Travers Stakes at Saratoga : Shoemaker Tries to Make It 4 for 5

Last Dec. 14, the day Temperate Sil won the $1-million Hollywood Futurity, Lew Figone’s daughter had a birthday.

Today, Temperate Sil, the roan colt that Figone, of El Cerrito, Calif., owns in partnership with Richard Granzella and trainer Charlie Whittingham, will run in the $1-million Travers Stakes. Figone will be celebrating his 61st birthday.

Temperate Sil’s jockey, Bill Shoemaker, has already blown out the candles this week. He turned 56 Wednesday, and Friday, shortly after Temperate Sil returned to the barn from a morning gallop, Shoemaker quoted Maurice Chevalier, saying, “Nobody likes to get older, but consider the alternative.”

Shoemaker may be the oldest jockey in the oldest race for 3-year-olds, the 118-year-old Travers, but it’s difficult to find a rider with a better success rate in the stake. Eddie Arcaro, Braulio Baeza and Jimmy McLaughlin won the Travers four times apiece, but it took Arcaro 17 tries and Baeza 10. In only four attempts, Shoemaker has won the Travers three times--with Gallant Man in 1957, Jaipur in 1962 and Damascus in 1967.

The Travers was one of the wins that helped make Damascus the Horse of the Year, but the Jaipur-Ridan duel in 1962, so close that it couldn’t be determined by the naked eye, is considered by racing historians to be the most thrilling race in the history of Saratoga, which opened in 1863.

“Maybe there never was another race like it,” the late Red Smith wrote. “It simply isn’t possible for two horses to throw hooks into each other for a solid mile and a quarter, going as hard as they can every inch of the route, without giving way in the stretch when a fresh challenge develops. It isn’t possible, but Jaipur and Ridan did it. I never saw a horse race like it, and I couldn’t find anyone at Saratoga who had.”

All four of Shoemaker’s Travers mounts were favored, and the only one he lost was with Candy Spots in 1963, when they finished fourth as Crewman bounced home at 19-1.

Temperate Sil, who has won the Santa Anita Derby and the Swaps Stakes besides the Hollywood Futurity, probably would have been the second betting choice if he hadn’t gotten sick a week before the Kentucky Derby, but he’s no better than 8-1 today.

That’s because the nine-horse Travers field is awash with talent. Alysheba, the Derby and Preakness winner; Bet Twice, the Belmont and Haskell winner, and Java Gold, the new colt on the block with four wins in five starts since he returned to the races in April, are the three top horses, but the crowd--expected to be a record 55,000--will have to make some difficult choices.

Rounding out the field are Fortunate Moment, who was 6 for 6 at Arlington Park; Polish Navy, Cryptoclearance and the entry of Gorky and Gulch. All of the starters except Gorky, who is supposed to assure a valid pace for his stablemate, have won major races. Shoemaker says it’s the best collection of 3-year-olds he has ever seen in one race.

Despite the caliber of the competition, the weather could make the outcome of the Travers less than satisfactory. There is a 70% chance of rain, and although a muddy track probably would help Java Gold, Polish Navy, Cryptoclearance and Gulch, it would undermine the chances of horses such as Temperate Sil.

Shoemaker’s colt is a son of Temperence Hill, who won the Belmont in the mud before he won the Travers in 1980, but in two starts on off tracks at Santa Anita, Temperate Sil was fifth and third.

Even if the weather forecasters are wrong, Temperate Sil might have problems here, where the upscale fans are more genteel than, say, at Belmont Park, but are also extremely close to the horses, both in the saddling area and on the track.

Whittingham was able to control Temperate Sil’s fractious gate behavior in the Swaps at Hollywood Park through special tactics, including the loading of the horse after all the other starters were in their stalls.

“Here, they load by number,” Whittingham said Friday. “But at least, we’re No. 7 and he’ll only have to wait for two horses after he gets in.”

Shoemaker discussed Temperate Sil’s temperament. “He’s matured some and he’s better than he was,” the jockey said. “If he’s in the right frame of mind, I think he’s got a good chance.

“You can usually tell how he’s going to run. If he tries to kick up from behind and he’s washy (sweating) in the post parade, then his races haven’t been that good.”

Temperate Sil’s workouts at Saratoga have been brilliant. He covered a mile in 1:39 3/5, then on Tuesday was clocked in a sizzling :57 1/5 for five-eighths of a mile.

Some railbirds thought that perhaps Temperate Sil’s last workout was too fast.

“No, it was what he needed,” Whittingham said. “The track was awfully fast that day, and he did it easy, without putting out too much.”

Horse Racing Notes Clarence Scharbauer, whose family owns Alysheba, has put pressure on Chris McCarron with remarks he made at a Chamber of Commerce function in Texas recently. Scharbauer, referring to questionable rides by McCarron in the Belmont and the Haskell, said the jockey might lose the mount if he didn’t do better in the Travers. . . . The other riding assignments are Randy Romero on Polish Navy, Angel Cordero on Cryptoclearance, Pat Day on Java Gold, Jose Santos on Gulch, Earlie Fires on Fortunate Moment, Craig Perret on Bet Twice and Tony Graell on Gorky. . . . All of the starters will carry 126 pounds for the 1 miles.