Canani is finger lickin' good.

Byline: ART WILSON 

ARCADIA - Get ready, Louisville. If all goes well in Saturday's $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, you're about to experience the show of a lifetime.

Hang on, and enjoy the ride.

The colorful, effervescent, one-of-a-kind Julio Canani, the Peruvian who makes the late Casey Stengel seem almost colorless, will soon hit town with his own version of Stengelese.

Canani trains The Pamplemousse, the Santa Anita Derby's speedy 9-5 morning-line favorite who is on course to give him his first Kentucky Derby starter in more than 30 years in the business.

"The Kentucky Fried Chicken," Canani says with glee when discussing the most famous horse race in the country. "And I'll take some fries with that, too."

Of course, the Derby media might have a tough time determining his real age.

The Santa Anita media guide lists his birth date as Nov. 13, 1938, making him 70. After The Pamplemousse won the $200,000 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 28, a young girl in the winner's circle made reference to Canani's 71 years of age.

"No, I'm 72," he said.

Huh?

Wait, it gets better.

You're not likely to meet a more colorful guy than the man whom fellow trainer Bob Baffert nicknamed "Kramer," after the "Seinfeld" character.

"He acts just like Kramer, throwing his hands around and going crazy, that's him," Baffert said. "He's the Peruvian version of Kramer."

Ever spot him in the winner's circle with his pink shorts and lime green shirt?

Now, that's colorful.

And this version of Kramer is quick with an opinion, too.

He once offered his take when he heard Baffert was thinking of running Officer in the 2002 Kentucky Derby.

"He told me in his fanatic way, 'If you run Officer in the Derby, you better have a taxi cab waiting for him at the quarter pole to bring him in the rest of the way,"' Baffert said.

Santa Anita track announcer Trevor Denman likes to tell of the time he was watching a race with Canani in the Hollywood Park press box when Eddie Delahoussaye appeared hopelessly beaten aboard one of his horses down the backside.

"(Canani) was like, 'He'll never ride for me again. How do you get a (jockey) license in Louisiana? You must just go to the 7-Eleven,"' Denman recalled.

"Everything was Delahoussaye this, and Delahoussaye that.

"Then, when they got to the quarter pole, (Canani's) horse started to quicken and suddenly it was, 'C'mon, Eddie. C'mon, Eddie.' Well, Eddie got up and won the race and Julio went running out of the press box yelling, "Greatest jockey I've ever seen!"'

This is a man who came to the U.S. in 1963, telling embassy officials he wanted to study electronics. Since taking out his trainer's license in 1968, he has been lighting up tote boards at race tracks throughout the country.

He just does it with a little bit different English than your normal Edison guy.

"We'll start out a conversation in English and end up in Spanish, with a little bit of Russian thrown in," said jockey Alex Solis, who will ride The Pamplemousse on Saturday.

"I have to work on my Russian a little bit."

Then there was this week's media teleconference, when Canani told reporters he wasn't losing any sleep over Saturday's race.

"I mean, I work eight days a week," he said.

Huh?

But no matter how many days there are in Canani's week, or how crazy he might seem, don't be fooled by this 70, err, 72-year-old horseman. The man can flat-out train.

He has won three Breeders' Cup races. It's not his fault he just recently found the onramp for the Road to the Kentucky Derby. He has always been given a lot more turf horses than talented 3-year-olds.

"He knows horses, he knows racing and he knows if he has a chance," Baffert said. "So if he leads one up there, you better be ready for him because he's got him ready."

Ready or not, here he comes.

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