Thrill Show Tries Santa Anita Dirt

Trainer Charlie Whittingham has taken good grass horses and successfully converted them to dirt runners in the past.

Cougar II, the national grass champion in 1972, won the Santa Anita Handicap, which is run on dirt, as an 8-year-old in 1973.

Exceller was good no matter where Whittingham placed him. In 1978, he won the San Juan Capistrano on grass, took the Hollywood Turf Cup and also triumphed on dirt in two major dirt races--the Hollywood Gold Cup and the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park. Why Exceller didn’t win an Eclipse Award of some kind that year was enough to make Whittingham scratch his hair, if he had any.

More recently, Whittingham has trained Greinton, a French-raced horse who hadn’t seen dirt until he reached Santa Anita early in 1985. Under Whittingham, Greinton’s big wins were on dirt--the Hollywood Gold Cup and last year’s Santa Anita Handicap.

The latest horse to enter Dr. Whittingham’s laboratory is Thrill Show, another French-raced grass specialist who will make his first dirt appearance today in the $100,000 San Pasqual Handicap.

Whittingham will also saddle Epidaurus in the nine-horse San Pasqual. The field in the 1 1/16-mile stake, in post-position order, consists of Important Business, Ascension, Innamorato, Epidaurus, Bozina, Nostalgia’s Star, Thrill Show, Inevitable Leader and Polynesian Flyer.

Thrill Show won his first three starts and added a second in France. Purchased by Chicagoan Dick Duchossois for an estimated $1 million, he arrived at Whittingham’s barn in time for last November’s Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita.

Thrill Show drew the outside post in a 14-horse field in the Breeders’ Cup Mile and finished sixth. Two weeks later, Thrill Show won a division of the Hollywood Derby.

Whittingham worked both Thrill Show and Epidaurus the other day on dirt, and both were sharp. Thrill Show went five furlongs in :58 1/5 and Epidaurus ran the same distance a fifth of a second faster.

“You never know about horses going from grass to dirt,” Whittingham said. “They might look like they like the switch in the mornings, but you’ve got to see them in races before you can tell.”

Bedside Promise was assigned top weight of 123 pounds when the nominations were made for the San Pasqual, but his handlers are going to wait for the Potrero Grande Handicap, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint, on Feb. 11.

That leaves Thrill Show as the starting high weight at 122 pounds, which is two more than Nostalgia’s Star.

Whittingham is a man who seldom agrees with a racing secretary’s appraisal of his horses, but he has no complaints about today’s impost for Thrill Show.

“He was weighted way up there at the end of the year in Europe,” Whittingham said.

Among European 3-year-olds, Thrill Show was listed at 129 pounds, which placed him beneath only two horses--Dancing Brave and Last Tycoon at 130 pounds each.

Dancing Brave, while a disappointment in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, was the European champion after winning the Arc de Triomphe and the English Derby. Last Tycoon won the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

With Thrill Show ranked next to that pair, Whittingham seems to be enjoying the compliment.