Santa Anita Handicap : Whittingham Tries for 7th Big ‘Cap, Gosden for 2nd

Winning one Santa Anita Handicap is accomplishment enough for a trainer. Winning two Big ‘Caps is considerably more difficult, and only the nonpareil, Charlie Whittingham, could win the stake six times, a record that likely will never be broken except by Whittingham himself.

In a bid for win No. 7, Whittingham has two horses--Greinton and Dahar--entered in today’s 34th running of the Big ‘Cap, and another trainer, John Gosden, also has a chance to become that rare multiple winner.

Gosden will saddle Hatim and Alphabatim, and if either 5-year-old wins, the transplanted Englishman will join only five others as trainers who’ve won the race more than once. Besides Whittingham, the others--Silent Tom Smith, Don Cameron, Bill Molter and Ron McAnally--each won the Big ‘Cap twice.

The Gosden horse with the better chance is Hatim, winner of the San Antonio Handicap in his last start and an instant reminder of the trainer’s first Big ‘Cap win, with the charismatic Bates Motel in 1983.

Bates Motel and Hatim are both out of the same mare, Sunday Purchase, who won only $13,000 in her racing career. Hatim could win almost $690,000 in just two minutes or so today, the ‘Big Cap having become a $1 million race for the first time.

Bates Motel, who went on to be voted top handicap male in ‘83, raced for Jacqueline Getty Phillips, who owns Sunday Purchase. The mating of Sunday Purchase with Exclusive Native resulted in a colt that Prince Khalid Abdullah, a moneybags Saudi Arabian, bought for $1.1 million at a yearling auction.

Gosden sees a resemblance between Bates Motel and Hatim. “I hope they’re alike on Sunday as well,” the trainer said the other day. “Both are big and strong, with plenty of speed, and they seem to have gotten better as they get older.”

Bates Motel was such a gawky bag of bones that Phillips tried to sell him in Europe before the colt got good, then thanked the day the horse stumbled into the sales ring and brought no satisfactory takers.

Now, Bates Motel, having been syndicated for $7 million, stands at stud at Gainesway Farm in Kentucky, commanding a price of $50,000 for each of his live foals.

It’s costing the prince an extra $25,000 to run Hatim in the Big ‘Cap, because even though he was nominated for $2,500, the sustaining fee was not paid. Gosden caught up with the owner in London just before the supplementary deadline, to make sure there was enough money in the vault.

“I didn’t have to talk him into it,” Gosden said. “He told me to do what I wanted.”

Had he needed an argument, Gosden could have simply pointed to the San Antonio, in which Hatim prevailed by two lengths over Right Con, who’ll be trying again as part of today’s 13-horse field.

Bred to run on dirt, Hatim raced abroad and didn’t leave grass surfaces until he finished second in an allowance race at Hollywood Park in December. In his next dirt try, a month later, he won by 2 1/2 lengths, that victory being the chestnut’s first since 1984.

The San Antonio was also on dirt, at 1 1/8 miles a furlong shorter than the Big ‘Cap. Bates Motel also used a win in the San Antonio as a springboard for the Big ‘Cap.

Alphabatim, who is also owned by Prince Khalid, comes into the Big ‘Cap off an allowance win in the first dirt start of his life two weeks ago. Among the horses he beat was Dahar, a Big ‘Cap starter who had never been on the main track before.

If Alphabatim could spring an upset today, it would be a testimonial to treadmill rehabilitation. That was one of the ways the son of Verbatim was brought back to training, after a major quarter crack in his left front hoof had sent him to the barn for more than a year.

The injury struck just when Alphabatim seemed to be peaking--shortly after he had won the 1984 Hollywood Turf Cup and then finished a close third in Santa Anita’s San Marcos Handicap early last year.

“About a month after the San Marcos, we had to send him to Farrell Jones’ farm,” Gosden said. “The crack was so serious that they had to cut away more of the foot than they wanted to. When the hoof started to grow out, we had him on a treadmill at Jim Wilson’s place, which is also in Hemet.”

Alphabatim returned to Gosden’s barn last September and worked spectacularly before his coming-out appearance on Feb. 14. “He showed some decent class, especially since it was first time on dirt,” Gosden said.

Both Gosden and Shug McGaughey, the trainer who’s bringing Vanlandingham from Florida to run today, know that the Big ‘Cap deck is stacked because of the presence of Precisionist, the top weight at 126 pounds.

“Going into that horse’s own backyard, it’s not the ideal situation,” McGaughey said. “Actually, the weights kind of surprised me--the fact that we’re only getting one pound from Precisionist.”

Gosden knows the feeling even better, having seen more of Precisionist’s accomplishments up close. “He’s a great one and no doubt he’s the one to beat,” Gosden said.

“With the Santa Anas blowing this week, that’ll make the track even more to Precisionist’s advantage. What will probably happen is that he’ll be flying on the lead and the rest of us will all be back behind him, messing in the traffic.”

It doesn’t sound as if Gosden is making any plans to join Whittingham and the others in Santa Anita Handicap lore. But he knows the way to the winner’s circle if either of his horses forces him in there.