Horse Racing : Despite Pedigree, Pleasant Evening Doesn’t Figure in Wood Memorial

A case can be made for 7 of the 10 starters possibly winning Saturday’s Wood Memorial, one of the last three major preps for the Kentucky Derby.

The favorite in the 1 1/8-mile Wood at Aqueduct will be either the undefeated Private Terms, a Maryland-based 3-year-old, or Brian’s Time, winner of the Florida Derby. Others with chances are Seeking the Gold, Perfect Spy, Cherokee Colony, Tejano and Dynaformer.

And then there is Pleasant Evening. He just doesn’t figure.

He and Cherokee Colony are both sons of Pleasant Colony, winner of the 1981 Kentucky Derby, but the resemblance ends there.

Cherokee Colony is a major stakes winner.

Pleasant Evening has won only 3 of 8 starts, was claimed by trainer Frank (Pancho) Martin for $50,000 just six weeks ago, and in his only two stakes races has finished seventh and sixth.

One of the horses Pleasant Evening will be trying to beat in the Wood is Seeking the Gold, who is owned by Ogden Phipps, chairman of the Jockey Club, which registers all American horses and their pedigrees, and also is custodian of the rules of racing.

Pleasant Evening is owned by Viola Sommer, whose late husband raced Sham, a courageous horse who was never good enough to beat Secretariat in their Triple Crown battles in 1973.

Before Pleasant Evening raced Seeking the Gold in the Gotham Stakes two weeks ago, Lenny Hale, a racing executive at Aqueduct, saw Viola Sommer and said: “You know what your chances are of getting into the Jockey Club if your horse somehow beats Mr. Phipps’ horse, don’t you? Less than nil.”

Of the more than 90 members of the Jockey Club, only four are women: Allaire duPont, who raced Kelso; Martha Gerry, the owner of Forego; Penny Chenery of Secretariat fame, and Helen Alexander, one of the operators of the King Ranch.

Answering Hale, Sommer said: “Well then, do you think I should instruct my jockey to pull my horse?”

Julie Krone, Pleasant Evening’s jockey, did no such thing, but the result was about the same. The colt struggled home sixth, more than 11 lengths behind the winning Private Terms, who was three-quarters of a length ahead of Phipps’ Seeking the Gold.

Private Terms, who seems to have more of a right to negotiate the Wood distance than Seeking the Gold, could very well beat him again on Saturday. Stuart Janney Jr., the owner of Private Terms, already belongs to the Jockey Club.

Rounding out the field for the Wood are Ballindaggin, whose only stakes wins have been against New York-breds, and Sewickley, who ran a mile in 1:34 4/5 in his last race. Private Terms won the Gotham in the same time.

A field of eight is likely Saturday for another major Kentucky Derby prep, the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark.

The top entrants are Mi Preferido, Sea Trek, Din’s Dancer, Notebook and Proper Reality, with Primal, Rambo Phil and Jetdownthefreeway also running. Sea Trek, Din’s Dancer and Proper Reality especially need a win to make it to the Kentucky Derby. They are short on earnings, if Churchill Downs has to invoke the money rule to restrict the field to 20 horses May 7.

Shug McGaughey, who trains Seeking the Gold, agrees with Wayne Lukas in saying he doesn’t figure there will be 20 horses entered in the Derby.

“I think that no more than three horses, tops, will come out of the Wood and go on to Kentucky,” McGaughey said. “And if Brian’s Time should run a big race Saturday, he might be the only Wood horse running in the Derby.”

Another pre-Derby race Saturday is the California Derby at Golden Gate Fields. A horse who could have won, unbeaten Charlie’s Notes, has an ankle problem and won’t run. Trainer Charles Comiskey said he doesn’t expect any long-term problems with the 3-year-old gelding, who isn’t even eligible for the Triple Crown races.

Notebook is the only horse eligible for a little-known $1-million bonus being offered by a Louisville tobacco company in this year’s Kentucky Derby.

The bonus can be won by any horse that wins the Brown & Williamson Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes and the Derby. Notebook won the first leg at Churchill Downs last November.

Although Laffit Pincay will be able to ride Swink Sunday in the San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita, a five-day suspension that started today will prevent him from being aboard Tejano in the Wood Memorial Saturday.

California, despite opposition from the national Jockeys’ Guild, has a unique rule that allows jockeys to ride in certain designated stakes even though they are serving suspensions.

Pincay drew the suspension from the Santa Anita stewards in a $28,000 race last Saturday.

Jose Santos, originally scheduled to ride Dynaformer in the Wood, will now ride Tejano. Vincent (Jimbo) Bracciale, who has ridden Dynaformer previously, will be back on him for the Wood. Lukas trains both colts.

One of many horsemen who were amused by Oaklawn Park President Charlie Cella’s remark that Alysheba was ducking Lost Code in last Saturday’s Oaklawn Handicap was Bill Donovan, who happens to train Lost Code.

“If Jack (Van Berg, Alysheba’s trainer) is ducking me, I wish he’d keep on ducking me for a while,” Donovan said.

The day after Lost Code won the Oaklawn, Alysheba beat Ferdinand for the second straight time, winning the San Bernardino Handicap by a nose at Santa Anita.

Alysheba and Lost Code are scheduled to meet in the $500,000 Pimlico Special at Baltimore May 14. That race is 1 3/16 miles, which is thought by some to be a distance beyond Lost Code’s capabilities. Even at only 1 1/8 miles last year, in the Haskell at Monmouth Park, Alysheba outfinished Lost Code, although both horses were beaten by Bet Twice.

“That was last year,” Donovan said. “This is a different horse this year. I think he’s capable of running a mile and a half.”

Lost Code underwent knee surgery last fall and has won three straight races this year.

Horse Racing Notes

John Gosden is mum on a European report that he might return to England to train. The California-based Gosden, a native Briton, has been one of America’s leading trainers in the 1980s and sent out horses that earned $3.2 million last year. . . . Saratoga Passage suffered a broken bone in his left foreleg during a workout last week and will miss the Triple Crown.

All Thee Power, sixth in the Santa Anita Derby, has been moved from Eddie Gregson’s barn to Jack Van Berg’s. All Thee Power is a probable starter in Saturday’s California Derby. . . . Newsday’s racing experts have Brian’s Time atop their ratings of 3-year-olds, with Winning Colors in seventh place.