Weekend Racing at Santa Anita’s Oak Tree Meeting : Trainer Vienna Seeking Coast-to-Coast Double

Trainer Darrell Vienna doesn’t have another television script up his sleeve. But he does have a barn loaded with fresh horses that will be factors in several important races at the end of the year.

Vienna’s runners will be in action on two stakes fronts this weekend, with newcomers Neshad and Joe’s Tammie covering both coasts.

Neshad, a winner in Europe, arrived at Vienna’s Santa Anita barn only a week ago and will be running Sunday in the $75,000 Volante Handicap.

Joe’s Tammie, who has been handled by the husband-wife team of Greg and Kim Otteson, Vienna’s assistants who recommended her purchase, might earn a trip to the Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park Nov. 21 if she runs well today in the $300,000 Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park in New York.

The Ottesons had a string of Vienna’s horses stabled next to Joe’s Tammie at Belmont this summer. After the 2-year-old filly won the Astoria Stakes, they called Vienna, told him she was for sale and closed a $250,000 deal for David Milch, who produced “Hill Street Blues.”

Vienna shared the credit for a script on the award-winning television show, a story about an abused grandparent.

“That’s work, real hard work,” Vienna said. “Compared to that, training horses is easy.”

Good horses make it easier. Vienna, a 41-year-old psychology major from UCLA who rode in collegiate rodeos and started training in 1976, is not in a league with Charlie Whittingham and Wayne Lukas yet, but he has four horses--Short Sleeves, Joe’s Tammie, Air Display and Santella Mac--who are possibilities for the Breeders’ Cup.

The star of the barn is Short Sleeves, a 5-year-old English-bred who just recently won three stakes in 28 days at Del Mar, Louisiana Downs and Bay Meadows.

Short Sleeves, who cost her owners, Noel Bloom and Michael Warner, about $100,000 when they bought her in the summer of 1986, earned $97,900 in Del Mar’s Ramona Handicap, which is just one of her six victories since she changed hands.

Vienna considers Short Sleeves the favorite to win the Eclipse Award as the year’s best female turf runner. She may become the smallest horse ever to win a title, since she weighs about 800 pounds and looks more like a pony than a race horse.

“She’s dominated her opposition,” the trainer said. “In the only two races she’s lost since I’ve had her, there were legitimate reasons. Not excuses, but reasons.”

In one defeat, Short Sleeves’ saddle slipped. In the other, jockey Gary Stevens mistakenly rushed her to the front leaving the gate, which isn’t the mare’s style.

“She ran an incredible race to win the Ramona,” Vienna said. “There was a foul claim against us that wasn’t allowed, but we were on the receiving--not the giving--end of the trouble. She had a terrible trip that day, one that would have been enough to beat most horses.”

Short Sleeves will probably run at Santa Anita in both the $100,000 Las Palmas Handicap a week from Sunday and the $400,000 Yellow Ribbon Nov. 15. The Breeders’ Cup is a possibility, but since that $10-million, seven-race series doesn’t have a stake on grass for females, Short Sleeves could clinch the division title with a win in the Yellow Ribbon.

Unusual circumstances are responsible for Vienna’s barn peaking at the right time.

“I didn’t like the turf course this summer at Hollywood Park,” he said. “I understand they’re doing something to make it better for the Breeders’ Cup, but this summer it wasn’t good.

“Most of my horses are grass horses, so as a result, I probably ran in only about 25 races there all season. Normally, I’d have about 100 starters.”

When Hollywood closed and Del Mar opened, Vienna’s horses were ready. Santella Mac, a 4-year-old Irish-bred colt, didn’t win any stakes there, but he was second to two of the country’s best grass runners--Sharrood in the Eddie Read Handicap and Swink in the Del Mar Handicap.

Vienna doesn’t know what to expect from Neshad in the Volante Sunday.

“I’d like to tell you more about him, but I really don’t know him that well,” Vienna said. “It will be a big chore, running practically off the plane. We have been able to breeze him. His sire is Sharpen Up.”

That may be enough. Sharpen Up also is the sire of Trempolino, who won the Arc de Triomphe in France earlier this month.

Horse Racing Notes In order of post position, the lineup for the Volante is Political Ambition, Salud Y Pesetas, Temperate Sil, Baba Karam, Neshad, Hot and Smoggy, Simply Majestic, The Medic and Caros Love. The 1 1/8-mile race marks Temperate Sil’s first start on grass and he has been assigned top weight of 122 pounds, three more than Baba Karam and The Medic. . . . Gary Stevens is at Bay Meadows today to ride Bedside Promise, a leading Breeders’ Cup Sprint candidate who is running in the Fall Sprint Championship. . . . Tejano and Forty Niner, two of the top 2-year-old colts, are part of an 11-horse field today in the Champagne at Belmont Park. . . . Joe’s Tammie would have to be supplemented for $120,000 to run in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Darrell Vienna said the money would be no problem if she’s considered good enough to run.