Horse Racing / Bill Christine : CHRB Meeting Draws Several Horse Laughs

That comical meeting of the California Horse Racing Board last week was straight out of Florida, where Gulfstream Park and Hialeah have made a running joke of their battle for the choice winter racing dates for more than a decade.

The Gulfstream-Hialeah feud was so long-running that state racing authorities here finally deregulated the industry and told the tracks to settle the squabble themselves.

But in California, the racing board can’t sidestep the issues because it supposedly is the industry. Another meeting like last week’s, however, and the commissioners will have enough seasoning to move on. They can audition for “Saturday Night Live,” or try reviving vaudeville.

To begin with, there weren’t enough chairs to accommodate the 250 or so spectators who attended, and the meeting started 50 minutes late. It wasn’t the kind of session that could be taken sitting down, anyway.

An executive from Golden Gate Fields got up and asked the seven commissioners for permission to run races on Sundays. In reviewing the request, the board learned that Golden Gate had already been running on Sundays--for the previous four weeks.

One commissioner suggested that Golden Gate be fined $10,000, presumably for chutzpah. But another commissioner reminded that the track was under new ownership--the Ladbroke group from London--and a $10,000 penalty wouldn’t make much of a welcome mat. Golden Gate was given a light reprimand, and allowed to continue racing on Sundays.

A little later, Richard Craigo, an attorney arguing a case for a horse owner, seemed to have his ducks in a row. The owner’s horse won a race at Hollywood Park three months ago and been disqualified because he carried four pounds less than he should have. Craigo thought he had discovered a loophole in California’s arcane racing rules.

Besides losing the argument, Craigo also had to suffer Ray Seeley, the acerbic commissioner who asked the attorney if he was “hard up” for clients.

The other commissioners blanched, and then Ben Felton, a board member whose arguments with Seeley are legend, wanted the remark stricken from the record. Seeley said that he meant what he said and wanted his comments to stand.

Finally, Felton and another commissioner apologized to Craigo, and then voted against him. So did Seeley, of course.

The meeting was run by the board chairman, Leslie Liscom, except when matters regarding Hollywood Park came up. Liscom has been accused by harness horsemen of possibly favoring Hollywood Park, because he works for an insurance concern that does $1-million worth of annual business with the track.

Liscom’s reduced role was voluntary. But until the conflict-of-interest charges are resolved, he will have little to do at board meetings. They are usually full of doings involving Hollywood Park, none of them funny enough to give vaudeville another chance.

Gulfstream Park, which will be the host track for the seven Breeders’ Cup races in November, is enjoying a good season despite the presence of a new state lottery, which at the start has hurt business at tracks in other states. Sunday racing at Gulfstream, also something new, is responsible for most of the track’s gains.

Gulfstream, however, is ahead about 6% in attendance over last year, it is up about the same in betting, and on Saturday it will run the Florida Derby, which traditionally produces the busiest day of the season.

This year’s Derby doesn’t have Easy Goer, last year’s 2-year-old champion and the future-book favorite for the Kentucky Derby, but he will make his debut as a 3-year-old by running in another stake on the card.

The Florida Derby is a rematch of the Fountain of Youth Stakes, with an unknown ingredient from California thrown in. Dixieland Brass won the Fountain of Youth and on Saturday will run against the next five horses across the finish line that day--Mercedes Won, Triple Buck, Big Stanley, Western Playboy and Traskwood--plus three or four others.

Hawkster, whose workouts at Hollywood Park have kept a permanent smile on trainer Ron McAnally’s face, hasn’t won since his victory in the Norfolk at Santa Anita on Oct. 15, but he has the look of other horses that came from California and won the Florida Derby. In 1983, it was Croeso at 85-1 and in 1986 it was Snow Chief, the 3-2 favorite.

Bill Shoemaker and Johnny Longden won three Santa Anita Handicaps apiece in the 1950s. In the 1960s, Shoemaker and Don Pierce each won three Big ‘Caps. The 1970s belonged to Laffit Pincay with three Big ‘Cap victories.

Shoemaker, who has already won the Big ‘Cap three times since 1980--on Spectacular Bid, John Henry and Lord at War--could become the first jockey to win the race four times in a decade when the stake is run for the 52nd time Sunday. Retirement is imminent for the 58-year-old Shoemaker, who probably will be riding in his 35th and last Big ‘Cap.

All of Shoemaker’s previous 11 winners were short-priced horses, and his mount Sunday, Payant, will be a longshot. Payant was 3-1 as an entry with Frankly Perfect when he finished fifth in the San Antonio Handicap on Feb. 12, but running separately he will be a much higher price Sunday. Payant, an Argentine-bred, has never won a stake in the United States.

The biggest price for a Shoemaker Big ‘Cap winner was Lucky Debonair’s $8.20 in 1966. In 1958, Shoemaker won with Round Table, whose $2.30 payoff was the lowest in stake history.

Pincay, who will ride Super Diamond Sunday, could pick up his third Big ‘Cap win of the 1980s. Pat Valenzuela, who rides favored Nasr el Arab, won the Big ‘Cap in 1984 with Interco.

January brought the 20th anniversary of the race that included an alligator at the old Tropical Park in Miami.

On Jan. 8, 1969, Hans II, a 5-year-old Argentine-bred, and jockey Bob Wholey won the fourth race at Tropical and Jack Wilson’s chart footnotes in the Daily Racing Form read:

“Hans II ran over an alligator on the course while saving ground at the first turn, split horses to take over leaving the far turn and, after dropping over, drew off with authority.”

Conquering an alligator would give a horse an authority complex, wouldn’t it? But the alligator survived, too. A few days later, the Racing Form carried this item:

“Tropical Park’s celebrated alligator will be snatched out of his infield home sometime today by a Florida game warden and set loose in the Everglades, where it is hoped that he will prosper and multiply.”

Cryptoclearance, despite being known for his come-from-behind style, has won only one of 12 starts at 1 1/4 miles. He bled from the lungs while running third last Sunday in the 1 1/4-mile Gulfstream Park Handicap.

After riding Cryptoclearance, Jose Santos skipped his mount in the next race to catch a plane back to New York and was fined $1,000 by the Gulfstream stewards.

Cutlass Reality, whose most memorable victory came in last year’s Hollywood Gold Cup, has been retired to stand at stud at Harris Farms in Coalinga, Calif. The 7-year-old earned more than $1.4 million in his career, the majority of it as a 6-year-old.

His owners, Howard Crash and Jim Hankoff, indicated there is a possibility Cutlass Reality might return to the track after the 1989 breeding season.

There is grumbling in quarter horse circles because four of the 68 voters failed to cast ballots in the horse-of-the-year election. The four missing votes could have swung the election another way. Merganser won the title with 19 1/2 votes, just beating out Shawnes Favorite with 17 and Florentine with 15.