Weekend Racing at Santa Anita : At 9, Super Diamond Makes Another Comeback

Besides a good nickel cigar, what this country needs is a match race between Super Diamond and King’s Swan, a pair of resilient 9-year-old geldings that have combined to win almost $3 million while running a continent apart.

Since King’s Swan is a New York horse and Super Diamond does all of his running in California, it is unlikely that they will ever meet. Meantime, Santa Anita will be the setting for Super Diamond’s return to the races today, when he makes his first start in 10 months by running in the $100,000 San Carlos Handicap.

Super Diamond, who has earned $1.3 million, more than $300,000 short of King’s Swan’s total, has made more comebacks than Sugar Ray Leonard.

He had a wrenched ankle as a 2-year-old, he underwent arthroscopic surgery for a bone chip on the same ankle 2 years later, he tore a ligament near the knee as a 5-year-old and now he’s trying to rebound from the most serious injury of all, torn tissue in a tendon. And while you’re asking, doctor, Super Diamond bled from the lungs during a race at Santa Anita in 1986 and has run with Lasix, a preventive, ever since.

Super Diamond has been around so long that he has run against Gato Del Sol, who won the 1982 Kentucky Derby, and also against Alysheba and Ferdinand, the respective winners of the Derby in 1986 and 1987. Some of the horses Super Diamond has beaten in his 9 stake wins include Skywalker, winner of the Santa Anita Derby and the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and Precisionist, the country’s champion sprinter in 1985.

Old horses are not rarities, but horses like Super Diamond and King’s Swan, who can still compete in major stakes competition as 9-year-olds, are virtually unheard of. John Henry was horse of the year in 1984 as a 9-year-old; Kelso, 5-time horse of the year in the 1960s, ran once as a 9- year-old, but his best days were past; and Forego, winner of 3 straight horse-of-the-year titles in the 1970s, was through after his 8-year-old season.

In the 50 years of the San Carlos, the oldest horses to win have been 8-year-olds--Native Diver in 1967 and Autocrat in 1949.

Super Diamond would not appear to have much chance today at 7 furlongs against On the Line, who has won 3 straight since returning from a long layoff of his own, but trainer Eddie Gregson’s veteran has won from off the farm before. In 1987, after 8 months of time off had healed the ligament damage, Super Diamond won the San Diego Handicap at Del Mar in his first start back.

Because of his frailties, Super Diamond has run only 34 times, compared to 87 by King’s Swan, and last year was typical. Super Diamond made up 7 lengths in the stretch, losing by a nose to Epidaurus, in the San Carlos. Then, after winning the San Pasqual Handicap and running third to Alysheba and Ferdinand in the Santa Anita Handicap, his season--and his career--appeared to be over.

Examinations showed that Super Diamond had suffered a slight tearing of tissue in a tendon in his right foreleg.

In September, Greg Ferraro, the veterinarian, examined the leg and was optimistic about returning Super Diamond to training.

“If Greg had had any reservations at all, we wouldn’t have done it,” Gregson said. “I don’t want this horse eventually being retired and having a big, fat leg the rest of his life. Whether he makes it or not, though, I would have to say that this is the horse’s last go-round.”

Because Super Diamond doesn’t work in company with other horses, Gregson doesn’t know whether he’s lost a step or not. The 50-year-old Gregson, who won the Kentucky Derby with Gato Del Sol in 1982, can’t remember ever training a horse this old, even when he had cheap claimers in the Bay Area in the early 1970s.

“Maybe I should go to Ron McAnally for advice,” Gregson said. “With John Henry, he did the greatest training job--under all that pressure--that I’ve ever seen with an older horse.

“I know that bringing a horse back from a tendon injury is tough. This isn’t a classic case of a bowed tendon, because the tendon is straight. But I’ve had about 30 horses that got tendon injuries, and maybe only 3 made it back. And I can’t remember the names of 2 of those.”

Horse Racing Notes

Eddie Gregson is running Undercut, a European horse trying dirt for the first time, in Sunday’s $200,000 San Fernando, the first major stake of the Santa Anita season. . . . The 12-horse field of 4-year-olds for the 1 1/8-mile San Fernando lines up this way:

Mi Preferido, Chris McCarron riding, 123 pounds; Dynaformer, Angel Cordero, 126; Raykou, Sandy Hawley, 114; Triteamtri, Fernando Toro, 120; Perceive Arrogance, Jose Santos, 120; Drouilly’s Boy, Frank Olivares, 114; Star Attitude, Ray Sibille, 114; Oraibi, Laffit Pincay, 120; Undercut, Corey Black, 114; Speedratic, Gary Stevens, 120; Claim, Aaron Gryder, 117; and Blade of the Ball, Martin Pedroza, 114.

Toro, who flew to Chile to be with his ailing mother, is not likely to be back in time to ride Sunday. . . . Candi’s Gold, a multiple stakes winner under Gregson, has been retired because of a back injury and will stand at stud in Kentucky. . . . Gregson is one of many trainers upset with the condition of Santa Anita’s turf course, which has been used for only 3 races this season. “The other day, there were so many divots being kicked in the air that it looked like there were a hundred gophers out there,” Gregson said. “It’s dangerous.” Added trainer Charlie Whittingham: “They’ve tried to fix it by adding a lot of sand and they’ve made a mistake. Do you ever see grass growing on a beach?” . . . Tom Robbins, Santa Anita’s racing secretary, says that the track has been the victim of cold, rainy weather. “It’s not the kind of weather that dries a grass course,” Robbins said. “We’ve had about 6 inches of rain since mid-December and you can see frost on the grass some mornings.”