared by Whittingham to Ferdinand, this year’s Kentucky Derby winner, when he was a 2-year-old.