Horse Racing / Bill Christine : Year Full of Memorable Moments

What everybody probably doesn’t need at the end of the year is another best-10 list for 1985. These lists--best movies, best news stories, best restaurants, best bank robberies--suffer from being overdone. But horse racing had an exciting if confusing year--John Henry was retired and there was no national hero to replace him--and while it would be impossible to isolate the 10 best races (for lack of criteria), at least it might be fun to briefly revisit the 10 most memorable. Try these for size:

1--Spend a Buck’s Kentucky Derby. A $12,500 colt with a surgical knee was a wire-to-wire winner over a solid field, running 1 miles in 2:00 1 5, which was only slower than Secretariat’s 1:59 2 5 Derby time in 1973 and Northern Dancer’s 2:00 in ’64. Spend a Buck also won by 5 lengths over Stephan’s Odyssey, largest Derby margin since Assault’s win by 8 in ’46.

2--Pebbles’ Breeders’ Cup. The beer-drinking English-bred filly made her United States debut by winning the $2-million Turf Stakes at Aqueduct by a neck over Strawberry Road II. Breaking from the next-to-outside post in an international field that included several top male runners, Pebbles and her jockey, Pat Eddery, overcame a traffic jam at the head of the stretch. Pebbles shot through along the fence, disposed of the leaders and then held off Strawberry Road at the wire.

3--The Budweiser-Arlington Million. There was nothing extraordinary about the win by the English longshot Teleprompter, who at 14-1 beat a so-so field. Teleprompter, hard-pressed to find racing opportunities back home because most of the top races exclude geldings, came into the Million with only one 1985 win and he didn’t win another race after August. What made the Million special was that the race was held at Arlington Park at all. The track’s stands were destroyed in an early-morning fire three weeks before the Million, but Arlington, spending an estimated $2 million, turned debris into a country-fair setting, with picnic tents and portable bleachers, and more than 35,000 fans attended the race.

4--Gene Klein’s Breeders’ Cup. The former owner of the San Diego Chargers, who has been in racing less than three years, finished 1-2 in two of the $1-million races, with Twilight Ridge and Family Style in the Juvenile Fillies Stakes, and with Life’s Magic and Lady’s Secret in the Distaff. “It’s like finishing both first and second in the Super Bowl,” Klein said.

5--Woody Stephens’ Belmont Stakes. Which ought to be renamed Belmont Park’s Woody Stephens’ Stakes. Not only did the 72-year-old trainer win the Belmont for the fourth straight year, but he also ran 1-2 with Creme Fraiche and Stephan’s Odyssey. But nobody’s perfect. It would have meant more in breeding shares if the order had been reversed, because Creme Fraiche is a gelding.

6--Any win by Barberstown. Until August, the sore-legged 5-year-old had been sidelined for 16 months with two bowed tendons. One bad tendon is usually enough to end a horse’s career, but trainer John Gosden brought Barberstown back at Del Mar, where after an allowance victory, he added the Del Mar Invitational, and also won the On Trust Handicap at Hollywood Park in November.

7--Tank’s Prospect’s Preakness Stakes. Horses from trainer Wayne Lukas’ barn won a record 70 stakes in ‘85, and one of the most unlikely major winners was this $625,000 yearling that owner Gene Klein named after Tank Younger, the former fullback for the Rams. Tank’s Prospect underwent surgery to free an entrapped epiglottis after running last in the Santa Anita Derby in early April, won the Arkansas Derby three weeks after that and then won the Preakness at Pimlico in mid-May. Tank’s Prospect’s Preakness came in the record time of 1:53 2 5 for the 1 3 16 miles.

8--Chief’s Crown’s Flamingo Stakes. This was the most controversial race of the year. Chief’s Crown finished first by a length ahead of Proud Truth, who was a neck in front of Stephan’s Odyssey. With veteran steward Walter Blum absent because of his mother’s death, the judges disqualified Chief’s Crown for interference and gave the win to Proud Truth. That decision was reversed 10 days later by a panel of former stewards who were asked to review the race by Florida racing officials. Hardly anyone came away happy--Chief’s Crown had a tainted victory, Proud Truth lost, won and then finally lost the race, and Stephan’s Odyssey’s owner, Henryk de Kwiatkowski, fired his jockey Eddie Maple, because he hadn’t claimed foul against Proud Truth. That decision led to Maple winning the Belmont Stakes with Creme Fraiche--over Stephan’s Odyssey.

9--Fred Hooper’s and John Galbreath’s Breeders’ Cup. These two pillars of racing, both 88 years old, owned horses that won two of the year’s biggest races--Hooper’s Precisionist taking the $1-million Sprint Stakes and Galbreath’s Proud Truth taking the $3-million Classic. Trainer Ross Fenstermaker returned Precisionist to the sprinting ranks after a four-month hiatus caused by sore feet. And trainer John Veitch won the richest race of the year with Proud Truth, who had been out four months with a broken leg.

10--Spend a Buck’s Jersey Derby. A memorable race if only for the money it made for Spend a Buck’s owners, Dennis and Linda Diaz, who had a record $2.6-million payday--$600,000 for the purse and a $2-million bonus because the colt also won the Kentucky Derby and two other races at Garden State Park.

Races that didn’t make the list but still linger in the mind include the Marlboro Cup, in which Chief’s Crown, Gate Dancer, Vanlandingham and Greinton ran 1-2-3-4 and were separated by only a length at the line; Mom’s Command’s sweep of the 3-year-old filly series in New York; Lady’s Secret’s sweep of the fall New York series for fillies and mares; Precisionist’s sweep of the Strub series, and a win by Zoffany against a stellar field in the Hollywood Turf Cup.

Lastly, there was the win by Cordova Red in the seventh race at Bay Meadows on Dec. 13. Cardova Red’s victory, only the second in the career of the $12,500 claiming horse, was inconsequential for many, but it made a millionaire out of Frank Judson. The 66-year-old newspaper mailer used Cardova Red as the sixth horse on a $16 Pick Six ticket and collected $1.1 million.