La Jolla Mile Handicap : Vernon Castle Snaps Losing Streak

The real Vernon Castle, the early 20th-Century dancer, had his wife Irene as a partner. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers portrayed the Castles in a 1939 movie.

The equine Vernon Castle, a muscular 3-year-old son of Triple Crown champion Seattle Slew, has a regular partner, too, in jockey Eddie Delahoussaye. Together they stormed through the stretch Sunday at Del Mar for a two-length victory over Tripoli Shores in the $107,000 La Jolla Mile Handicap before 28,950 fans.

“They forgot about this horse’s breeding,” Allen Paulson shouted from the winner’s circle after Vernon Castle snapped out of a three-race losing streak for his first win since the California Derby at Golden Gate Fields on April 19.

Paulson, who owns a controlling 40% of Vernon Castle in a partnership with three other men, was referring to skeptics who thought that the horse was over-rated. One opposing trainer, Darrell Vienna, felt that Vernon Castle had an inflated one-race reputation.

In the stretch, Marvin’s Policy, one of the two horses Vienna started in the 12-horse La Jolla, tried to hold on to a short lead. With an eighth of a mile to go, Laffit Pincay had found room on the rail with Tripoli Shores, Vienna’s other horse, and he looked like a winner.

But Vernon Castle used raw speed--not fancy footwork like his namesake would suggest--and took the long way around, closed in the middle of the track and disposed of both of Vienna’s runners.

Vernon Castle, timed in 1:35 1/5, paid $9.40, $5.60 and $3.40. Tripoli Shores returned $8.60 and $5.80, finishing three-fourths of a length ahead of Marvin’s Policy, whose show price was $6. Mazaad, the lukewarm favorite at 3-1, was far back early and finished fifth.

Paulson displayed a fistful of tickets that he held on Vernon Castle, but the crowd didn’t know what to do with the La Jolla field, making the filly, Top Corsage, the slight favorite in the early betting. Top Corsage, who went off at almost 4-1, finished fourth.

Vernon Castle, who earned $64,650 for Paulson, breeder Franklin Groves, and owners Nelson Bunker Hunt and Dick Duchossois, turned in two discouraging performances following his California Derby win. Sandwiched around a second-place finish in the Cinema Handicap at Hollywood Park were a 15th in the Kentucky Derby and an 11th in the Silver Screen Handicap at Hollywood.

Delahoussaye was Vernon Castle’s rider through all of those races, picking the colt over another horse, Icy Groom, in the Kentucky Derby.

“This is a big colt with a hell of a stride,” Delahoussaye said Sunday. “He ran very relaxed today. He’s just coming to himself. He wants a firm turf course, one he can get a hold of.”

John Sullivan, who trains Vernon Castle, thought that the pre-Kentucky Derby hullabaloo as well as the 1-mile distance for a colt with only three lifetime starts had been too much for the horse.

Nobody paid Vernon Castle that much attention in the days leading up to the Derby, but he was in the same Churchill Downs barn as Snow Chief, the Derby favorite, and the media crush was as much in Vernon Castle’s midst as it was Snow Chief’s.

Following Sullivan’s directions Sunday, Delahoussaye had Vernon Castle in 10th place going down the backstretch, about six lengths behind the front-running Marvin’s Policy.

Vernon Castle, in fifth place and six horses wide heading for home, passed Marvin’s Policy closest to his inside, then put away Tripoli Shores a few strides later.

“I hated to go around, but there was only one way to go,” Delahoussaye said. “I knew there was a lot of speed in the race. The only thing I was worried about was having to go around about eight other horses. But they all bunched up. When I called on him, he accelerated.”

Pincay said Tripoli Shores was no match for Vernon Castle’s late speed. Russell Baze, who rode Marvin’s Policy, felt he moved slightly sooner than he wanted, because a hole opened up on the inside and he didn’t want to risk taking the wide route.

The Silver Screen, in which Vernon Castle beat only one horse, was also at a mile, but unlike Sunday’s race it was on dirt and around only one turn at Hollywood Park.

“Running there, it’s more like a sprint than anything else,” Sullivan said. “I think what happened is Eddie tried to send him coming out of the gate, and the horse resisted.”

The next dance for Vernon Castle will probably be the $125,000 Del Mar Derby, which is 1 1/8 miles on grass on Aug. 17.

“That should be right for him,” Sullivan said. “I wanted to get a good race into him before that race and it looks as though we succeeded.”

They succeeded without a misstep. The prep race was as smooth as any move that the real Vernon Castle ever made 80 years ago.

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Charlie Whittingham, still seeking his first stakes win at Del Mar since 1983 after Mazaad’s fifth-place finish in the La Jolla Mile, said Sunday that Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand won’t run at Del Mar. “I’m getting him ready for the Oak Tree season (which starts Oct. 1 at Santa Anita),” Whittingham said. “We’re planning on racing him next year as a 4-year-old, so there’s no point in giving him too much the rest of this year.” Ferdinand was also second in the Preakness and finished third in the Belmont Stakes, his last appearance, on June 7. . . . Apparently Mazaad’s win via a disqualification over Sovereign Don in the Will Rogers Handicap at Hollywood Park on May 24 will be allowed to stand. Wayne Lukas, Sovereign Don’s trainer, had appealed the stewards’ decision to the California Horse Racing Board after his colt finished first and was moved back to fifth for herding other horses in the stretch. Following a hearing, a referee has reportedly upheld the stewards and his opinion must be voted on by the seven-member board at their regular meeting at Del Mar later this month. . . . Sunday’s attendance was the fourth-largest in Del Mar history and the handle of $4.9 million was the third-highest.