Stars of ’86 Returning for Encore : Larger Purses Keep Top Horses Running

On the opening weekend of the new year, Smile, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint Stakes at Santa Anita last November, was running at Calder Race Course in South Florida.

In Maryland, the handlers of Broad Brush, the well-traveled 3-year-old who earned $1.4 million in 1986, were planning to send their colt to Santa Anita for the winter.

Already at Santa Anita, and in training for coming stakes, were Ferdinand, winner of the Kentucky Derby; Snow Chief, the Preakness winner; Precisionist, a 6-year-old with career earnings of $3 million, and Skywalker, winner of last year’s richest race, the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Manila and Lady’s Secret, also winners on Breeders’ Cup day, were getting rests, but they, too, are scheduled to run again this year.

What all this means is that the nation’s race track operators, a generally gloomy lot in recent years because of declining business, have at least one reason to relax those furrows in their brows. They have been saying that one reason for the downturn is that breeders rush the game’s stars off to stud farms before fans have the chance to fully appreciate them.

But 1987 seems to be different. The Chinese might call it the year of the hare, but in thoroughbred racing, 1987 appears to be the year of the holdover.

Ferdinand, only the second Kentucky Derby winner who will race as a 4-year-old in the last six years, and Snow Chief, only the third Preakness winner out of the last seven to return, already have shown what attractions they can be. In their final starts as 3-year-olds, Ferdinand defeated Snow Chief by just more than a length the day after Christmas at Santa Anita, and the crowd of almost 66,000 was the track’s third-largest for an opening day in the last 22 years.

“Why do you think the Skins Game has been such an immediate sensation?” asked trainer Gary Jones, referring to a made-for-TV golf tournament. “It’s because of the names--some name golfers that the public is just dying to see. Racing’s no different than any other sport, it needs names.

“But the trouble with racing is that the fans are lucky if they see the star horses for two years. Laker fans have 10 years or more to enjoy somebody like Magic Johnson.”

Jones, however, was the trainer of Turkoman, one of the stars from last year who isn’t returning.

Turkoman, who became a 5-year-old Jan. 1, had four firsts and three seconds in eight stakes last year, finishing with career winnings of $2.1 million after being runner-up to Skywalker in the Breeders’ Cup.

Jones, reluctant to part with such a steady breadwinner, tried to dissuade Turkoman’s owners from retiring him. “He could have run for $8 million in purses this year if he had stayed around,” Jones said. “But they didn’t think it was feasible, and of course, it wasn’t my money we were talking about.”

Corbin Robertson, the Houston oilman who bred and raced Turkoman, sold a 50% interest in him in July to several men, among them John Galbreath.

Although Galbreath enjoys racing horses--his horses have won the Kentucky Derby twice and he is the only owner to have won that race and England’s Epsom Derby--he is also a prominent Kentucky breeder. Turkoman, a well-bred son of Alydar who already has made his mark on the track, will begin his stud career in February at Galbreath’s Darby Dan Farm near Lexington, Ky.

“Darby Dan had a bad experience with Proud Truth, running him a year longer,” Jones said. “They hurt his value (as a sire) by doing that.”

Proud Truth, after winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic as a 3-year-old at Aqueduct in 1985, came to California early last year and was a disappointment at Santa Anita. He never did regain his 1985 form.

Three other major winners from 1986--Greinton, Danzig Connection and Garthorn--also were retired. There was no choice with Greinton and Danzig Connection, who were injured. Garthorn, a $90,000 purchase who went on to earn more than $700,000, has become a 7-year-old and is overdue to start stud duty.

Although trainer Bobby Frankel has lost Garthorn, he will have another year to work with Al Mamoon, a 6-year-old with career earnings of $1.1 million.

Before Al Mamoon finished fifth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile, his owners, Bert Firestone and Edmund Gann, received an offer for the son of Believe It from a New Zealand breeding group. Firestone wanted to sell, but Gann didn’t. Consequently, Gann became 100% owner of the horse, giving Firestone the amount he would have gotten from the New Zealanders.

“It’s just as well,” Frankel said. “I think the horse will make more running another year than he could at stud.”

On the female side, there will be the return of several other top fillies in trainer Wayne Lukas’ barn in addition to Lady’s Secret.

“Most of my owners are racing people, they’re not breeding people,” Lukas said.

No matter which is announced as Horse of the Year later this month--Lady’s Secret or Manila--the winner will run another year. In the last seven years, the Horse of the Year has returned to the track the next year only twice, and both times it was John Henry, a gelding whose only purpose was to race.

There are two basic reasons for the move to keep horses on the track. First, the breeding business, which seemed like a license to print money just a few years ago, has reversed itself. And second, as Jones indicated with Turkoman, horses have the chance to run for more purse money than owners have ever seen.

“It used to be that all a 3-year-old had to do was win one big race and he’d be worth $15-20 million as a stud,” trainer Mel Stute said. “That’s not the case now, but look at the money you can win on the track.”

Stute has trained Snow Chief, whose career purses going into this year are $2.8 million, and Brave Raj, who last year earned $933,650, a record for a 2-year-old filly.

“There’s so much purse money around,” said trainer Jerry Fanning, whose Top Corsage, a multiple stakes-winning filly last year, is back as a 4-year-old. “You can make $1 million with a horse now like it used to be making $100,000. Look at a horse like Alphabatim--even he won $1 million.”

In fact, Alphabatim has earned $1.3 million, more than half of it last year when he won only one stake, the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Cup.

The 6-year-old, who has run his last race, padded his bankroll by finishing close in several rich races. Alphabatim’s $150,000 payoff for running fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic is only $5,000 less than Secretariat got for winning the 1973 Kentucky Derby, and more than any horse has ever received for finishing second in the Derby.

Although Garden State Park, trapped in a fiscal whirlpool, has halved the purse of the 1987 Jersey Derby, to $500,000, there will still be one more $1-million race this year than last, with the additions of the Travers at Saratoga and the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park. That brings the $1-million races to 12.

In addition, there are separate $5-million and $1-million payoffs connected with the Triple Crown, and even small tracks such as Turfway Park, near Cincinnati, are offering $500,000 races.

Big purses inevitably draw the important horses, and important horses are reasons why people go to the track, according to a study commissioned by the Jockey Club in New York last year. It showed that among frequent attenders, more than one of four went because of the horses that were running. Of the people who seldom attended, about 1 of 5 indicated that better horses would make a difference.

“It’s hard to make (breed and develop) heroes,” Jones said.