Horse Racing : In This Case, Cheapskate Pays Own Way

Cheapskate wasn’t the horse that trainer Darrell Vienna intended to run at Canterbury Downs in Minnesota last Sunday. Tripoli Shores was. But when a series of circumstances kept Tripoli Shores in California, Vienna entered Cheapskate in the St. Paul Derby, and all the 3-year-old gelding did was win the race at 72-1 odds, earning $180,000 for his owners, Jim and Joyce Vandervoort of Rancho Mirage.

Tripoli Shores, who is also owned by the Vandervoorts, won the La Puente Stakes at Santa Anita on April 16. Vienna’s original plan was to fly Tripoli Shores to New York, run him in the Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park on May 25 and stop at Canterbury for the St. Paul Derby on the way back to California.

But Tripoli Shores injured himself in his stall, suffering a king-sized nosebleed and forcing Vienna to skip the New York trip. In its place, Vienna considered hooking up the June 14 Ohio Derby with the St. Paul Derby, but because of the injury, Tripoli Shores couldn’t be readied in time.

Plan C was to run Tripoli Shores in the Hill Prince at Belmont on June 21, then drop him off at Canterbury for the St. Paul Derby. But Vienna could not arrange a plane to New York.

So Cheapskate, no longer a maiden only because of a win by disqualification at Golden Gate Fields May 31, went to Canterbury Downs. Not only did he outlast Broad Brush, a major stakes winner, by a nose in a long drive in the St. Paul Derby, but he also survived a stewards’ inquiry over possible bumping in the stretch.

The St. Paul was only the second win in eight starts for Cheapskate, who was purchased by the Vandervoorts at a Kentucky yearling sale for $35,000. They attempted to sell the unraced horse at a 2-year-old sale last year at Hollywood Park, but when he didn’t reach his $80,000 reserve, the minimum the Vandervoorts thought he would bring, they took him back.

Cheapskate never did race as a 2-year-old because of sore shins. In late December, he was gelded.

“We were forced to do it,” Jim Vandervoort said. “He wasn’t a rogue, but he was bucking and jumping all the time. He was more playful than anything else, but it was a temperament that was dangerous to both himself and people around him.”

Vienna, in Europe to scout some horses he might buy for clients, missed the first win in a $100,000 race for the Vandervoorts, who have owned thoroughbreds for 17 years. Kim Anderson, Vienna’s assistant, saddled Cheapskate at Canterbury. Anderson thought that the addition of blinkers might have helped. Blinkers were added when Cheapskate got his maiden win at Golden Gate.

Because he’s a New York-bred, Cheapskate is eligible for some rich races back there. The son of Overskate and Kimberley June is scheduled to run next in the $100,000 New York Derby at Finger Lakes on July 20, and probably will stay for the $100,000 Albany Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 4.

The day before the St. Paul Derby, another California-based horse, Puzzle Book, won the $100,000 Canterbury Oaks.

Unlike Vienna, trainer Sal Gonzalez was present for Puzzle Book’s win, but two of his three owners were not. “I think Victor Austin was delivering babies, and Timothy Law was in Mexico, at the World Cup soccer tournament,” Gonzalez said.

All three of Puzzle Book’s owners are doctors who are new to racing. Deann Martin, the third owner, picked out Puzzle Book and persuaded Austin and Law to become her partners. Gonzalez said he didn’t know what they paid for Puzzle Book, who was originally bought for $30,000 by Bill Jacoby, a California bloodstock agent, at an Elmendorf Farm sale in Kentucky.

Puzzle Book was passed up by several prospective buyers, including Mickey Rooney, because she had what Gonzalez calls “suspicious tendons.”

Gonzalez thought he might not be able to run Puzzle Book at Canterbury Downs, because it would cost $5,000 to supplement the daughter of Text into the race, besides the expense of flying the filly to Minnesota. But the owners said to him, “Who do we write the check out to?”

At 3-1 odds, Puzzle Book won for the second straight time under Santiago Soto, the Chilean jockey who rode in Florida and who is now trying to get established in California.

“Chris McCarron won with this horse before, and we would have liked to have had him continue riding her,” Gonzalez said. “But he has commitments to so many other important horses. Soto agreed to ride Puzzle Book the rest of the year, no matter where she runs. I’ve always liked his style as a rider, anyway. I remember him from Florida. He sits very cool on a horse.”

Gonzalez has Puzzle Book on a program that should lead to the Del Mar Oaks on Aug. 24.

Unhappy with the assigned weights, trainer Bobby Frankel isn’t running Garthorn in the Suburban Handicap Friday at Belmont Park and has returned the 6-year-old to his barn at Hollywood Park.

Garthorn, who has won five straight races on dirt after a career that started on the grass courses in France, carried 124 pounds while winning the Metropolitan Handicap by 1 lengths at Belmont May 26.

Garthorn was assigned 127 pounds for the Suburban. “I thought we might get one more pound, two tops,” Frankel said. “It doesn’t make any difference what the other horses got, I just thought three pounds was too much for mine.”

Garthorn got sick, running a 104-degree fever, on the flight from New York to California, but Frankel said the temperature had subsided Wednesday. The horse probably won’t run again until the Woodward Stakes at Belmont on Aug. 30.

Skip Trial and Another Summer are now the high weights in the six-horse Suburban, at 124 pounds apiece. Also in the field are Roo Art; Proud Truth, winner of the Tidal Handicap last Sunday, and Danzig Connection and Creme Fraiche, trainer Woody Stephens’ Belmont Stakes winners the last two years.

Racing Notes Snow Chief has been assigned top weight of 127 pounds for Saturday’s $400,000 Silver Screen Handicap at Hollywood Park. Vernon Castle, who’ll be the Preakness winner’s strongest opposition, will carry 119 pounds. . . . Entries for Friday’s $250,000 Sunset Handicap, in post-position order, include Zoffany, Flying Pidgeon, Dahar, Rivlia, Lord Grundy, Talakeno, Montecito and Le Solaret. Dahar will carry top weight of 125 pounds. . . . Also on Friday’s program is the $75,000 Landaluce Stakes for 2-year-old fillies. . . . Sandy Hawley, who registered his 5,000th career riding win at Canterbury Downs last Thursday, became the seventh jockey to do so. Hawley reached 5,000 in about his 23,000th mount. When Bill Shoemaker reached 5,000 in 1964, it took him approximately 19,900 rides. Laffit Pincay hit 5,000 in 1981, about the time of his 22,000th mount. It took Angel Cordero, Jorge Velasquez and Larry Snyder 27,000 mounts or more to reach 5,000. No figures are available on the number of mounts Johnny Longden had when he hit 5,000. . . . Life at the Top, scheduled to run Sunday in the Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont, has the name that was originally submitted by trainer Wayne Lukas for Saratoga Six. Lukas withdrew the Life at the Top name and called the colt Saratoga Six because he thought the first name would be too difficult for track announcers to pronounce. Saratoga Six, undefeated as a 2-year-old, broke down in October 1984 and never ran again. . . . The mixed-breed (thoroughbreds, quarter horses and Appaloosas) Orange County Fair, which was usually run in the fall, opens Monday night at Los Alamitos and runs for 13 nights through July 21, with only Sundays being dark. Fair officials are hoping that the change in dates will help business, which was off double digits in both attendance and handle last year.