Snow Chief’s Racing Career Appears Over : Injury Expected to Force Retirement of 1986 Preakness Winner

Snow Chief, the diminutive dark brown colt who captured the public’s imagination to such an extent that he became almost a California folk hero, apparently has run his last race.

Mel Stute, Snow Chief’s trainer, said Friday that thoroughbred racing’s leading money-winner in training, with earnings of $3,383,210, most likely will be retired because of an injured tendon in his left front leg.

The injury apparently was suffered during last Sunday’s running of the Californian, in which the 1986 Preakness winner finished a disappointing third behind Judge Angelucci and Iron Eyes.

Three days after the race, Stute said that Snow Chief had come out of the Californian “just fine.” By Friday, however, further tests had revealed a problem.

“There was a slight filling in his tendon after the race,” Stute said Friday. “You could hardly see it, but with that new scan, you could see four different spots where the tendon was affected.

“He’s definitely out of the (June 28 Hollywood) Gold Cup. The vets recommended from five to six months off. He probably will go to stud.”

It was Snow Chief’s humble origins, as much as anything else, that caused him to be celebrated in story and song during a dramatic 3-year-old campaign last year.

His sire was Reflected Glory, a horse of no great distinction, as evidenced by his $2,000 stud fee.

His dam was Miss Snowflake, whose racing career resulted in earnings of $2,308.

But this modest pairing produced a colt who, after first showing promise as a yearling under veteran trainer Wilfrido Martinez at Caliente, went into last year’s Kentucky Derby as the favorite.

Snow Chief, in fact, had become so popular after victories in the Hollywood Futurity as 2-year-old and in the Florida and Santa Anita derbies the next spring, that a song, “The Ballad of Snow Chief,” was recorded in his honor and received more than a little play.

Snow Chief finished 11th in the Kentucky Derby, with his West Coast rival, Ferdinand, winning the race. But Carl Grinstead and Ben Rochelle’s small colt rebounded two weeks later at Pimlico and won the Preakness.

Later, there were victories in the Jersey Derby and the Charles H. Strub Stakes at Santa Anita, and Snow Chief will retire having finished in the money in 21 of his 23 races. He won 13, finished second in 3 and third in 5.

There is a slight chance of Snow Chief’s racing again, but only slight.

“He’s too good to take any chances with,” Stute said.

Ironically, it had been announced earlier this week that the thoroughbred racing and breeding stock of Snow Chief’s owners, Rochelle and the estate of Carl Grinstead, who died earlier this year, would be dispersed at California Thoroughbred Sales’ fall sale October 12-14 at Hollywood Park.

Only two horses were being kept out of the sale--Miss Snowflake, who is in foal to Alydar, and her son, Snow Chief.

Asked his feelings on Snow Chief’s impending retirement, Stute voiced the sentiment of many of the colt’s fans.

“It hurts down deep inside,” he said.

Horse Racing Notes The track selection committee of Breeders’ Cup Ltd., meeting Friday in Lexington, Ky., selected Churchill Downs in Louisville as the site for the 1988 Breeders’ Cup day. The selection by the five-member committee is expected to be ratified when the Breeders’ Cup board of directors meets July 16.