Horse Racing / Bill Christine : Mom’s Command Looks for Top Opponent to Race

Peter Fuller, who owns Mom’s Command, the top 3-year-old filly in the East this season, seems determined to line up a match race for her.

Fuller has approached both Dennis Diaz and Earl Scheib recently with match-race proposals. Diaz is the controlling owner of Spend a Buck, winner of this year’s Kentucky and Jersey derbies, and Scheib bred and owns Fran’s Valentine, winner of the Kentucky and Hollywood Oaks and the best 3-year-old filly in the West.

Diaz said at the Keeneland yearling sales the other day that he didn’t even return Fuller’s phone call. “I had heard what he was calling about and there was no point in talking, because we’re just not interested,” Diaz said.

Spend a Buck has probably already clinched the 3-year-old championship for colts and is also a candidate for horse of the year. In a match race with Fuller’s filly, he would have nothing to gain and much to lose. Spend a Buck will make his first start since the May 27 Jersey Derby on Saturday in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.

Last Friday, Scheib got a call in his Los Angeles office from Fuller.

“I listened to him but I guess you could say that I turned him down,” Scheib said. “It would be a hell of a story if those two met. Both of the fillies are named after our wives (Fran Scheib died and never had the chance to see Fran’s Valentine run) and they are the best around. But there would be a lot of things to work out, such as what would be the right city to hold the race.”

Scheib said that he finally told Fuller: “We’re running in the Alabama Stakes (at Saratoga on Aug. 10). Why don’t you have your horse there, too?”

Fuller said that Mom’s Command’s next race would be in the Test Stakes at Saratoga a week from today. He didn’t guarantee Scheib that Mom’s Command would run back in the Alabama, but the seven-furlong Test is frequently a prep for fillies running in the later race, which is 1 miles.

Some early assessments of John Henry’s career have yielded at least one negative--that the 10-year-old gelding was seldom asked to carry weight, as were Kelso and Forego.

John Henry carried a career high of 130 pounds only three times--winning the Hollywood Invitational and finishing fourth in the Hollywood Gold Cup in 1981 and finishing second to Perrault in the Santa Anita Handicap in ’82. Perrault was disqualified for drifting out in the stretch and John Henry was declared the winner.

Kelso, who ran one race as a 9-year-old--John Henry ran nine--before being retired in 1966, carried 130 pounds or more in 24 starts and won half of them. Twice Kelso won under 136 pounds.

Forego, who made a couple of starts as an 8-year-old before he was retired in ‘78, also ran 24 races with 130 pounds or more, winning 13. At 137 pounds, Forego won the Marlboro Cup at Belmont Park in ’76.

Trainer Charlie Whittingham, who has lost to John Henry many more times than he’s beaten him, said that the gelding shouldn’t be penalized because he seldom carried big weights. Whittingham saddled Perrault for a win over John Henry that stood up in the ’82 San Luis Rey Stakes at Santa Anita and in ‘81, when John Henry lost only twice in winning his first horse-of-the-year title, one of the defeats was to Whittingham’s Providential II in the Hollywood Turf Cup.

“I’ve had horses that have carried a lot of weight and won,” Whittingham said. “Ack Ack carried 134 when he won the Gold Cup (in ‘71). But I’ve always thought it was foolish to load horses down with weights like that. Racing’s the only game in town where they do it. Can you imagine a good boxer being asked to fight with one hand tied behind his back? That’s what it’s like when they put a lot of weight on a horse.”

A reader, Terry Foley of Norco, writes that it’s not correct when John Henry’s age is equated with a 65-year-old man. Foley believes that the figure is much lower.

There is no definitive equivalent, however, for converting the age of a horse into human terms. Roy Dillon, a veterinarian who works California tracks, said that the average horse lives to be 25. If the average human lives to be 70, a simple ratio would make John Henry a 28-year-old in human terms.

Donald Dooley, another California vet, uses 4 to 1 in converting a horse’s age into a human’s, which would make John Henry a 40-year-old.

The late Joe Thomas, who for years managed E.P. Taylor’s racing interests, including the stud career of Northern Dancer, used a more complicated formula. Thomas would add 3.5 years to a horse’s age and divide that total by .406. Thomas never gave a source or a reason for that formula, he always just said, “It’s the best I’ve ever heard about.”

The Thomas formula would make John Henry a 33-year-old in human terms.

Trainers seldom claim horses with the frequency they used to, which is why four claims by the same conditioner on the same day drew some attention last Friday at Hollywood Park.

Kenny Anderson, who claimed the four horses at a cost of $144,500, is a trainer who hadn’t started a horse all season at Hollywood. He told track officials that he was taking the horses to Canterbury Downs, a new track near Minneapolis.

At least Anderson is taking three of the four to Canterbury. His most expensive claim, a 3-year-old named Debit, cost $50,000, but he broke down in the race and had to be destroyed.

Racing Notes Despite the record $13.1 million paid for a yearling and another that sold for $7 million, the average price for horses at Keeneland’s major sale was 9% less than last year’s. The auction disposed of 281 yearlings for an average price of $537,383. Last year, the average was $593,139. It’s only the second time in the last 16 years that this sale has been off, and the first time since 1974. . . . Trainer Wayne Lukas was kicked in the back while inspecting Keeneland yearlings at the barn one morning. . . . With the Nijinsky II colt that cost $13.1 million heading for Ireland to race, there now hasn’t been a Keeneland sales topper to stay in this country since Kentucky Gold in ’74. Kentucky Gold, by Raise a Native, sold for $625,000 and won only one race in his life. . . . Wild Again made his first start Wednesday since winning the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Classic last November at Hollywood Park and finished second to Late to Rise in an allowance race at Belmont Park. . . . Three of Del Mar’s top jockeys will be out of town Saturday. Laffit Pincay will ride Spend a Buck in the Haskell at Monmouth, Chris McCarron has Gate Dancer in the Cornhusker Handicap at Ak-Sar-Ben, and Gary Stevens will be at Louisiana Downs to ride Reigning Countess in the Majorette Handicap.