Snow Chief Has His Work Cut Out : Preakness Winner Goes for Bonus Money in Jersey Derby

Monday’s $1-million Jersey Derby will be Snow Chief’s third tough race in 24 days, and comes only nine days after his win in the Preakness. Will Carl Grinstead, the co-owner of Snow Chief, please take the stand?

“Before, we were being criticized for not running the horse enough,” Grinstead said. “Now we’re being criticized for running the horse too much. So what can you do?”

Grinstead, fellow owner Ben Rochelle and trainer Mel Stute are doing what they said they wanted to do early on--run Snow Chief in spots that might make him racing’s richest horse.

They paid a $50,000 supplementary fee to enable Snow Chief to win $589,600 in last year’s Hollywood Futurity, a $1-million race.

They shipped the horse cross country to win the Florida Derby, a $500,000 race.

And now they are at Garden State Park, aiming for the $600,000 winner’s share of the Jersey Derby purse and thinking about a $1-million bonus that goes to any horse that wins Monday and also wins two races at Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands later in the year.

Snow Chief’s win in the Preakness, his 10th in 15 career starts, boosted his earnings to $2.1 million and lifted him into 13th place on the career money list. A win Monday would move him into seventh place, behind John Henry, Spend a Buck, Slew o’ Gold, All Along, Symboli Rudolf and Spectacular Bid. John Henry, who with $6.5 million is well ahead of Spend a Buck’s $4.2 million, is the only active horse among the top six. John Henry is attempting a comeback as an 11-year-old after not running since late 1984.

Spend a Buck, who won the Jersey Derby last year, collecting a one-day record of $2.6 million that included the purse and a $2-million bonus, had more rest than Snow Chief. Spend a Buck skipped the Preakness after winning the Kentucky Derby.

Snow Chief’s pre-Kentucky Derby schedule had been a race a month in February, March and April. His handlers are still questioning themselves about whether he was fit enough to handle the 1-mile Derby, in which he ran the worst race of his life, finishing 11th as the 2-1 favorite. The Derby was Snow Chief’s first start since he had won the Santa Anita Derby a month before.

Rebounding at Pimlico, Snow Chief won the Preakness by four lengths as Ferdinand, the Derby winner, ran second.

“We waited until two days after the Preakness before we made the decision to run in the Jersey Derby,” said Grinstead, a retired electrical engineer from Chula Vista. “We wanted to make sure the horse was in good shape before we committed to the Jersey Derby. There are no signs that he’s not ready to run back this quickly.”

Snow Chief hasn’t had a breather since he resumed training last July after a shin injury in his second career start. “You keep a horse on the track that long and it will start to show,” said a prominent trainer at Hollywood Park last week. “You can’t expect a horse to stay sharp when he’s been at it with no rest.”

Snow Chief may not need to be 100% in the Jersey Derby, although the 11-horse field includes Tasso, one of the few horses to beat the California-bred, Mogambo, an erratic colt who was 10th in the Kentucky Derby, and Fobby Forbes, who was seventh in the Kentucky Derby but has run some strong races at Garden State.

Tasso, en route to the 2-year-old colt championship, won the Del Mar Futurity last September while Snow Chief finished third, 2 1/2 lengths back.

“That was our colt’s first time around two turns,” Grinstead said. “He hadn’t even worked around two turns prior to the race. The race was so long ago that it doesn’t have any significance now.”

While Snow Chief hit the heights, then took a roller-coaster ride through the first two races in the Triple Crown series, Tasso has struggled as a 3-year-old. He won a minor stake at Aqueduct in March, then was knocked sideways leaving the gate in the Gotham and ran third. Tasso suffered a cut foot in a fluke accident the day before the Wood, then injured himself again in the race while running fourth. In his last start, Tasso was a late-running second in the Withers, but never a threat to overhaul Clear Choice, who won the race.

The 1-mile distance of the Jersey Derby might suit Tasso, but the lack of early speed in the race won’t help his chances. In fact, the only class speed in the race is Snow Chief. A likely scenario is Snow Chief going to the front and being left to set his own pace, as he was allowed to do in his wins in the Hollywood Futurity and the Florida Derby.

The attitude of John Perrotta is typical of representatives of other horses in the Jersey Derby. Perrotta manages the Due Process Stable of Bob Brennan, the Garden State board chairman who owns Fobby Forbes.

“We’re in this race because it’s at our track, but actually the race we think we can win is the Belmont,” Perrotta said. “Snow Chief looks like he’s going to be too much on Monday.”

Horse Racing Notes

Snow Chief’s sire, the 22-year-old Reflected Glory, has recently been servicing some mares on reduced bookings, according to one blood-stock report. At the time Snow Chief won the Santa Anita Derby in April, it was reported that Reflected Glory, who stands for a $2,000 stud fee at Rancho Jonata near Santa Barbara, was having difficulty getting a large number of mares in foal. . . . Ogygian, one of last year’s top 2-year-olds but a forgotten horse this year because of injuries, won an allowance race at Belmont Park in an impressive time last week, but isn’t ready for the June 7 Belmont Stakes. . . . Because Monday’s Metropolitan at Belmont is only a mile, the filly Lady’s Secret is given a good chance to upset Turkoman. The field, which is rife with top stakes winners, also includes Proud Truth, Smile, Garthorn, Ziggy’s Boy, El Bosco, Aggressive Bid and Love That Mac. . . . The field for Monday’s $300,000 Hollywood Invitational, in post-position order, consists of Dahar (Bill Shoemaker riding), Strawberry Road (Gary Stevens), Fabbiani (Darrel McHargue), Talakeno (Pat Valenzuela), Flying Pidgeon (Santiago Soto) and Both Ends Burning (Eddie Delahoussaye), who won the race a year ago. Dahar, 126 pounds, and Strawberry Road, 124, are the high weights and will be coupled in the betting.