SANTA ANITA HANDICAP : CRITICAL BETTORS : Debate on Entry Rule Begins Again After Defeat of Ferdinand

Whenever a heavily bet favorite fails to win a race, there is bound to be grumbling among the bettors, if only for the obvious reason that many at the track have invested in the horse.

But when Ferdinand, sent off at 7-10, fell more than 11 lengths behind in the San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita on Feb. 14 and finished a dull second to Judge Angelucci, the outcry was especially loud. Bill Shoemaker, Ferdinand’s jockey, never hit his horse with the whip, and many of the bettors who loaded up on the 1987 horse of the year thought they deserved better.

Charlie Whittingham, Ferdinand’s trainer, explained away the performance by saying that it was the horse’s first start in almost three months, that he was carrying a career-high 128 pounds, and that he’s more effective going 1 miles than he is running the San Antonio distance of 1 1/8 miles.

Another trainer, however, has suggested that it was to Ferdinand’s advantage not to win the San Antonio, since it would help him when the weights were assigned for Sunday’s $1-million Santa Anita Handicap. Joe Manzi said that Whittingham “gave” Ferdinand a race, and is unhappy that the horse’s weight has dropped from 128 pounds to 127 for the Big ‘Cap. Manzi is expected to enter Masterful Advocate when the field is assembled for the race this morning.

Much of the criticism would have been dulled--at least among the horseplayers who bet Ferdinand--if he had been coupled in the wagering with Judge Angelucci, who is also trained by Whittingham. That way, they would have collected had either horse won.

Had the San Antonio been run in New York, Ferdinand and Judge Angelucci--as well as Swink, a third Whittingham horse in the race--would have run as an entry, because the coupling rule there requires horses to run as a single betting interest if there are common owners or trainers.

In California, however, horses are usually coupled only if they are owned by the same person. That rule also prevails in other major racing states, such as Florida and New Jersey.

Ferdinand and Judge Angelucci will again run as separate betting interests Sunday in the Big ‘Cap.

“Under special circumstances, and in the best interests of racing, the stewards in California would have the power to couple horses if they had different owners but the same trainer,” said Pete Pedersen, a Santa Anita steward.

“But any time horses are coupled, we live in fear of one horse being a heavy favorite, the other being a longshot, and the favorite being a late scratch. Then the bettors have to live with their bet on the horse who doesn’t have a particularly good chance.”

That very thing happened at the Meadowlands in New Jersey several years ago. A heavy favorite, ridden by Angel Cordero, was scratched during the post parade, leaving the public with a longshot that would have been 20-1 or more had he been running uncoupled. Fans rioted, forcing the Meadowlands to cancel the rest of the evening’s races and close the track.

Asked if California, which once had the New York coupling rule, might be better off re-adopting it, Whittingham said:

“The rule’s OK the way it is. We’ve got the best purses in the country, and there’s no point changing anything. When you start coupling horses all over the place, you’ll wind up with a lot of 1-to-5 shots, which no bettor likes, and you’d also have a lot of races that wouldn’t fill for lack of enough betting interest.

“The people complaining the loudest about that last race (the San Antonio) are the tip-sheet guys, because they didn’t have the winner. I’ve never been able to figure out those guys, anyway. If they’re so good at picking winners, why wouldn’t they bet the horses themselves instead of selling the information to somebody else? They remind me of stockbrokers. Why would you sell somebody on a stock if you liked it so much that you could invest in it yourself?”

Asked about the coupling rule, Ben Felton, a member of the California Horse Racing Board, said:

“We once had it where horses with the same trainer were coupled, and I guess we could always go back to it if there was enough support for it. But I think the people who like the rule the most the way it is now are the owners.

“Most of them don’t like their horses to be 1A. They don’t have to share any purse money with the owner of the other horse, but for some reason having your horse listed as 1A in the program has something negative attached to it.”

Coupled or uncoupled, Ferdinand and Judge Angelucci, plus Alysheba and Super Diamond, make this Big ‘Cap one of the most appealing in the stake’s 51-year history. In developments Thursday, Sebrof was declared out of the race and Whittingham said he won’t make a decision until today about also starting Temperate Sil.

Ferdinand may go off a slight favorite, but students of time are raving about Alysheba’s figures for his 2:00 2/5 clocking in winning the Strub Stakes on Feb. 7.

On Thursday, Alysheba, who is usually stabled at trainer Jack Van Berg’s barn at Hollywood Park, returned to Santa Anita’s racing strip for the first time since the Strub and worked five furlongs in 1:00 3/5 for regular jockey Chris McCarron, including a final three-eighths of a mile in :36 4/5.

After Pat Valenzuela missed his riding assignments Wednesday without notifying the stewards at Santa Anita, they took him off his mounts Thursday until he meets with them and gives an explanation.

Valenzuela has had frequent absences from riding because of what he will only say are “personal problems.” He called the stewards Thursday morning, but gave no specific reason for being absent Wednesday.

Valenzuela has been tested frequently for drug use by the stewards, but has never had a positive result.