Winner of San Vicente Will Be Given Chance to Go a Long Way

The Rogers Four, a 3-year-old colt named after an oil well, is a mini-gusher himself for his three owners, and the horse’s trainer, Darrell Vienna, is thinking big.

Even before The Rogers Four won his fourth straight race Saturday in the $85,400 San Vicente Stakes at Santa Anita, Vienna nominated him for the three Triple Crown races--the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

The Rogers Four has never run farther than seven furlongs, the distance for the San Vicente, and the Derby is 10 furlongs, but Vienna has a good horse on his hands and just wants to play it safe.

“In the beginning, I thought three-quarters of a mile (six furlongs) was his best distance,” Vienna said. “But he’s a developing colt, and the way he relaxes he should get more distance. I don’t have any specific plans for him, but he’s earned the chance to run over more ground.”

The Rogers Four won the seven-furlong San Vicente by 1 1/2 lengths over Teddy Naturally, who set the pace until Vienna’s horse made his winning move at the eighth pole.

Timed in 1:22 4/5 over a drying-out track that was listed as fast by Santa Anita and good by the Daily Racing Form, The Rogers Four paid $4.60, $2.60 and $2.10. Teddy Naturally, a slight favorite in the field of five among the crowd of 36,317, returned $2.60 and $2.10. Teddy Naturally’s margin for second was 2 3/4 lengths over Michadilla, who paid $2.10 for finishing third. An early $100,000 bet to show on The Rogers Four assured $2.10 show prices as long as the winner finished in the money.

The win was worth $49,400 to owners Robert Franklin of Dallas, Lonnie Stein of Brentwood and Evelyn Stein, Lonnie’s mother, who lives in Palm Springs. Lonnie Stein and Franklin once had a West Texas oil well, called the Rogers lease, that made more than $15,000 a day and was sold last year for $14 million.

Chris McCarron rode The Rogers Four for his ninth stakes win of the season. It was also an early milestone for McCarron as he became the first jockey in the country to go over $1 million in purses this year. Last year, McCarron set a record with a $12-million purse total.

“That was fast,” McCarron said when told about this year’s million. Many of the top jockeys don’t start paying close attention to their totals until the money title goes on the line late in the year.

“This is a very cooperative horse,” McCarron says of The Rogers Four, whose only loss was a third-place finish in the first start of his career last June at Hollywood Park. “He has natural speed, but he’ll also let you set up just off the leaders if you want.”

McCarron said that once he drew alongside Teddy Naturally in the stretch, “I knew I had him. I got in the same position with Teddy in the previous race (the San Miguel Stakes), but it was with a different horse, Image of Greatness, and Teddy finished strongly that day.”

Teddy Naturally’s rider, Jorge Estrada, said his horse “might have been a little touchy.” When Teddy Naturally won the San Miguel, trainer Ted West said that the gelding wasn’t 100% because of shin problems.

Vienna has a chance for back-to-back stakes wins today when he saddles Squan Song, one of five starters in the $150,000 La Canada Stakes. He’s replacing Carlos Garcia, who brought the 4-year-old filly here from the East for a couple of races.

Horse Racing Notes

John Henry’s second Horse of the Year title, which was announced Friday night at the Century Plaza Hotel, was closer than the 98-81 plurality that he held over runner-up Slew o’ Gold. The title is usually determined by the horse that gets the support of two or all three of the three voting groups--the turf writers, race-track secretaries and the Daily Racing Form. The turf writers favored Slew o’ Gold, 47-46, and the Form gave the edge to John Henry, 42-24. But the racing secretaries gave 10 votes to each horse. Had just one more of them voted for Slew o’ Gold, John Henry would have lost the title even though he polled the most votes. . . . Surprisingly, five other horses received votes--Princess Rooney getting 11 and Sabin, Interco, Chief’s Crown and the steeplechase champion Flatterer getting one each. Sabin and Interco didn’t even win divisional championships. . . . “The only talent I had in getting John Henry,” says Sam Rubin, the owner of the horse, “was having the $27,500 to buy him seven years ago.” John Henry’s price was $25,000, and the bloodstock agent received a $2,500 commission. . . . Trainer Ron McAnally says John Henry will resume training in March. . . . Owner Robert Sangster says that Royal Heroine, last year’s female grass champion, will run again this year rather than being bred. . . . Trainer Jerry Fanning’s bad luck continued last week when Overtrump, a promising 3-year-old, broke down during a workout and had to be destroyed. Overtrump won two grass stakes in November at Hollywood Park. Fanning has also lost Vagabond Gal, Office Seeker and Milord in the last seven months.