Horse Racing : Fanning Hopes to Get Out From Under Cloud

Enough has already happened this year to remind Jerry Fanning of last year, when the veteran trainer lost one promising 3-year-old after another.

Officially, 1984 ended Dec. 31, but Fanning is wondering whether the new calendar on his office wall will protect him.

The first reprise of ’84 came Jan. 5, three hours before the San Gabriel Handicap at Santa Anita. Milord, a stakes-winning 4-year-old colt given a good chance to win the grass race, suffered a heart attack and died.

Shades of ‘84, when Fanning’s barn lost Vagabond Gal and Office Seeker. Vagabond Gal was beaten by only a nose by Althea, eventual winner of the Arkansas Derby. Vagabond Gal then beat Life’s Magic, recently voted the champion of the 3-year-old filly division.

But after Vagabond Gal won the Honeymoon Handicap at Hollywood Park in late May, she had a bad reaction to a penicillin treatment, and died.

The dark cloud followed Fanning to Louisiana Downs in September, when Office Seeker, the winner of the Longacres Derby, broke down at the top of the stretch and was destroyed on the track.

“Office Seeker was a sound horse,” Fanning said, “but he just took a wrong step. I guess I was highest on Vagabond Gal, but all three of them were young horses and could have gotten better. Milord, he was just getting used to running in better company. We were treating him with Lasix (a diuretic given to bleeders), and as soon as they pulled the needle out, he fell over.”

Despite these disappointments, Fanning saddled 82 winners, and his horses earned $2.7 million, a total that ranked the trainer 10th nationally. Desert Wine, who accounted for one-third of Fanning’s purses, winning the Strub Stakes at Santa Anita and the Californian and the Hollywood Gold Cup at Hollywood Park, has been retired to stud.

Artichoke, another 3-year-old, was lost for half the year, but he has recovered from a hip injury, and Fanning is starting him today in the $100,000 San Pasqual Handicap at Santa Anita.

At the end of 1983, Artichoke was still considered to be a promising Triple Crown candidate, despite his next-to-last finish in the Hollywood Futurity.

“He hurt himself in his stall just before the race,” Fanning said. “By the time we got him to Kentucky last spring, he hadn’t gotten that much better, and we shouldn’t have run him in the Blue Grass. But the pressure to run in the classics is great, and there was always the hope that he’d improve.”

Artichoke, who was bred and is owned by Tom Gentry of Lexington, Ky., won a small stake at Santa Anita in his first start as a 3-year-old. But that was the last time he hit the board, and in the Blue Grass at Keeneland, he ran sixth.

He was sent to Gentry’s farm and didn’t return to action until last October.

After a couple of seconds, he won an allowance race at Santa Anita Jan. 12, covering seven furlongs in the excellent time of 1:21 1/5. That was his first win since February of ’84.

“He just missed being a good horse,” Fanning said. “He’s still got something to prove.”

Horse Racing Notes

The San Pasqual marks the debut of Hail Bold King, who cost his owner, Robert Brennan, $3.2 million when he bought him out of the C.V. Whitney dispersal sale. Slow to develop and bothered by minor problems, Hail Bold King missed the Triple Crown races last year but then won four of seven starts, including the Pegasus Handicap at the Meadowlands. He was no match, however, for either Carr de Naskra in the Travers at Saratoga or Slew o’ Gold in the major fall races at Belmont Park. . . . Dahar, who beat Paris Prince by the shortest of noses in the San Gabriel Handicap, will meet his close rival again Sunday in the $100,000 San Marcos Handicap. Since the San Gabriel, the busy Paris Prince went up to Bay Meadows and won the Super Bowl Handicap. The field in the San Marcos also includes top-weighted Alphabatim, winner of the Hollywood Turf Cup, and Executive Pride, Dr. Daly, Rake, Jam Shot, Scruples and Strong Dollar. Jorge Velasquez, who attended the funeral of Laffit Pincay’s wife, Linda, Thursday, will ride Executive Pride. . . . Pincay may resume riding next Thursday.