Horse Racing : Ireland’s Theatrical Leads European Challenge

Although collectively they have won only four races this year, the five European horses in Sunday’s Budweiser-Arlington Million are being described by overseas observers as the strongest group to run in the race.

Three of the invaders--Maysoon, Pennine Walk and Teleprompter--are from England. Theatrical is from Ireland and Over the Ocean is from France.

Teleprompter won the Million last year, as a 14-1 longshot, and because he hasn’t won a race since, the 6-year-old gelding is getting little respect this time around. Guy Butchers of the International Racing Bureau lists Teleprompter as no better than 6-1 on his morning line.

“Teleprompter hasn’t run back to his form of last year,” said John Gosden, the expatriate Englishman who will saddle Zoffany and Alphabatim in the Million.

According to Gosden, Pennine Walk is the best of the European horses, but Butchers has the 4-year-old colt at 12-1 on his line. Pennine Walk has won three races this year and eight lifetime, but most of his wins have been at distances of a mile or less. The Million is 1 miles on grass.

The only other European horse with a win this year is Maysoon, who won a small stake at Newbury, England, in April. Maysoon’s supporters are growing for the Million, but the assignment is difficult for the 3-year-old filly. Only one 3-year-old, Irish-bred Tolomeo in 1983, has won the Million, and the best finish for a filly was Royal Heroine’s second in 1984, when John Henry won.

Although he is winless in his only two starts, Theatrical is also considered a possible winner of the Million.

Theatrical ran to his only three wins in 1985 as a 3-year-old in Ireland, where the competition can be weak. This year, however, in only his second start, Theatrical ran second to Acatenango, going 1 1/2 miles in a German stake. Acatenango is on an 11-race winning streak and might be the favorite if he runs in the prestigious Arc de Triomphe in Paris in October.

It became known at Arlington Park this week that Allen Paulson, the free-spending airplane builder from Encino, owns a 50% interest in Theatrical. That gives Paulson three chances in the Million, since he is a partner with Nelson Bunker Hunt in Palace Music and owns Estrapade outright.

Paulson said he bought half of Theatrical from Bert Firestone last fall, before the colt ran 11th in the $2-million Breeders’ Cup Turf Stakes at Aqueduct.

Under his agreement with Paulson, Firestone has control of Theatrical during his racing career, with Paulson sharing in half of the purses and holding 20 of the horse’s 40 breeding shares when he is retired.

Firestone has suggested that Theatrical race in Paulson’s colors in the Million. Since Firestone also owns an interest in Al Mamoon, that horse will have to be grouped as a four-horse betting entry Sunday with Theatrical, Palace Music and Estrapade.

Al Mamoon, who beat Zoffany in the 1 1/8-mile Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar Aug. 10, may have been the favorite had he run alone in the Million, but almost certainly he will be the pick now, since he has been teamed with three other horses. Zoffany probably will be the second choice.

Arlington Park officials are not overjoyed at the four-horse entry because it reduces betting opportunities, but track stewards apparently did not feel justified in asking for a relaxation of state regulations.

The sixth running of the Million is only the second Arlington Park camp-out, the first made necessary last year when an early morning fire destroyed the stands and the track’s offices July 31.

The only racing here last year was done on Million day, when more than 35,000 people watched a racing program from portable bleachers and tents that had been erected against a three-week deadline.

This year, Arlington again has a country fair atmosphere--the only added amenities are covered bleachers and permanent toilets--and the Labor Day weekend concludes a 13-day “International Festival of Racing” which is offering 21 stakes races and about $5 million in purses. Besides the Million, six other races worth $100,000 or more will be run by Tuesday.

Another 30,000-plus crowd is expected for the Million and attendance has been averaging more than 15,000 since the abbreviated season opened Aug. 19.

In 1984, Arlington’s last full season before the fire, daily attendance averaged about 9,800.

The around-the-clock work costs resulted in a deficit of an estimated $2 million for the track last year and despite the crowds this month, losses may double or triple this year.

Dick Duchossois, who owns and breeds horses, manufactures railroad cars and owns radio and television stations, has taken over complete operation of Arlington, having bought out his partners after the fire.

Duchossois is determined to re-establish Arlington as the cornerstone of Illinois racing, but a plan to rebuild the track, at a site north of here and halfway between Milwaukee and Chicago near the Wisconsin state line, has stalled, and tax relief from the Illinois state legislature has not materialized.

Arlington Park, which used to run a summer-long schedule, has not yet requested racing dates for next year and the other Chicago-area tracks, Hawthorne and Sportsman’s Park, will be interested in running the dates if they are not given to Duchossois.

Other major races here this weekend include today’s Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, Sunday’s Arlington Handicap for older horses on the turf and two Monday stakes--the Secretariat for 3-year-olds on grass and the Arlington-Washington Futurity for 2-year-old colts.

Owner Corbin Robertson is paying a $25,000 supplementary fee for Captain Valid, the winner of the Hollywood Juvenile in July, to run in Monday’s Futurity, which had a purse of $511,700 last year.

“I know a lot of people didn’t think much of this colt’s race at Hollywood Park because it was run in a slow time,” said Gary Jones, who trains Captain Valid. “But I thought it was a big race. It’s not the time that counts, but whether you win. The horses he beat had run fast before that race and they’ve run fast afterwards. My horse got hit with dirt in the face for the first time and he did all right.”

Horse Racing Notes

California has five horses in the Million this year--Al Mamoon, Alphabatim, Estrapade, Palace Music and Zoffany. The other American entrants are Flying Pidgeon, Uptown Swell, Creme Fraiche and Divulge. . . . American jockeys will ride three of the European horses. Chris McCarron, who rode the English colt, Bold Arrangement, to a second-place finish in this year’s Kentucky Derby, will be aboard Maysoon. Steve Cauthen, England’s leading jockey the last two years after leaving the United States in 1979, has the mount on Theatrical, and Cash Asmussen is riding Over the Ocean. Michael Kinane, Ireland’s top jockey this year and Theatrical’s regular rider, broke both wrists in a spill last week. . . . Undefeated Delicate Vine, whose career started in California, is favored to win today’s $375,000 Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes. Delicate Vine won the Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park in her last start. Others entered in the Lassie are Ruling Angel, Sachahuista, Colline, Mansfield Park and Turn to Dixie. . . . Del Mar will take betting on the Million and show the race on television.

Angel Cordero, despite serious multiple injuries that almost ended his career in March, returned to Saratoga in August and won that meet’s riding title for the 11th straight year. Cordero won 27 races. Leading trainer at the 24-day Saratoga season was the Wayne Lukas stable with 13 wins, including 7 stakes. . . . Cut It Out, a 4-year-old California-bred owned by Los Angeles stockbroker Mark Holden, is being supplemented, at a cost of $44,484, to race Friday night in the $362,803 Breeders Crown Aged Mare Pace at Greenwood in Toronto. Cut It Out finished second in a race there last week. The Breeders Crown series includes a race for aged male pacers at Los Alamitos in October.