Horse Racing : Two Million-Dollar Races in One Day

For the three California-based horses running Saturday in the Arlington Million at Woodbine in Toronto, half of the fun hasn’t been getting there.

Deputy Governor, winner of the Eddie Read Handicap here, was supposed to be flown by commercial cargo Tuesday from Los Angeles to Toronto, but there was a problem with the plane.

So Deputy Governor had to piggyback a ride with Roi Normand, the Sunset Handicap winner, and Great Communicator, winner of the San Juan Invitational, and there was a problem there, too. The flight was scheduled to leave at 7:45 Wednesday morning, but was delayed until 10 that night.

“I was told that there was something wrong with a flap on the plane,” Bobby Frankel, the trainer of Roi Normand, said from his barn at Del Mar. “We just took my horse over to the barn at Hollywood Park (not far from LAX), so it wasn’t like he had to wait at the airport.”

The flight to Toronto, where the Million is being held this year because of ongoing construction at fire-damaged Arlington Park, is five hours nonstop.

“You find horses winning just coming off the plane, and you find horses doing well if they get there a few days early, so who knows?” Frankel said. “All of my work with my horse was finished, anyway. He worked a good :58 4/5 (for 5 furlongs at Del Mar) on Tuesday, and that should be all he needs.”

Roi Normand was not among the 14 horses invited to the Million by an eight-member international panel. But he will be able to run because five European horses are staying home and a U.S. horse, Political Ambition, suffered a hairline leg fracture while working out at Del Mar and won’t run again this year. Political Ambition was ranked ahead of Roi Normand even though he finished sixth in the Sunset.

“I’m in the race, but I made it by the skin of my teeth, and I couldn’t figure out why we weren’t in to begin with,” Frankel said. “The Canadian horse (Carotene) hasn’t done much this year, but she was on the original list, and so was Equalize, whose record isn’t a whole lot different than my horse’s. And Yankee Affair, he was among those originally picked, and all he’s done is win a small stake in Canada.”

It has been raining this week at Woodbine, and combined with rain earlier this month the course is expected to be on the soft side Saturday.

Triptych, the 6-year-old French mare, was the early 7-2 choice in the Million, and a yielding course should give her even more of an edge in the 1-mile test of the turf.

Triptych, winner of a record nine major races in Europe, was bought last year by Peter Brant, the American sportsman, for $3.4 million, and will be ridden for the first time Saturday by Gary Stevens, the leading jockey in the United States.

On Thursday, the draw for the 14-horse field resulted in this lineup: Regal Classic, with Sandy Hawley riding; Equalize, Jose Santos; Mill Native, Cash Asmussen; Great Communicator, Ray Sibille; Triptych, Stevens; Yankee Affair, Chris Antley; Carotene, Don Seymour; Sunshine Forever, Jorge Velasquez; Most Welcome, Bill Shoemaker; Anka Germania, Craig Perret; Media Starguest, Ray Cochrane; Deputy Governor, Eddie Delahoussaye; Roi Normand, Fernando Toro, and Something True, Tony Cruz.

With the Million at Woodbine and the Travers at Saratoga, N.Y., Saturday marks the first time there will be more than one $1-million race run on the same day other than Breeders’ Cup day.

The two races will be shown, delayed, on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” Saturday. The Million will be at the start of the two-hour broadcast that begins at 4 p.m., and the Travers will be at the end.

Six horses will run in the Travers. The starting lineup, from the rail out: Seeking the Gold, with Pat Day riding; Kingpost, Jacinto Vasquez; Dynaformer, rider to be named; Brian’s Time, Angel Cordero; Forty Niner, Chris McCarron, and Evening Kris, Jerry Bailey.

The plot for the race has Forty Niner setting the pace, Seeking the Gold sitting just off of him and Brian’s Time trying to make a closing rush as he did in winning the Jim Dandy at Saratoga two weeks ago.

Brian’s Time is a slight favorite at 8-5. Forty Niner is 9-5 and Seeking the Gold is 2-1. All of the horses will carry 126 pounds.

Forty Niner and Seeking the Gold are sons of Mr. Prospector, a sire not known for turning out horses that win at the 1-mile Travers distance.

Trainer Wayne Lukas has won a pair of $1-million races on the same day three times during the Breeders’ Cup. John Veitch will try to become the first trainer to win two $1-million races at different tracks on the same day. He’ll have the $50,000 supplementary, Sunshine Forever, at Woodbine, and Brian’s Time at Saratoga.

On the day Cordero was inducted into the Fame at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., last week, Marjorie Clayton presented him with their second daughter at a New York hospital near their Long Island home.

Two Hall of Fame trainers, Stephens and Charlie Whittingham, did the respective presenting and accepting in honor of inductee Jacob Pincus, a trainer who died in 1918.

“If you see Pincus before I do, tell him that I send my best,” Stephens said to Whittingham.

In a matter of days, Emperor of Norfolk was inducted into the national Hall of Fame and elected for membership in the California Hall of Fame, which was started last year.

Emperor of Norfolk won 21 of 29 races in 1887-88 for Elias J. (Lucky) Baldwin’s Santa Anita Stable. The horse had an eight-race winning streak as a 3-year-old, including a victory in the American Derby at Washington Park in Chicago.

Horse Racing Notes

Del Mar will take betting on a telecast of the Million, which will precede the track’s regular nine-race card Saturday. . . . A quote from Bill Donovan, whose Lost Code has joined several top older horses on the sidelines: “These horses are like a bar of soap. Every time you wash your hands, there’s not as much left.” . . . Bill Shoemaker, who turns 57 today, will ride Most Welcome in the Arlington Million. Most Welcome, raced sparingly this year because of physical setbacks, ran second last year to Reference Point in the English Derby. Shoemaker won the first running of the Million in 1981 when John Henry nosed out The Bart at the wire. . . . Laffit Pincay, who suffered seven broken ribs and a punctured lung at Del Mar, is expected to return to action when the Oak Tree season opens at Santa Anita on Oct. 5. . . . Fawn and Hawn, the 2-year-old filly who gave Eddie Delahoussaye his 4,000th career victory in her first start, underwent surgery for a bone chip and won’t run until next year.

Conquering Hero’s victory in the Orange County Handicap at Los Alamitos came in only his second start on dirt. The only other time he raced on the main track, the 5-year-old was fourth at Hollywood Park in June. On the grass, Conquering Hero is 7 for 30. . . . A rare dirt start for Skip Out Front wasn’t as successful. He finished fifth in the San Diego Handicap, the 6-year-old’s first dirt outing since 1986. . . . John Henry, enjoying retirement at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky., receives a shipment of carrots each month from a fan in Houston, and a carton of apples monthly from someone in Upstate New York. Another fan of John Henry’s, a nurse in the intensive-care unit at Scripps Memorial Hospital near Del Mar, took her vacation to visit the 13-year-old gelding in Kentucky. . . . Bill Watts, who won the Arlington Million with Teleprompter in 1985, has arrived from England to saddle Jungle Gold in the $150,000 Del Mar Oaks Saturday.