Racing at Santa Anita : Iron Eyes Seeks His First Stakes Victory Today

Trainer Charlie Whittingham is starting more horses--two--in today’s feature race than Carolyn Charles owns and trains.

Charles’ only horse, Iron Eyes, is a 4-year-old, dapple-gray gelding who will be trying to win his first stakes race today when he runs at Santa Anita in the $200,000 San Bernardino Handicap.

A year ago, Iron Eyes had just escaped from the first start of his career, having won a $32,000 claiming race but, to the relief of Charles, not having caught the attention of any trainers who could have bought him.

“I was scared to death to run him in a claiming race,” Charles said. “I couldn’t really enjoy that win, because I was afraid that when I went down to the winner’s circle, he might have been tagged by another trainer.

“But my husband (former rodeo rider Steve Charles) and I needed a win. We had just applied for five stalls at Canterbury Downs (near Minneapolis) and we wouldn’t have gotten them if one of our horses didn’t have at least one win.”

The Charleses got their stalls, and Iron Eyes scored one of his four victories at Canterbury in June. He is going into the San Bernardino off an allowance win at Santa Anita March 11, when he ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:41 4/5, which was the fastest time of the season for that distance until Judge Angelucci, another San Bernardino starter, matched it recently.

With only eight horses, two of them Whittingham’s Judge Angelucci and Bruiser, in the field for the 1 1/8-mile San Bernardino, it was suggested to Carolyn Charles that at least Iron Eyes has a chance to win part of the purse, since the track pays the first five finishers.

Charles took that as an affront. “We’re going to win,” she said. “He won that last race so easily, and the track was not real fast that day, comparing the times of the other races. The extra distance in this race should also help him.”

For the 36-year-old Charles, the daughter of an English mother who rode in fox hunts and a father who was a United States Navy physician, Iron Eyes is all gravy no matter where he finishes today. Charles bought the California-bred for $10,000 when he was an unraced 2-year-old and he has earned $103,015.

“I’ve been offered good amounts of money for him,” Charles said. “But I’m going to keep running him, and if he continues to do well, maybe I can attract some attention and get some owners to send horses to me to train.

“As soon as I could talk, I wanted a horse,” says Charles, who grew up in San Diego. “I had my first horse when I was 8, and I showed my first horse a year later.”

Her first runner was Red Albert, a $1,000 gelding who started as a show horse, then gave Charles her first winner on the track and wound up earning about $30,000.

“I spoiled him,” Charles said. “I treated him like a pet. Then when it came time to turn him out, he went to Steve’s ranch in Colorado, where he was unhappy. Now he’s down near Del Mar, helping little girls learn how to ride a jumper.”

Charles’ second horse was Granite Mountain, a $5,000 purchase. After several consistent finishes in the money, Granite Mountain was claimed from her for $5,000.

The earnings from Granite Mountain and some helper money from her father enabled Charles to buy Iron Eyes.

“When I first saw Iron Eyes, I liked him,” Charles said. “After I galloped him, I loved him.”

When Iron Eyes showed promise with some impressive workouts, however, Charles wasn’t around to see his development. She had been kicked in the back by a horse at the San Luis Rey Downs training center in Bonsall and suffered cracked vertebrae that kept her away for six weeks.

But Rod Kaufman, who used to break young horses for Wayne Lukas and a trainer who Charles says has been a “major influence” on her career, kept her posted.

“This horse can run,” Kaufman said. “And he should be able to run as far as they write races.”

The San Bernardino will be Iron Eyes’ first start beyond 1 1/16 miles. A win would be a real kick for Carolyn Charles, and not the kind she got that day at San Luis Rey.

Horse Racing Notes

Charlie Whittingham said he will start three horses--Louis Le Grand, Rivlia and Rosedale--in the $400,000 San Juan Capistrano, which will be run a week from today. . . . The season ends the following day, with Hollywood Park opening April 22. . . . Whittingham has won the San Juan the last four years and a dozen times overall. . . . Santa Anita’s meeting will be about 5% better in handle and 2% improved in attendance over last year. . . . Bill Shoemaker has won 40 races at Santa Anita for the first time since he had 63 wins in 1981. . . . Shoemaker will be at Golden Gate Fields Tuesday, to ride Young Flyer in the Miss California Stakes. . . . Pat Valenzuela, the third-leading rider at Santa Anita, won’t be there the rest of the meeting. Valenzuela, who has 73 winners, told the stewards he has personal problems. Pete Pedersen, one of the stewards, would not say whether Valenzuela was tested recently for drugs, referring the questioner to Dr. Robert Kerlan. Kerlan, Valenzuela and Valenzuela’s agent, Jerry Ingordo, could not be reached for comment. Trainer Mel Stute, who had wanted Valenzuela to ride Very Subtle in Saturday’s Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park, called the Santa Anita stewards earlier in the week to ask if a suspension had kept the jockey from taking the mount. Stute then gave the mount to Chris McCarron, who won the race on Very Subtle via a disqualification. Valenzuela, 24, had only ridden one day in the past week, having suffered a strained arm muscle in a spill. . . . Before trainer Ross Fenstermaker turned over owner Fred Hooper’s horses to John Russell, he saddled Be Scenic and Metronomic to win races. Russell became the trainer for Hooper’s California division after Fenstermaker was fired last week.