Horse Racing : Stalwars May Be a Dream Horse, but He Can Be a Nightmare, Too

Late Saturday night, at a hotel across the street from Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., Jake Mullins wasn’t looking forward to Sunday morning.

“That horse is a handful,” the exercise rider for trainer Gary Jones was saying. “He was a handful after the race today, and he’ll be a handful tomorrow morning, too.”

Mullins was talking about Stalwars, who hours before finished second, beaten by a head by Kingpost, in the $500,000 Jim Beam Stakes. Jones had brashly predicted that Stalwars was going to win, and the colt probably would have been first if he hadn’t almost clipped heels with another horse on the far turn.

“I wouldn’t trade spots with anyone for the Kentucky Derby,” Jones said.

Stalwars made his first appearance outside California at Turfway, and he’ll stay in Kentucky, probably to run in the $100,000 Lexington Stakes April 16 at Keeneland.

“This horse is fit enough now,” Jones said. “My main concern is how much money you might need to get in the Derby.”

If more than 20 horses are entered for the Derby, the 3-year-olds with the least earnings in important races are eliminated. Wayne Lukas doesn’t think the money rule will be needed--he’s predicting that the contenders “will sort themselves out” and only about 14 horses will start--but many other trainers, including Jones, are less certain.

Stalwars didn’t have a nickel of Derby-qualifying earnings until he collected $100,000 for finishing second at Turfway. Jones figures that there are 12 or 13 Derby candidates currently ahead of Stalwars in purses. That group, plus other Derby hopefuls, will be running in richer prep races--such as the Santa Anita Derby, the Wood Memorial and the Arkansas Derby, worth $500,000 apiece--while Stalwars’ final Derby tuneup, the Lexington, would bring $70,000 if he wins it.

The Arkansas Derby, on April 23, is still a remote possibility for Stalwars, but Jones would prefer to stay in Kentucky.

“Going to Arkansas might take something out of the horse,” Jones said. “You’d have to ship down there and back, and you might be running in a lot of humidity.”

Several jockeys will have to make decisions about their Kentucky Derby plans after this weekend.

Pat Day is riding Forty Niner on Friday in the Lafayette at Keeneland, and he’ll be astride Ruhlmann Saturday in the Santa Anita Derby. Chris McCarron is also doubling up at Keeneland and Santa Anita, riding Firery Ensign Friday and Mi Preferido Saturday. Gary Stevens, Stalwars’ regular jockey, is riding filly Winning Colors in the Santa Anita Derby.

“Stalwars showed me more in defeat than in the races he won,” Stevens said. Stevens would not speculate, however, about which horse he prefers going into the Santa Anita Derby. Bobby Frankel, who trains Ruhlmann, believes Winning Colors is the horse to beat Saturday.

Kent Desormeaux, the leading apprentice in the United States last year, has had some of his Derby decisions made for him. Private Terms, undefeated in five races and ridden by Desormeaux in three of them, will be ridden by Chris Antley for the first time in Saturday’s Gotham at Aqueduct.

Trainer Charlie Hadry selected Antley because he was unhappy with a ride by Desormeaux aboard another Hadry 3-year-old, Finder’s Choice, in the Bay Shore on March 26. Finder’s Choice, taking the wide way around, beat only one horse as his unbeaten streak ended at four.

Desormeaux is not likely to ride Finder’s Choice again, either. Hadry reportedly said that Desormeaux came back too soon after a shoulder injury.

Jimbo Bracciale, another jockey who has done some riding for Hadry, has also fallen out of favor with the trainer, but for a much different reason. Riding Dynaformer, Bracciale finished second, a half-length back of Private Terms, in the General George Stakes at Laurel on Feb. 15.

Bracciale’s foul claim against Private Terms for interference near the quarter pole was disallowed by the stewards, and now the jockey, with the permission of Dynaformer’s owner, Joe Allen, and his trainer, Lukas, is appealing the decision to the Maryland Racing Commission.

At stake is about a $5,000 difference in Bracciale’s share of the purse. A hearing into the matter is scheduled in Baltimore on May 4, three days before the Kentucky Derby.

Secretariat ran a lot of incredible races, but the strange thing about his setting the world record for 1 1/8 miles in September, 1973, at Belmont Park was that the time of 1:45 2/5 came between two of the worst races of his career.

Secretariat’s record run around one turn came against Riva Ridge, his stablemate and also a Kentucky Derby winner, in the first Marlboro Cup.

Before the Marlboro, however, Secretariat went off at 1-10 in the Whitney at Saratoga and staggered home second to Onion, an escapee from the claiming ranks. Secretariat was found to have a virus after the Whitney and missed a week of training for the Marlboro.

Two weeks after the Marlboro, in the Woodward at Belmont, Secretariat was beaten by Prove Out, another Allen Jerkens trainee. With a clear lead at the top of the stretch, Secretariat lost by 4 1/2 lengths. It was the fifth and last defeat of a 21-race career.

Secretariat broke the 1 1/8-mile record by four-fifths of a second. The co-holders were Figonero in the 1969 Del Mar Handicap, and Canonero II in the 1972 Stymie Handicap at Belmont.

Now the record belongs to Simply Majestic, who ran 1 1/8 miles around two turns Saturday in 1:45 in the Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Golden Gate Fields.

The record is a combination of two things--a horse who loves a track and a track that’s playing extraordinarily fast. Caros Love, an ordinary horse, broke Citation’s mile record at Golden Gate by running 1:33 there in February.

Simply Majestic tied the Golden Gate record for 1 1/8 miles last year when he won the California Derby in 1:46 3/5.

“Golden Gate is playing about two seconds faster than Santa Anita,” said Bobby Frankel, who recently took over the training of Simply Majestic.

Frankel is looking at two races for the 4-year-old colt: Either the San Bernardino Handicap at Santa Anita on April 17 or the Kensington Handicap on May 7. The San Bernardino, at 1 1/8 miles, is over Simply Majestic’s favorite distance, but Alysheba and Ferdinand are also expected to run. The Kensington might be an eighth of a mile farther, but it’s at Golden Gate.

Horse Racing Notes

What a Diplomat is going to run in the Santa Anita Derby, giving Saturday’s race nine starters. The others will be Mi Preferido, Winning Colors, Purdue King, Ruhlmann, Lively One, Tejano, Flying Victor and All Thee Power. What a Diplomat won the San Rafael at Santa Anita, then ran fifth in the San Felipe Handicap. . . . Drouilly’s Boy, fifth in the Jim Beam after leading for three-quarters of a mile, is scheduled to run in the one-mile Kentucky Derby Trial at Churchill Downs on April 30. . . . Two stakes winners, Cheapskate and Raveneaux, were recently destroyed after suffering training injuries at Santa Anita. . . . Sandy Hawley plans to leave Santa Anita later this month to ride at Woodbine in his native Canada. Hawley is expected to return to California for the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita in the fall. . . . Jockey Fernando Valenzuela, who suffered a broken nose and wrist in a spill last week at Santa Anita, will be sidelined for a couple of months. . . . Goodbye Halo is heading East, to run in the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland on April 23 and the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 6. Her stablemate, Jeanne Jones, is headed for the Fantasy at Oaklawn Park on April 22.