Horse Racing at Santa Anita : Fast Account Could Make Patty Johnson a Winner

Patty Johnson trains only five horses and hasn’t won a race at Santa Anita all season. Yet, in Fast Account she has a 3-year-old colt with a legitimate chance to win Sunday’s $125,000 San Felipe Handicap.

The San Felipe is a prelude to the Santa Anita Derby April 6 and the second of seven major races that will be run around the country leading up to the Kentucky Derby May 4. The first big race, the Florida Derby, was won by Proud Truth at Gulfstream Park March 2.

Proud Truth and Chief’s Crown, 1984’s 2-year-old champion, get most of the votes as the best Kentucky Derby candidates training in the East, but the 3-year-old picture in California is as fragmented as a badly cracked mirror.

Tank’s Prospect, who finished a close second to Chief’s Crown in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Stakes last November at Hollywood Park, isn’t starting in the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe, and horseplayers will find it difficult to establish a clear-cut favorite in the nine-horse field.

The San Felipe runners who were entered Friday start with Image of Greatness and jockey Laffit Pincay on the rail. Outside them, in order, are Pretensor, with Sandy Hawley; Floating Reserve, Eddie Maple; Stan’s Bower, Pat Valenzuela; Skywalker, Pat Day; Smarten Up, Rafael Meza; The Rogers Four, Chris McCarron; Nostalgia’s Star, Eddie Delahoussaye; and Fast Account, Gary Stevens. With Tank’s Prospect, who was top-weighted at 122 pounds, not running, the high weights at 120 each are Image of Greatness, Floating Reserve, Skywalker and Smarten Up.

“I’m hoping my horse will improve,” Johnson said of Fast Account, who finished second, 1 lengths behind 60-1 Smarten Up, in the San Rafael Stakes Feb. 23.

Stevens told Johnson that Fast Account might have won the race.

Johnson said: “On the turn, he had nowhere to go, and Gary had to check. Then he also got bumped coming down the lane. That race and the stake he won at Hollywood Park have been his best efforts. In the San Rafael, he was dead tired but still kept trying.”

Because of a virus, Fast Account hadn’t run in two months when he started in the San Rafael. His previous appearance was the win in the Kennedy Road Stakes at Hollywood.

“That stake was the day before Christmas and made a nice present,” Johnson said. “It was my first stake win.”

Johnson, 34, is one of 19 women training horses at Santa Anita, which has about 10% of the total. A woman didn’t win a stakes race at the track until 1971 when Hazel Longden, wife of the Hall of Fame jockey, took the San Vicente with Diplomatic Agent.

“There are so many women working at the racetrack that we’re pretty much accepted now,” Johnson said. “It’s tough for a good man or woman just starting out to get a good horse. But when you do, then other owners start to notice you.”

Johnson, who was born in Pasadena, has had a trainer’s license for eight years, but until recently she worked mainly as an assistant to Willard Proctor.

Asked about Johnson, Proctor said: “Her staying with me for 12 years should answer the question. She knows what she’s doing. The fact that that I put her on Convenience (the stakes-winning filly of the early 1970s) right away in the mornings should tell what I thought of her horsemanship.”

One of Proctor’s owners is William R. Hawn, the Dallas real-estate developer who bred and owns Fast Account. “Mr. Hawn has a lot of horses,” Johnson said. “He has 20-some maidens a year, so he has to spread them around to several trainers. I was just lucky to get this one.”

After high school, Johnson enrolled at Cal Poly Pomona to study animal husbandry. Because a classmate was a hot-walker and the classmate’s boyfriend was an exercise rider, Johnson left school to go to work for Proctor.

At the same time, Jim Johnson, Patty’s father, got into the horse business. Jim Johnson’s top horses included I’m Really Smokin, Comtal and Neurologo. Comtal and Neurologo finished second in consecutive years in the Hollywood Gold Cup.

In nine starts, Fast Account has two wins, four seconds and a third. He didn’t win his first race until his seventh start, early last December, but he’s followed that with the win in the Kennedy Road and the close second to Smarten Up in the San Rafael.

A good race Sunday, in his first start beyond a mile, would earn Fast Account a spot in the Santa Anita Derby, and then perhaps there will be a trip to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby.

Without winning, women have already saddled Kentucky Derby starters, Dianne Carpenter finishing 12th just last year with Biloxi Indian. Patty Johnson has never been to the Derby. Going there with a horse is the best way to get a good seat.

Horse Racing Notes In today’s $100,000 Santa Ana Handicap, Life’s Magic is scheduled to make her first start on grass. . . . Eight 3-year-olds are entered in today’s Everglades Stakes at Hialeah, including Irish Sur, winner of the Tropical Park Derby and second to Proud Truth in the Florida Derby. . . . Round Table finished first in Santa Anita’s poll of media representatives and horsemen to determine the best horses that have run at the track since it opened 50 years ago. In order behind Round Table came Swaps, Seabiscuit, John Henry, Spectacular Bid, Affirmed, Noor, Cougar II, Silver Spoon and Ack Ack. . . . Hollywood Park, which will open April 24, announced a 38-race, $4.3-million stakes schedule. There’s a $1-million bonus for any horse sweeping the Californian June 9, the Hollywood Gold Cup June 23 and the Sunset July 22, which is closing day. The Gold Cup, at $500,000, is the richest race on the schedule.