San Bernardino Handicap at Santa Anita : Alysheba, Ferdinand Out to Break Tie in Their ‘Even’ Matchup

Bobby Frankel will probably run Simply Majestic in today’s San Bernardino Handicap only if the track is muddy, but the candid trainer still has an opinion about the Santa Anita race.

Frankel’s viewpoints are not about who’s going to win, but regarding the weights for the 1 1/8-mile stake, which is expected to pair off the last two winners of the Kentucky Derby--Alysheba and Ferdinand--for the third time.

Santa Anita’s racing office has given both Alysheba and Ferdinand 127 pounds as they try to break the 1-1 tie in their rivalry. Although the San Bernardino purse has been boosted from $250,000 to $530,000 in order to get both horses to run, this will be the first time they’ve met for less than $1 million. Ferdinand won in the $3- million Breeders’ Cup Classic last November at Hollywood Park and Alysheba won the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap last month.

The other weights for the San Bernardino are the 116 pounds apiece for Simply Majestic and Nostalgia’s Star, who also runs well on off tracks; 113 pounds for Good Taste; and 110 for both Foreign Legion and Roi Normand.

“The weights that Alysheba and Ferdinand got don’t bother me,” Frankel said. “It’s the weights for everybody else that don’t make sense. The rest of us should have gotten in there with a feather. Alysheba and Ferdinand are 20 pounds better than the rest of us.”

Simply Majestic actually drops a pound off his last race, which was April 2 at Golden Gate Fields. All he did that day was run 1 1/8 miles--the distance of the San Bernardino--in 1:45, which broke Secretariat’s 15-year- old world record by two-fifths of a second.

Judge Angelucci, closest to Simply Majestic but beaten by 10 lengths, was the high weight at Golden Gate with 124 pounds.

“I get 12 pounds from a horse like Judge Angelucci and only 14 pounds from Alysheba and Ferdinand,” Frankel said. “Does that mean that Judge Angelucci is in a class with those two horses?”

In another era, racing secretaries would assign what weights they thought horses deserved, then take their chances on whether their trainers would run their horse. Kelso and Forego, who combined for eight horse-of-the-year titles, frequently ran with 130 pounds or more on their backs, but now it’s rare indeed when a horse is asked to carry that much.

There are too many rich races available, which means trainers can be more selective and tracks, competing for the star horses, make concessions in order to get them. Had trainer Jack Van Berg not been satisfied with the Santa Anita weights, for example, he could have sent Alysheba to Oaklawn Park, where he was weighted at 127 pounds, 1 more than Lost Code, in Saturday’s $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap.

There are so few marquee horses--the kind that actually draw extra people to the track--that racing secretaries are under pressure from management to be conservative in assigning weights. The practice probably began with the emergence of two-time horse-of-the-year John Henry, who in an 83-race career had to carry 130 pounds just twice.

One of the exceptions has been King’s Swan. The 8-year-old gelding, who has run in 76 races, winning 25 and finishing in the money 24 other times, made the mistake of winning three straight handicaps by 14 lengths earlier this year at Aqueduct.

King’s Swan’s first win in the streak came under 122 pounds, he shouldered 126 the next time and continued winning with 130. So for the Westchester Handicap on April 2, he was handed 133 pounds. He ran third, with the horses ahead of him--Faster Than Sound and Ron Stevens--each having a 20-pound edge. King’s Swan’s weight will drop next time, but he had to lose by 8 1/2 lengths to get a decrease.

Simply Majestic might have fared better in the weights today if he hadn’t won by such a big margin last time. But irrespective of the pounds, the 4-year-old colt appears to be a horse who needs to carry his race track around with him. His win at Golden Gate was only his third in the last 11 starts, and the only other stake victory during the period was last year’s California Derby, also at Golden Gate.

Except for the two Golden Gate races and one at Santa Anita, the others were all at Eastern tracks. Ted Sabarese, who owns Simply Majestic, turned the colt over to Frankel at Hollywood Park in January.

“The Eastern tracks were too cuppy for this horse,” Frankel said. “He likes a surface that’s bouncy and moist.”

Horse Racing Notes

Jeff Tufts, the Santa Anita linemaker, has made Alysheba a 4-5 favorite for the San Bernardino. Odds on the others are 7-5 on Ferdinand, 8-1 on Simply Majestic, 15-1 on Good Taste and Nostalgia’s Star and 30-1 on Foreign Legion and Roi Normand. . . . Ferdinand runs on Lasix for the first time, having bled slightly from the nose during a recent workout. . . . The difference in the 1-mile Santa Anita Handicap was when Chris McCarron quickly moved Alysheba past Super Diamond on the turn, putting Ferdinand and Bill Shoemaker in a catch-up position. In the Breeders’ Cup, it was Alysheba with a late run who was unable to nip Ferdinand at the wire. . . . “I don’t think the distance has anything to do with picking between these two horses,” said Charlie Whittingham, Ferdinand’s trainer. “It’s just that they (Alysheba and McCarron) outmaneuvered us last time.” . . . In addition to Ferdinand, trainer Jack Van Berg is worried about the light-weighted horses in the San Bernardino. It was Van Berg’s Herat, carrying 112 pounds and 10 fewer than the winner, who almost held on to upset Greinton in the 1986 Santa Anita Handicap.