Horse Racing : Rochelle, New Zealand Group Each Seek to Buy Snow Chief

Ben Rochelle, who owns 50% of the retired Snow Chief, has offered to buy the other 50% from the estate of his late partner, Carl Grinstead.

If Rochelle’s offer is accepted, the 76-year-old former vaudeville dancer said that he would stand Snow Chief at stud in California.

“(On) a farm within an hour’s drive of Los Angeles,” Rochelle said. “I would want to be able to see the horse all the time and have some fun with his babies.”

Snow Chief suffered a tendon injury while running third in the Californian at Hollywood Park June 7 and was retired.

Winner of the Florida and Santa Anita derbies and the Preakness in 1986, when he was the country’s champion 3-year-old colt, Snow Chief also won the Strub Stakes at Santa Anita this year and retired with $3.3 million in purses, which placed him fourth on the all-time list, behind John Henry, Spend a Buck and Slew o’ Gold.

Rochelle said Pearl Grinstead, Carl’s widow, has until next Wednesday to make a decision on his offer. It has been estimated that Snow Chief’s value is $2 million to $3 million.

A New Zealand group has made an offer to Pearl Grinstead and Rochelle for Snow Chief.

“I wouldn’t want to see the horse leave the country,” Rochelle said. “My offer to Pearl is for the same amount of money that she would get for her 50% if Snow Chief were sold to the New Zealanders.”

Eddie Truman had two claiming-race winners on the same program last week at Hollywood Park, but that was little consolation to the trainer, who lost a promising Seattle Slew filly a couple of days before.

Slewcie, a 3-year-old, suffered a heart attack after working a half-mile and died on the track. She was winless in three starts last year and after being sidelined with sore shins was on the way back to the races.

Truman, who retired from riding in 1968, remembered that he rode three horses that died of heart attacks.

When he was 14, in 1960, Truman rode a quarter horse who won a race in Elk City, Okla.

“He was dead at the wire,” Truman said. “I still have the picture of the finish, and you can see his head hanging and his ears flopped.”

When the horse collapsed, Truman suffered a broken collarbone.

A few years later, after he started riding thoroughbreds, Truman was aboard a horse in a 12-horse field at Gulfstream Park. At the eighth pole, the horse went down, dead instantly, and Truman was trampled by three or four trailing horses.

“I hurt my shoulder bad,” he said. “It still gives me trouble once in a while.”

Near the end of his career as a jockey, Truman rode a horse who finished second at Fairmount Park.

“Just past the finish line,” Truman said, “he started nickering, which I thought was unusual. Then he tried to pull me to the outside fence, so I jumped off. He ran into the fence, but it was a heart attack that killed him.

“Funny, isn’t it? There’s probably a lot more people you’ve known who have died of heart attacks, some of them people that you’ll say later never had a sick day. But you remember those three horses. And now there are four.”

Temperate Sil, who hasn’t run since a cough knocked him out of the Kentucky Derby a week before the race, will carry top weight of 124 pounds Friday in the $150,000 Silver Screen Handicap at Hollywood Park.

Temperate Sil will concede between 8 and 11 pounds to five other starters--The Medic, Candi’s Gold and On the Line at 116 apiece, Jamoke with 115 and Crystal Run at 113.

W.D. Jacks, who ran a 1:33 4/5 mile in his last start, will miss the Silver Screen because of a bruised foot. Trainer Neil Drysdale is considering W.D. Jacks and Blanco for the $200,000 Swaps Stakes July 26 but probably will not run both horses.

Hollywood’s other weekend stakes are the $200,000 American Saturday, the $100,000 Beverly Hills Handicap Sunday and the $100,000 Valkyr Handicap Monday.

Belmont Park will run three major races in as many days this weekend--the $200,000 Dwyer on Friday, the $350,000 Suburban Handicap Saturday and the $250,000 Coaching Club American Oaks Sunday.

Gone West, Jazzing Around, Pledge Card, Simply Majestic and Polish Navy have been entered in the Dwyer. In the Suburban, Broad Brush will carry 126 pounds, giving nine pounds to Lac Ouimet, who is next in the weights. Two of the standouts in the Coaching Club are Fiesta Gal and Buryyourbelief.

Polish Navy, a top 2-year-old in 1986 who missed this year’s Triple Crown races, won last Friday against older horses at Belmont. Java Gold, who is in the same category as Polish Navy, went off at 1-10 Monday in a bid for his third straight win this year, but he missed by a nose to Cutlass Reality, a 5-year-old who was winless in 10 races this season.

Trainer Charlie Whittingham indicated Wednesday that Ferdinand, winner of Sunday’s Hollywood Gold Cup, would probably have a race at Del Mar before he runs in the Budweiser-Arlington Million Sept. 6.

The most likely spot for Ferdinand would be the Eddie Read Handicap Aug. 15. Perrault finished third in the Read in 1982 before he gave Whittingham his first win in the Million. Whitting-ham’s other Million winner, Estrapade, ran sixth in the Palomar Handicap last year at Del Mar before she won at Arlington Park.

Horse Racing Notes

Jose Santos, who is in a tight battle with Laffit Pincay for the top spot on the national money list, will be in from New York Saturday to ride Double Feint in the American Handicap at Hollywood Park. Al Mamoon, who won the race last year, will not run, reportedly because of a bruised foot. . . . Fairplex Park, which ended its harness season four weeks early Saturday night because of poor business and competition for horses from a meeting in Sacramento, averaged 2,120 fans a program, with the average handle running $262,003. Those are respective drops of 24% and 27% from last year, and it is likely that the season will be operated by a different group next year. Fairplex was unable to get state approval for betting on televised races from Sacramento. Joe Anderson was the leading driver at Fairplex with 53 wins and also the top trainer with 46 victories. Pindari Way, a 6-year-old pacer, was the top horse with six wins in eight starts. Betting favorites at the meet won 45% of the time. . . . Trevor Denman will call the races at Fairplex for the Los Angeles County Fair meeting, which runs Sept. 17-Oct 4. . . . Under new ownership, Waterford Park in West Virginia became Mountaineer Park this week. . . . Real Delight, the filly who was elected to the Racing Hall of Fame this week, won 11 of 12 starts as a 3-year-old in 1952. Her only loss was by a head to White Skies, who was a colt. . . . Rain forced Belmont Park to move three grass races to the dirt last Saturday and 63 of the 128 horses entered for the nine-race program were scratched.