Phantom On Tour's dosage index no illusion

 LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Lynn Whiting, the trainer of Phantom On Tour, is a believer and that puts him in a hole.
 The issue is dosage index, a number based on a four-generation pedigree study of a thoroughbred. There are points for stamina and speed.
 Many scoff, but serious Kentucky Derby handicappers start asking about dosage in January.
 "It's not smoke and mirrors," said Ed Fountaine, who writes about bloodlines for the Daily Racing Form. "Anybody with half a brain would realize that."
 At 5.67, Phantom On Tour's dosage is the highest in field for Saturday's Derby.
 "I tried to run it through the washing machine a couple of times but nothing happened," Whiting said.
 An analysis of the Derby winners began in the early 1980s. After the computations were complete, the study showed that every Derby winner since 1929 had a dosage index of 4.00 or less.
 That held up until 1991 when Strike The Gold, with a dosage index of 9.00, won the Run for the Roses. His sire, Alydar, was later elevated to deserved chef-de-race status. That changed Strike The Gold's dosage index to 2.60 and prompted some to poke fun at the believers.
 "Ths thing has stood a pretty long test of time," Whiting said Wednesday. "It's got a remarkable record, really, as far as forecasting Derby winners."
 In January, when it looked as if Phantom On Tour might be Whiting's best chance to repeat his Derby victory of 1992, the dosage question came up.
 "Of course, I would prefer it to be a little lower but you've got to work with what you've got," he said.
 There was plenty of buzz around Whiting's barn Wednesday after he canceled a work for Phantom On Tour. Later, he said blood tests were OK and the colt would be entered.
 "If it goes smooth, it takes all the fun out of it," he said. "It's just a hoax. We're trying to keep everything like it was with Lil E. Tee."
 Lil E. Tee developed a sore muscle in his neck after taking an injection a couple of days before the race, but recovered and won the race.
 Pushing back Phantom On Tour's work one day is no big deal, Whiting said.
 "There's a little more room in the training of these horses than probably a lot of people would like to confess to," he said. "The one thing you can't survive is if the horse is doing too much. It's like cooking a steak -- if you burn it, it's over. You've got two choices, the dog or the trash can. As long as you don't overdo the horse, you've still got a chance."
 Phantom On Tour is coming off a second-place finish in the Arkansas Derby and Whiting says he should have won.
 A jockey switch from Larry Melancon to Jerry Bailey should help, but Whiting said he and Melancon might have taken the wrong approach with the colt.
 When Deputy Commander was wide down the backstretch in the Arkansas Derby, Phantom On Tour went hrough a gaping hole and pulled Melancon to the lead. He was more than three lengths in front early in the stretch, but Crypto Star ran him down in deep stretch.
 "With better management, I think this horse would have won rather convincingly and he'd be coming in here 6-1," Whiting said.
 As it is, he will be one of the longshots.