Stress Fracture in Foreleg Sidelines Skywalker

Mike Whittingham was being called a genius in the days leading up to this year’s Kentucky Derby.

Whittingham had brought Skywalker, the winner of the Santa Anita Derby, to Churchill Downs April 11, more than three weeks before the Kentucky Derby. Skywalker began training smartly, and some of his workouts were faster than horses were running races.

People were saying that the first Derby starter on the grounds might also be first to the finish line, a la the method trainer Dave Cross used with Sunny’s Halo in 1983.

“As it turned out, I would have been just as well off staying in California, hitting the horse every day in the leg with a hammer,” Whittingham said Friday morning in the clockers’ stand at Hollywood Park.

Skywalker not only ran sixth in the Derby, he suffered a stress fracture in his left foreleg that will sideline him for the rest of the year. Whittingham hopes to bring the colt back next year as a 4-year-old for the Strub series at Santa Anita.

Whittingham believes that Churchill Downs’ track, which got progressively harder until it was almost concrete on Derby day, took its toll on Skywalker.

“That track made Santa Anita look like a plowed field,” Whittingham said, referring to the hard surface at the Arcadia track. “Oaklawn Park was the hardest race track I saw all last year, but Churchill Downs was even harder this year.”

A horse that survived the Kentucky Derby, Tank’s Prospect, will try to improve on his seventh-place finish at Pimlico a week from today in the Preakness Stakes. Gary Stevens, who rode Tank’s Prospect to victory in the Arkansas Derby, will have the mount again.

When Stevens was told that Pimlico has sharp turns, the jockey said: “After riding in Spokane (Playfair Race Course in Washington), I’m ready for anything. They have about three spills a day there because the turns are so severe.

“There’s a restaurant at track level near the first turn, and I was sitting with my mother one day when my brother (Scott) was riding in a race. I still have the marks on my arm from mom’s fingernails digging into me when he went down in a spill.”

Although Chief’s Crown will be favored in the Preakness if he runs--with Derby winner Spend a Buck passing the race for a potential $2.6-million payday in the Jersey Derby at Garden State Park May 27--Stevens believes that a fresh horse, one that didn’t run in the Derby, might have a good chance.

“The Derby took a lot out of most of those horses,” Stevens said.

The Derby took its toll on jockeys, too. Richard Migliore has been replaced by Chris McCarron on Eternal Prince in the Preakness, and there’s a report that Don MacBeth, who has ridden Chief’s Crown in all 13 of his starts, may also get dumped. Laffit Pincay may replace MacBeth.

Adored will carry top weight of 124 pounds, but Mitterand, at 122, may be favored today in the five-horse $75,000 Hawthorne Handicap at Hollywood Park. There are two $60,000 stakes on the Sunday program, the Debonair and the Somethingroyal Handicap.

Trainer Ron McAnally said Friday that 10-year-old John Henry, the Horse of the Year in 1984, has been galloping daily and could possibly make his first ’85 start in about six weeks.

“The long-range objective is the Arlington Million (at Arlington Park Aug. 25),” McAnally said. “I’d like for John to have two races under him before he goes to Chicago, but he could still do it with just one start.”

John Henry won the Million for the second time last year.