Owners, Like Horses, Count on Bloodlines : Bell Family Sends Flying Victor to the Post in Santa Anita Derby Today

Ray Bell is 88, and John Galbreath is 90. Back in 1956, when they were whippersnappers of 56 and 58, Bell and Galbreath were principals in the first million-dollar horse deal--the sale of Swaps.

Bell can talk about Swaps as though it were yesterday, but neither he nor Galbreath are men to dally while dabbling with the past. Galbreath has won the Kentucky Derby twice--with Chateaugay in 1963 and Proud Clarion in 1967--and Bell came close to winning the Derby once--when Rumbo finished second to the filly, Genuine Risk, in 1980. Now, their families are trying to give them just one more thrill at Churchill Downs.

Bell Bloodstock races Flying Victor, who is given only a 20-1 chance to win today’s $500,000 Santa Anita Derby. Galbreath owns Roberto, the English Derby winner who sired Brian’s Time, one of the leading Kentucky Derby hopefuls and a colt owned by Wally Phillips, Galbreath’s son-in-law.

“I’ve been wrong before, but I think our colt can beat these horses,” Tommy Bell said in assessing the Santa Anita Derby. “If they stay out of our way, I think he’ll win.”

Bell is Ray Bell’s son and general manager of Bell Bloodstock. John Bell, another of Ray’s sons, runs the business end of the operation. Another Ray Bell--he’s called young Ray--is Tommy’s son and the 35-year-old trainer of Flying Victor, whose sire, Flying Paster, won the Santa Anita Derby in 1979.

If providence owes any of the nine Santa Anita Derby starters a clean trip today, Flying Victor should be the horse. Flying Victor has won two of five starts, and his three non-winning performances can be at least partially explained in the Daily Racing Form’s footnotes.

In his first race, at Del Mar last September, Flying Victor broke poorly and finished fifth, beaten by 10 lengths. He won his next two races at Bay Meadows, including the $100,000 California Juvenile in November.

Two weeks later, Flying Victor ran in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Hollywood Park. The colt ran hardly a step without being bothered. He was bumped leaving the gate and, according to Tommy Bell, “Laffit (Pincay) and his horse (Tejano) leaned all over us from the three-sixteenths pole home.”

Flying Victor still ran fourth, losing to Success Express by 3 1/2 lengths. Fernando Toro claimed foul against Pincay and Tejano, who finished third, but the objection was disallowed by the stewards.

Flying Victor’s only start as a 3-year-old came Feb. 27 in the San Rafael at Santa Anita. He rallied through the stretch to lose by a neck to What a Diplomat. Flying Victor was last, 12 lengths behind the leader, going down the backstretch, and the Bells thought that Russell Baze, his jockey, had him too far back. Baze has the mount again today.

Being too far back and finishing a close second also smack of Rumbo’s 1980 Kentucky Derby trip.

“Laffit (Pincay) must have been 20 lengths back with a half-mile to go,” said Tommy Bell, who was training Rumbo.

“And they ran one of the slowest first half-miles in Derby history,” the senior Ray Bell said.

The Bells owned 25% of Rumbo. “He’s become the answer to the trivia question--who finished second the year the filly won the Derby?” Tommy Bell said. “The difference between being first and second in the Kentucky Derby is only $10 million.”

The best horse the Bells have raced was Barberstown, and they think that Flying Victor is at least as good. Frail, sickly and his own worst enemy with high jinks around the barn, Barberstown was sent East to run in the Belmont Stakes in 1983, and many New Yorkers thought the Bells were daft.

Barberstown had made only three career starts before the 1 1/2-mile Belmont. But the venture was no lark and he ran third, behind Caveat and Slew o’ Gold. Later that year, the Bells sold him for $850,000.

The Bells bought Barberstown for $100,000, which was $25,000 less than what they paid for Flying Victor at auction. Ray Bell thought that he was going to have to outbid trainer Wayne Lukas and his deep-pocketed owners to get Flying Victor.

“Wayne was at the sale, but he had just returned from New York and hadn’t had the chance to open his (sale) catalogue,” Ray Bell said. “Then a few other trainers came over to him, congratulating him for just winning a stake back East, and by the time they finished, we had bought the horse.”

Out of Cheyenne, Wyo., Ray Bell has a weathered face that makes 74-year-old trainer Woody Stephens look like a kid. But with the help of a cane, Bell still negotiates the backstretch at Santa Anita. Galbreath’s health has been poor, but not enough to keep him from making three trips from Ohio to Florida for the races this winter.

Bell was a champion rodeo rider; he loafed with Will Rogers and rode horses in silent movies; he hung out with the polo crowd and was an adviser to Louis B. Mayer when the movie mogul was forming a racing stable. Mayer heard that Bell had come within an eyelash of once selling a $10,000 horse for $100,000. “Find me that Bell fellow,” Mayer said to an aide. “Sounds to me like he might be a good guy to know in the horse business.”

In 1956, Bell was at the old Washington Park near Chicago, trying to help Rex Ellsworth sell Swaps, the 1955 Kentucky Derby winner, to John Galbreath and Darby Dan Farm.

Galbreath and his wife went to Ellsworth’s barn to look at Swaps. They found about a dozen horses, with no handlers visible. Swaps was in his stall, not even wearing a halter.

Finally, Ellsworth appeared. He went to Swaps’ stall and put on a pair of gloves. When Swaps, who had been dozing, saw the gloves, he snapped to attention, looking at last like the majestic figure that would befit his record.

“When Rex put on those gloves, his horses knew what was coming,” Tommy Bell said. “That was the signal that he was going to rap them in the head, up near the temple. He would stagger those horses, but they knew he was the boss.”

Later that day, Swaps, running on grass for only the second time and carrying 130 pounds, finished seventh as the 1-3 favorite in the Arch Ward Memorial Handicap.

In the car en route to the airport, Tommy Bell, then only 27, turned to his father and said: “Well, there goes that deal.”

At the airport, the Bells saw the Galbreaths, who were returning to Columbus, Ohio. “You don’t think Rex will back out of the deal, do you?” John Galbreath asked.

Galbreath bought 50% of Swaps for $1 million, and a little later, appalled by the stark conditions at Ellsworth’s ranch in Chino, he paid $1 million for the other half and moved the stallion to Kentucky. Not a big success at stud, Swaps died in 1972, but Galbreath never complained. Derby winner Chateaugay, a son of Swaps, made the $2-million investment worth it.

Horse Racing Notes

Laz Barrera, who trains Mi Preferido, indicated that his Santa Anita Derby colt would be running on the lead as usual. “He’s won his races on the lead, so I don’t want to take a chance doing anything else in this race,” Barrera said . . . Winning Colors, with four victories in five starts like Mi Preferido, also wins wire to wire, but trainer Wayne Lukas said that he would leave running strategy up to jockey Gary Stevens. . . . Laffit Pincay, who has the mount on Tejano, Lukas’ other starter today, has won the Santa Anita Derby seven times, one fewer than Bill Shoemaker, who rides 2-1 favorite Lively One. Shoemaker, 56, will be making his 33rd appearance in the race. . . . Trainer Charlie Whittingham said that if Lively One runs well but does not win, he would still consider the Kentucky Derby, although earnings might be a problem if there’s an overflow of horses at Churchill Downs.

Purdue King ran a fast :34 4/5 for 3 furlongs Friday morning. . . . Ferdinand, preparing for a rematch next Sunday with Alysheba in the San Bernardino Handicap, worked a mile in 1:38 2/5. His stablemate, Epidaurus, gave him something to run at, and then Ferdinand finished about 2 or 3 lengths ahead. . . . Saratoga Passage, who worked this week for the first time since suffering a lung infection after a sixth-place finish in the San Felipe Handicap, still is a possibility for the Kentucky Derby. Plans are indefinite, but the California Derby at Golden Gate Fields on April 23 and the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs on April 30 have been mentioned. Another option is skipping the Kentucky Derby and shooting for the Belmont Stakes in June. . . . Temperate Sil, who won last year’s Santa Anita Derby, carries 120 pounds, co-high weight, in Sunday’s $100,000 El Rincon Handicap at Santa Anita. Also at 120 for the mile turf race is Political Ambition. Besides Temperate Sil, Whittingham has also entered Ifrad and Will Dancer in the 12-horse field.

Although he was flipped about 12 feet into the air and landed on the inner rail, jockey Dave Patton suffered no broken bones Friday in a first-race spill that led to the death of two horses. Coming out of the turn for home, Roman Gem broke down, and Patton’s trailing mount, Radar Dawn, also went down as the jockey appeared to be flipped as high as the top of the three-sixteenths pole. Patton suffered large bruises from his right shoulder to the hip and was released after treatment at a nearby hospital. Martin Pedroza, riding Roman Gem, was shaken up. Roman Gem broke her ankle, and Radar Dawn suffered deep gashes to the neck. Both horses were destroyed. . . . The Scout, a horse who broke a leg at Santa Anita last month, was destroyed after efforts failed to place the leg in a cast and save the horse for breeding purposes.

SANTA ANITA DERBY FIELD

Post Horse Jockey Wgt Odds 1 Purdue King Fernando Toro 122 12-1 2 Ruhlmann Pat Day 122 6-1 3 Flying Victor Russell Baze 122 20-1 4 What a Diplomat Eddie Delahoussaye 122 30-1 5 Winning Colors Gary Stevens 117 5-2 6 All Thee Power Aaron Gryder 122 30-1 7 Mi Preferido Chris McCarron 122 7-2 8 Tejano Laffit Pincay 122 10-1 9 Lively One Bill Shoemaker 122 2-1

Post time: The fifth race on today’s program, starting at about 2:45 p.m., PDT.

Television: Delayed in the West as part of “Wide World of Sports,” which starts at 4:30 p.m., PDT, on Channel 7.

Purse: $500,000, with $275,000 going to the winner.

Distance: 1 1/8 miles.