Horse Racing / Bill Christine : Return of John Henry Has McAnally Hopping

Trainer Ron McAnally’s phone rang in his barn office at Hollywood Park. A photographer from Time magazine was at the stable gate, asking to come over and shoot pictures of John Henry.

As soon as McAnally put the phone down, it rang again. This time it was a radio station from Oklahoma, wanting to do an interview later in the week.

McAnally hung up, and again the phone rang. This time the conversation was short. “The guy said his name was Ron Tuss and that he was a fan of John Henry’s,” McAnally said, smiling. “We got disconnected before I could say anything.”

There was already a reporter in the concrete-block office, so McAnally took the phone off the hook. “That’s the only way we’re going to get the chance to talk,” he said.

John Henry may not be all the way back--running in big races, refusing to let horses pass him in the stretch, getting to the wire in just enough time to win--but the 11-year-old gelding’s reputation has returned.

When owner Sam Rubin shocked the racing world three weeks ago by announcing that he was bringing the two-time Horse of the Year out of retirement, McAnally’s life became extraordinarily busy again. The horse does the running, but it’s the trainer who has to make time for the interviews.

The lives of the rest of the John Henry crew have also returned to abnormal.

No one is complaining. Jose Mercado, the trusty groom, who was able to buy a house off his small share of John Henry’s considerable earnings, is smiling that big smile again. Mercado had been rubbing Le Solaret, the French-bred colt who was the recent co-winner, in a dead heat, of the Golden Gate Handicap, but there’s no horse to compare with John Henry.

Looie Cenicola, John Henry’s exercise rider, took up training a couple of horses for a relative after the grand gelding was retired because of a potentially serious tendon injury last July. Anything to break up the monotony around the barn.

“I’m glad he’s back for another reason,” said Cenicola, a specialist once more. “Now I don’t have to get on those other six horses I was riding in the mornings.”

McAnally said the morale around his barn has improved considerably since John Henry left a life of leisure at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington and was flown to Los Angeles on May 10.

“Everybody was moping around here since the horse left,” McAnally said. “It was like we had all lost our right arms.”

John Henry has moved from stall No. 1 at McAnally’s barn to No. 55 across the shed-row. The stalls on the same side as No. 1 are all concrete, and McAnally doesn’t want to give the horse an added chance to injure himself.

Wednesday morning, Cenicola boarded John Henry at about 9 o’clock and escorted the horse to Hollywood Park’s half-mile training track for a couple of spins.

As usual, Cenicola indulged John Henry in his stop-start routine. The horse walks to the track about 25 yards at a time, stopping in between to gaze at his surroundings. When the photographer from Time appeared, the horse appeared to be posing as the camera clicked.

Standing on the side, McAnally repeated an earlier observation. “He’s got such big eyes,” he said. “And they’re spaced very far apart, which is supposed to be good, because the wider the brain pan (behind the eyes), the more intelligent the horse. I believe it. You see very few very good horses who have their eyes close together.”

A pony coming off the training track passed John Henry on the road in the opposite direction. John Henry leaned over and bit the other horse on the hind end as he went by.

“That’s John,” McAnally said, laughing.

Whether Rubin and McAnally will be laughing later this year is another matter. Rubin lived in fear of John Henry breaking down on the track the last two years he ran, and he is inviting that possibility again, and the public excoriation that would come with it.

Rubin, who bought John Henry as a much-traveled, unwanted 3-year-old for $25,000 and saw the horse go on to record earnings of $6.5 million, has announced that any future purses of John Henry’s would go to charity and equine projects.

Already, the media and the racing industry are questioning the sagacity of bringing John Henry back. “I told Sam about a really harsh column in one of the San Diego newspapers,” McAnally said. “He said, ‘I know--I’m getting it in the East, too.’ ”

Friends of Rubin say that John Henry is back at Hollywood Park because the owner missed the limelight that the horse created for him. Rubin has dabbled unsuccessfully with other horses. “I lost my shirt,” he once said after investing in a few New York-breds.

Three weeks ago, Rubin said that the Arlington Million, a race John Henry has won twice, would be the horse’s immediate goal. The Million is scheduled to be run Aug. 26.

“That’s Sam,” McAnally said. “I’m not saying that we won’t make the Million, but right now we’re playing it one day at a time. If the horse gives us the least little indication that something’s wrong, we won’t push him.”

Racing Notes Mel Stute may have won last Saturday’s Preakness at Pimlico, but he’s had trouble saddling winners at Hollywood Park. Stute went on an 0-for-16 streak, and his older brother, Warren, passed him in the trainer standings. . . . Gary Jones is another trainer who has a hot horse in Turkoman, but at Hollywood he was 0 for 18 going into this week. Turkoman, an impressive stakes winner in Florida and Arkansas after leaving California, is scheduled to run in the Metropolitan at Belmont Park Monday. . . . That’s the same day as the Jersey Derby at Garden State Park, where Snow Chief and at least seven other 3-year-olds will compete for $1 million. Tasso, given the best chance to beat Snow Chief, worked seven furlongs at Garden State Wednesday and finished strongly. “The track’s deeper than it is at Aqueduct,” trainer Neil Drysdale said, “but I think he’ll give a good account of himself.” . . . Vince Bracciale, who lost the mount on Broad Brush, a third-place finisher in the Preakness under Chris McCarron, will ride Fobby Forbes in the Jersey Derby. He replaces Randy Romero, who has the ride the same day on Ziggy’s Boy in the Metropolitan. . . . Hollywood Park will take bets on the Jersey Derby and carry the telecast of the race.