Horse Racing : Skywalker Has Been in Enough Trouble Already

The sky always seems to be falling on Skywalker, a promising 3-year-old colt who’s run only four races but has been in enough trouble to last a lifetime.

In the $250,000 El Camino Real Derby Sunday at Bay Meadows, Skywalker found a different way to lose. He finished third, but after his jockey, Pat Day, had claimed a foul against the winner, Tank’s Prospect, Skywalker was disqualified and moved to fourth.

Mike Whittingham, who trains Skywalker for the Oak Cliff Stable, was disappointed that his colt was snakebitten again but not discouraged.

“This is his third bad-luck race,” Whittingham said. “He should have won the race, but it wasn’t his fault. There’s a long year ahead of us, and the farther he’s asked to run, the better he should be.”

In the 1 1/16-mile El Camino Real, Skywalker was leaning back when the gate opened, and he broke in the air and was bumped by another horse. Heading for home, Skywalker was trapped behind a wall of horses--Dan’s Diablo, Tank’s Prospect and Right Con.

Day thought he saw a hole between Right Con and Tank’s Prospect, but it closed and Skywalker might have brushed Right Con. Day took another shot at a hole between Tank’s Prospect and Dan’s Diablo, who was on the rail, but that opening also vanished and Skywalker bumped Dan’s Diablo. Dan’s Diablo, who finished fourth and was moved up to third by the stewards, suffered a broken knee and probably will be retired to stud.

Tank’s Prospector finished half a length ahead of Right Con. Whittingham and others thought that Tank’s Prospect had lugged in, but Wayne Lukas, who trains the winner for Gene Klein, disagreed. “My horse ran as straight as a die,” Lukas said. “There was no way in the world that Right Con or my horse could have caused any interference.”

Although it was only the first stakes win for Tank’s Prospect, the $137,500 El Camino purse brought the Mr. Prospector colt’s career earnings to $569,295. Tank’s Prospect earned $225,000 just for finishing second to Chief’s Crown, the 2-year-old champion, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Stakes at Hollywood Park.

Trainer John Fulton shrugged off losing Image of Greatness, the 3-year-old son of Secretariat who was moved by owner-breeder George Steinbrenner to Wayne Lukas’ barn last week.

“It’s no big deal. These things happen in this business,” said Fulton, who trained Steinbrenner’s Steve’s Friend when he won the Hollywood Derby in 1977.

After breaking his maiden with a sensational 1:08 2/5 for six furlongs at Santa Anita in October, Image of Greatness missed the Breeders’ Cup because of a sore throat.

After that, he ran into Stephan’s Odyssey twice, losing by a nose in an allowance and finishing a distant sixth in the Hollywood Futurity. In Image of Greatness’ last start for Fulton, he finished second behind the speedy Teddy Naturally in the San Miguel Stakes Jan. 23.

“I understand that Spendthrift Farm has a long-range interest in the horse (as a stallion), and they wanted Lukas to train him,” Fulton said.

Leslie Combs, the founder of Spendthrift, is a longtime friend of Steinbrenner and wears rings from two World Series that Steinbrenner’s New York Yankees have won. Lukas trained Lucky Lucky Lucky, the multiple stakes winner, for Spendthrift and it was through Combs and his son, Brownell, that Lukas met Steinbrenner.

Lukas said that he expects to train some of Steinbrenner’s other horses.

Although Image of Greatness’ worst race--the Hollywood Futurity--was his only start beyond a mile, Fulton said: “I still think he’s capable of going farther.”

Lukas agreed. “He looks like he could run two miles,” he said.

Larry Gilligan has ridden at a lot of race tracks since his first race at Caliente in 1954, but he’d like to spend next year riding at all of them.

“The big five-oh isn’t too far off,” the 47-year-old Gilligan said. “This would be a good way to go out as a rider. I like to travel and, if this happens, I could see the United States and also do something nobody else has ever done.”

By Gilligan’s count, there are 106 race tracks to be covered on his proposed tour. “And by the time I get started, there may be more, because there’s a new track in Minnesota and several other states might have racing by then,” he said.

Because of arthritis in his knees and hands, Gilligan virtually retired in 1978.

Gilligan rode such standouts as Crimson Satan, the 2-year-old champion in 1961, and Fiddle Isle, and much of his stakes success came with horses whose names had one syllable. He won the United Nations Handicap with Oink at Atlantic City, a division of the Hollywood Juvenile Championship with Neke, and the Will Rogers Handicap at Hollywood with Lime.

Gilligan also rode Social Climber to victory in Santa Anita’s San Felipe Handicap in ’56.

Gilligan worked as a jockey valet, rode in 189 races as recently as ’83 and continues to exercise horses for Charlie Whittingham and other trainers. While with Whittingham in Chicago for the Budweiser Million a couple of years ago, Gilligan rode a winner at Arlington Park a few days before the race.

“I never really retired, and I’ve been riding on weekends at Caliente lately to stay in shape,” Gilligan said.

He would like to find a sponsor for his U.S. tour. Finding all the tracks should be no problem, though. He and his wife, Lynne, run a travel agency in Arcadia.

Racing Notes

Eclipse Awards will be presented tonight at the Century Plaza Hotel, where 1984’s winners will be honored and the Horse of the Year announcement--Slew o’ Gold or John Henry--will be made. If there were an Eclipse statuette for comebacks, Paris Prince would be a horse well on his way to winning it. In 1983, Paris Prince won the California Derby in April and then took only one more race the rest of the year. Paris Prince started ’84 with a 13-racing losing streak before he won an allowance race at Hollywood Park in late November. Now the 5-year-old chestnut, who cost Dolly Green $285,000 as a yearling, has won four out of his last five, all on the turf, and in the fifth he got beat by the shortest of noses by Dahar in the San Gabriel Handicap. Paris Prince, whose biggest problem has been bleeding, won his second straight stake when he took the Turf Paradise Handicap in Arizona Sunday.

Banner Bob, at 2-1, won the seven-furlong Hutcheson Stakes for 3-year-olds Wednesday at Gulfstream Park. Do It Again Dan finished second, 2 1/2 lengths behind, but was disqualified and placed third for interfering with Cream Fraiche, who was moved up from third to second. Mighty Appealing, the favorite, finished far back. Banner Bob’s time was 1:21 3/5, four-fifths of a second off the track record. . . . In his first workout as a 3-year-old, Chief’s Crown was timed in a quick :35 3/5 Saturday at Gulfstream. But the colt slowed down to :50 for a half-mile Wednesday and still isn’t expected to run in the Florida Derby March 2.

Joe Namath is being paid $50,000 to serve as the commercial spokesman for Gulfstream. . . . Angel Cordero, who suffered a broken hand in a spill at Aqueduct Jan. 24, is expected to resume riding in mid-March. . . . Pat Day, who’ll receive an Eclipse Award as last year’s outstanding jockey tonight, won’t be able to get out of Los Angeles in time to ride on the first Saturday of the season at Oaklawn Park. . . . Heartlight No. One, the champion 3-year-old filly in 1983, will be bred to Alydar.