Patty Johnson: Belmont’s 2nd Woman Trainer

Trainer Patty Johnson, who has never been east of Louisville, Ky., is scheduled to arrive at Belmont Park from California this morning.

With Johnson on the plane is Fast Account, a 3-year-old colt who on Saturday will enable her to become the second woman to saddle a horse in the 116-year history of the Belmont Stakes.

The Belmont was 115 years old before the first woman, Sally Lundy, saddled a starter. Lundy’s Minstrel Star finished last in an 11-horse field last year.

Coincidentally, Patty Johnson and Sally Lundy are friends, both having worked for trainer Willard Proctor in California. Lundy came East with her husband, Dick, an assistant for Charlie Whittingham until he became the head trainer for Virginia Kraft Payson in 1982.

Luckily for Johnson, she will be staying at a motel on Long Island, not far from Belmont Park. Otherwise her introduction to New York--traumatic by itself for some visitors--might include a too-close-for-comfort look at a strike by 15,000 Manhattan hotel employees, whose picket lines have made getting to one’s room a daily adventure.

Speaking of adventures, Fast Account has had a couple of those in his last two starts. In the Kentucky Derby, William R. Hawn’s colt finished fourth despite being bumped in the stretch by Stephan’s Odyssey, who finished second to Spend a Buck.

“Tank’s Prospect hit Stephan’s Odyssey, causing him to come out into my horse,” Johnson said. “Since Tank’s Prospect started it and he finished behind us (seventh), there was no point in making a foul claim. But if Fast Account hadn’t been bothered, I think he might have finished second.”

Fast Account went home to California after the Derby, made his first start on grass in the Will Rogers Handicap at Hollywood Park May 25 and finished fifth.

“Chris (McCarron, who will ride Fast Account again in the Belmont) had to take up twice in that race,” Johnson said. “We were fourth at the three-eighths pole, but behind a wall of horses, and one of them in front of us clipped the heels of another horse. My horse didn’t really get loose until the eighth pole, and by then it was too late.”

While being competitive this year--he’s run second three times--Fast Account hasn’t won a race in six starts and is only 2 for 14 lifetime. Does he really belong in the Belmont, whose field will also include Creme Fraiche, Stephan’s Odyssey, Preakness winner Tank’s Prospect and Chief’s Crown, the beaten favorite in both the Derby and the Preakness?

“We hope we have a good chance,” Johnson said. “We wouldn’t bother to be there if we didn’t think we could win.”

The Californian, one of Hollywood Park’s major races, has been run at 1 1/16 or 1 1/8 miles through the years, but this season the distance was shortened to a mile.

The new distance and the fact that the speedy Precisionist is running have discouraged horsemen, and a field of only four is likely for the $300,000 dirt stake Sunday. If only four start, the fifth-place money, which is about $7,500, would revert to the track.

In winning the one-mile Mervyn LeRoy Handicap at Hollywood May 19, Precisionist was timed in 1:32 4/5, just three-fifths of a second slower than the world record Dr. Fager set at Arlington Park in 1968.

Greinton, who finished second, four lengths behind Precisionist, in the LeRoy, is scheduled to challenge Fred Hooper’s comet Sunday. Others in the field are likely to be Lord at War, who as the 4-5 favorite ran fourth on the grass in the Century Handicap May 5, and Bronzed, who has run 1:34 3/5 and 1:35 3/5 in winning two straight mile allowance races.

If good things--as well as disasters--really do come in threes, the California-based Tank’s Prospect or Fast Account should win Saturday’s Belmont.

The last two weekends, California invaders have won Belmont features--the English-bred Forzando II in the Metropolitan Handicap and the Irish-bred Sharannpour in the Red Smith Handicap.

Sharannpour had made only one United States start, winning a $175,000 claiming race at Hollywood Park, before trainer Bobby Frankel brought him here.

A year ago, Frankel bought the 5-year-old chestnut for an undisclosed price on behalf of Los Angeles recording executive Jerry Moss.

“I know some people in France (where Sharannpour had been running) and they recommended him to me,” Frankel said.

Belmont’s soft turf helped Sharannpour Saturday, but it was not to the liking of Tsunami Slew, another California invader who had the lead briefly on the turn but wound up fifth.

“He was lucky the turf was soft,” said Angel Cordero, who rode Sharannpour. “European horses like a soft turf better than American horses, and the course helped him a lot.”

It was raining here Wednesday, the kind of day Frankel would like to see just before the Bowling Green Stakes at Belmont June 16, the probable next start for Sharannpour.

Racing Notes Although Chris McCarron’s purse total for last year shrank by $38,800 as the result of The Noble Player’s official disqualification in the Russell Handicap at Santa Anita in November, the jockey had enough of a margin to win the money title over Angel Cordero. McCarron’s revised margin is about $45,000, his purse total of $12,007,013 still setting a record. . . . By increasing the purse of the Jersey Derby to $2 million and boosting Garden State Park’s four-race bonus to $3 million, track chairman Bob Brennan is putting more pressure on Pimlico and Belmont Park to join with Churchill Downs in establishing a bonus for a horse that sweeps the Triple Crown. Asked where Garden State’s rich purses are coming from, track president Bob Quigley said: “Out of the total corporate picture.” Realistically, the rebuilt track isn’t doing enough business to justify the purses. . . . Twilight R, a 2-year-old filly trained by Wayne Lukas and making her first start, ran five furlongs in :58 1/5 Sunday at Belmont and won by 10 1/4 lengths. The next day, Pancho Villa, another of Lukas’ trainees, ran six furlongs in 1:08 3/5, a fifth of a second off the track record. . . . Belmont has named its backstretch roads after the 11 Triple Crown winners and other famous horses. Chief’s Crown, for example, lives on Count Fleet Road, near Secretariat Avenue. Tank’s Prospect is on Citation Avenue, near Man o’ War Avenue.