Proud Truth Is Counting on Inside Draw : Outside Post Position Could Hurt His Chances in $500,000 Strub Stakes Sunday

The week before the San Fernando Stakes at Santa Anita Jan. 19, Proud Truth was doing his imitation of Henry VIII at barn No. 14. The 4-year-old colt ate everything but the stall door.

Jesse (Ditty) Spotts, the groom who has been with Proud Truth since the horse was a 2-year-old, interpreted this voracious appetite as a good sign.

“Whenever he eats his hay good, he runs good,” Spotts said. “And he was emptying his hay rack every time we filled it. He never missed an oat, either.”

When they ran the San Fernando, maybe Jorge Velasquez, Proud Truth’s jockey, should have packed a lunch for the horse, because they finished the race on an empty tank. Proud Truth’s fifth-place finish, seven lengths behind the winner, Right Con, was one of the worst performances of a generally brilliant career.

Proud Truth’s dismal San Fernando performance was especially surprising, since he has run few clinkers. In 14 starts, owner John Galbreath’s colt has won nine times and finished second twice. His only other off-the-board finishes before the San Fernando were in the Tropical Park Derby at Calder a year ago, when he was fourth, and in the 1985 Kentucky Derby, when he ran fifth.

There’s a pattern, though, to all three of Proud Truth’s poor races: He broke from outside post positions. In the Tropical Park Derby, he drew the No. 15 spot in a 16-horse field. At Churchill Downs, he was 11th in a field of 13. And at Santa Anita, he was outside all nine of his rivals.

John Veitch, Proud Truth’s trainer, said the weight and the post position were his main concerns going into the San Fernando, more important than missing a workout because of rain, or shipping from Florida to California, or not having run in 10 weeks.

Proud Truth carried top weight of 126 pounds, 9 more than Right Con and 12 more than two other starters.

For all the drawbacks, Proud Truth was still the only horse in the San Fernando to have won a major race in the United States, and he had three on his record--the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park, the Peter Pan at Belmont Park and the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Aqueduct.

After the race, Veitch said: “We needed perfect racing luck, and we didn’t get any, at all.”

The trainer seemed less disappointed than Charlie Rose, Veitch’s 54-year-old assistant who has been on Proud Truth’s back as an exercise rider ever since Saratoga in August 1984.

“I knew we had a lot of things going against us, but I thought the horse was good enough to overcome everything,” Rose said this week.

Proud Truth will have a chance to redeem himself Sunday in the $500,000 Charles H. Strub Stakes. Based on his poor performances when running from the outside, today’s post-position draw may be as important as the race, since there’s going to be a large field, including Right Con and most of the others from the San Fernando.

In the mornings at Santa Anita this week, Proud Truth has shown Rose some of the fury he exhibited in ’84.

The first time Rose ever boarded the unraced 2-year-old, Proud Truth tried to take the two of them under the rail. The colt sent Rose flying and knocked out three sections of the fence.

Rose reported to Veitch the next morning, walking with a cane and still wearing a neck brace, the result of an accident with another horse a few days earlier.

“Let me put somebody else on him (Proud Truth) today,” Veitch said to Rose.

“No,” Rose said. “I’m going to show this guy who the boss is.”

With the help of tranquilizers, Proud Truth eventually calmed down. Now, though, he seems on the muscle again.

“He was real tough to handle Wednesday,” Rose said. “The toughest I can remember him since that first time at Saratoga. The way he was Wednesday, I dreaded having to get on him again Thursday.

“But I like that. I think the race boils down to how well he handles the track. And if the track comes up muddy, that might even help him.”

The only time Proud Truth ever ran on an off track, he was second to Eternal Prince in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct last April.

Fast Account, another Strub probable who finished third in the San Fernando, also figures to handle mud. He broke his maiden on an off track at Hollywood Park, ran second in the slop to Creme Fraiche in the Kentucky Derby Trial and was fourth in the Belmont Stakes, which was run in the mud.

Fast Account and Right Con will again run as an entry in the Strub because they are both owned by William R. Hawn of Dallas. The horses have different trainers, however, with Mel Stute handling Right Con and Patty Johnson handling Fast Account.

“When the San Fernando was over, I didn’t know who won, I just knew our horse was far back,” Rose said. “I asked somebody on the track who won, and when they told me No. 1, I went over and congratulated Patty Johnson.

“She must have thought I was an idiot. But who would have thought it was the other No. 1, the horse that didn’t figure?”

Not many. That was Right Con’s first victory in 14 months. His winning was more of a shock than Proud Truth’s running fifth.