Speckert Is a Well-Trained Trainer : Former Whittingham Assistant Makes Name for Himself

When a visitor comes by his barn at Santa Anita, trainer Chris Speckert is likely to say: “Are you looking for the boss?”

Speckert is referring to Charlie Whittingham, the Hall of Fame trainer whose expensive horses are stabled in the next barn.

Working for the no-nonsense Whittingham can be habit-forming. It’s been 3 years since Speckert was an assistant to Whittingham, yet Speckert still calls him boss.

Lately, though, instead of directing interviewers to the barn next door, Speckert has been answering questions himself. And this weekend, in 2 major stakes races at Santa Anita, the 34-year-old Speckert will try to show his 75-year-old ex-boss what he has learned.

Today, Speckert saddles No Review, the versatile 4-year-old filly who is entered against Whittingham’s Goodbye Halo in the $200,000 La Canada at 1 1/8 miles. On Sunday, Speckert will try to beat Whittingham’s Nasr el Arab with Cherokee Colony in the $500,000 Charles H. Strub, a 1 1/4-mile race for 4-year-old colts.

Although Nasr el Arab has never run on dirt, Whittingham has not supplemented the colt into the Strub at a cost of $20,000 for philanthropic reasons.

“Charlie’s horse will be tough,” said Speckert, who was around when Whittingham made a dirt runner out of Perrault, another European grass import, in 1982.

Speckert, the son of an international lawyer and a mother who rode in dressage competition in their native England, worked for trainers in France and Ireland before he joined Whittingham in 1980.

“I got lucky to get with Charlie,” said Speckert, who got the job through a friend of a friend of a friend, and without an interview.

All Whittingham told Speckert when he started was: “If you’re good enough, you’ll stay. If you’re not good enough, we’ll send you down the road.”

Speckert stayed, and in one of his first important assignments, he chaperoned Flying Partner to Arkansas for Whittingham. The filly then won the Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

Flying Partner was owned by Thomas Mellon Evans, the Eastern owner-breeder who in 1985 was thinking of sending a small division of horses to California.

Evans asked Frank (Jimmy) Kilroe, Santa Anita’s vice president for racing, to recommend a trainer. Kilroe never takes any money for these searches, but he ought to. He recommended a fledgling thoroughbred trainer to John Nerud and Tartan Farm, which became one of Wayne Lukas’ first important clients.

In any event, Kilroe went to Whittingham and asked if Speckert was ready. Whittingham said that he thought Speckert needed a little more time. Five months later, in December of 1985, Speckert was called to Evans’ office in New York. The interview lasted 30 minutes and Evans gave him the job.

There were some minor winners at the start, but in 1987, Speckert’s horses won only twice in 62 starts.

“Buckland (Evans’ farm name) wasn’t sending me that many horses for a time,” Speckert said. “But that’s the way you go when you work for a (breeding) farm, isn’t it? They can have their ups and downs. Look at Darby Dan, which was down for a while. Look at the Phipps family. They were quiet for a while, and now they’re winning everything.”

For a while, Speckert tried to put together a public stable, and even now half of the 12 horses in his barn belong to owners other than Evans.

During the slack time, Speckert said, he put to good use some of the precepts he had learned from Whittingham.

“Being around Charlie, you got to appreciate the value of consistency and patience,” Speckert said. “He taught you that if you keep doing things the same, eventually everything will come around for you.”

Speckert deals regularly with Buckland’s farm manager, Don Robertson, and on a Monday after a Buckland horse runs, the trainer calls Evans with a report. They can save the trunk lines this time, because Evans has flown out to see the La Canada and the Strub.

No Review and Cherokee Colony have both won stakes for Speckert, Cherokee Colony beating the heavy favorite, On the Line, in the 7-furlong San Carlos Handicap on Jan. 14.

That was Cherokee Colony’s first start since he cracked a shin bone 9 months before, and now Speckert is trying to see if the son of 1981 Kentucky Derby winner Pleasant Colony can run three-eighths of a mile farther.

“The colt wasn’t even blowing when he came back after that last race,” Speckert said. “He likes the track, which is shallower than what he ran on back East. And the Strub is the reason they sent him out here, so we’re going to see.”

Horse Racing Notes

Cherokee Colony, drawing the outside post in a nine-horse field, was installed as the 2-1 favorite for the Strub by Santa Anita linemaker Jeff Tufts. Nasr el Arab is listed at 7-2 and Mi Preferido is 5-1. . . . The field, starting at the rail, consists of No Can Lose, Russell Baze riding, 115 pounds; Silver Circus, Eddie Delahoussaye, 120; Undercut, Corey Black, 114; Speedratic, Gary Stevens, 117; Dynaformer, Angel Cordero, 124; Perceive Arrogance, Laffit Pincay, 116; Nasr el Arab, Pat Valenzuela, 123; Mi Preferido, Chris McCarron, 122; and Cherokee Colony, Rafael Meza, 119.