Racing at Hollywood Park : Candi’s Gold Strikes It Rich in Silver Screen

When David and Elizabeth Whelan sent their broodmare, Holmgirl, to be bred to the stallion Yukon at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky in 1983, it cost them $2,500 for the service, and there was some ridicule thrown in at no extra charge.

Yukon is a son of the great Northern Dancer, but he never won a race and his aborted, injury-riddled career came to an inauspicious end on the courses of France.

The Whelans, who live in Miami, were told that $2,500 was an outrageous stud fee to be paying for Yukon. They were told that a fee of $1,000 or $1,500 could have also gotten them the mating for their mare.

Now, even the $2,500 looks like a bargain to David Whelan, because the result of the Yukon-Holmgirl romance was Candi’s Gold, a stakes winner who has already run far better than the cost of the investment.

“The sire might not have done much, but the genes were there,” Whelan said Friday, minutes after Candi’s Gold passed On the Line just a few strides from the wire to win the $160,500 Silver Screen Handicap at Hollywood Park before a crowd of 28,678. The win was Candi’s Gold’s fourth in eight starts, his first in a stake, and it more than doubled his career earnings, which stand at $179,590.

The surprise of the Silver Screen was not so much Candi’s Gold winning, but the fifth-place finish in the field of six for Temperate Sil, the Hollywood Futurity and Santa Anita Derby winner, who was sent off the 3-5 favorite.

Temperate Sil was muleish going into the gate, broke badly and nicked one back leg with the other in his first few strides. After being close to the speedy On the Line early, Temperate Sil stopped running at the quarter pole and was 16 lengths behind Candi’s Gold at the end.

“I don’t know how bad it (the injury) is,” trainer Charlie Whittingham said of Temperate Sil after the race. “We’ll have to check him out.”

Candi’s Gold, the second choice on the tote board, ran 1 1/8 miles in a good 1:47 3/5 and paid $9, $4.20 and $3. His margin was a neck over On the Line, who had 10 lengths on the next horse, The Medic. On the Line paid $7.20 and $4.80, and The Medic returned $3.40.

Temperate Sil, making his first start in three months, was carrying 124 pounds, eight more than both Candi’s Gold and On the Line. He has been a bad gate horse before, starting with some of his early races as a 2-year-old.

“He was getting better (in the gate), but the fact that he hadn’t run in a long time had something to do with what happened today,” said Bill Shoemaker, Temperate Sil’s jockey.

Despite the slow start, Temperate Sil was inside On the Line, less than a length off the lead, going down the backstretch. That forced Gary Stevens, aboard Candi’s Gold, to make a decision.

They were in third place, but because Temperate Sil had taken a position next to the rail, On the Line was outside and not far away from Candi’s Gold.

“I knew that On the Line sometimes tries to get out, so I was worried about that,” Stevens said. “But I didn’t want to give up my position to Chris (McCarron) and his horse (The Medic), so I stayed where I was.”

With Temperate Sil dropping back as the field straightened out for the stretch run, Stevens had a bead on On the Line, but the leader, under Pat Valenzuela, wasn’t quitting despite going six furlongs in 1:09 4/5.

“Three times I thought I had Pat, and every time I couldn’t get to him,” Stevens said. “The other horse was accelerating quicker than mine.

“When we got to within a length, my horse wanted to hang and started looking up, preoccupied with something else. At the eighth pole, we were about two lengths behind. But then at the sixteenth pole, he finally fired. That says a lot for this horse--a lot of horses would have chucked it in when they couldn’t make up the ground right away.”

The unexpected factor for Valenzuela was Temperate Sil being as close to On the Line as he was on the backstretch.

“Shoe pressured me,” Valenzuela said. “And my horse was trying to get out again. Then he was carrying his head high in the last part.

“But I still think he ran a super race. I know him better now, and maybe we can correct those things. I still think he’s going to win some big races later on.”

Stevens and trainer Eddie Gregson are saying the same thing about Candi’s Gold. The 3-year-old colt has actually run only one poor race, his eighth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.

“Off this race, running in the Kentucky Derby doesn’t look so stupid,” Gregson said. “I think he’s going to be better in the fall. He’s filling out and developing all the time.”

Horse Racing Notes

Candi’s Gold is named after one of David and Elizabeth Whelan’s three daughters. Candi Whelan will be a freshman at UCLA. . . . The Silver Screen ended quickly for trainer Charlie Whittingham. “When Temperate Sil broke bad, I knew we were in trouble,” Whittingham said. . . . Gene Klein’s On the Line didn’t get first money at Hollywood Park, but his Clever Secret won Friday’s Lamplighter Handicap at Monmouth Park. Today at Monmouth, Klein’s Lady’s Secret, last year’s Horse of the Year, runs in the Molly Pitcher Handicap, with Chris McCarron riding. A win by Lady’s Secret would push her over the $3-million mark and past All Along as the No. 1 distaffer on the career money list. . . . Hollywood Park offers the $200,000 American Handicap today, and on Sunday there are eight fillies and mares entered in the $100,000 Beverly Hills Handicap--Stall Cloud, Festivity, Amongst the Stars, Northern Aspen, Frau Altiva, Aromacor, Auspiciante and Reloy. Northern Aspen carries top weight of 121 pounds, one more than Reloy.