Not Selling Sunday Silence Was a Break for Hancock

Arthur Hancock kept trying to sell Sunday Silence, but nobody would give the Kentucky breeder his price. Now, a year later, it wouldn’t be possible to pry Sunday Silence away from Hancock with a tire iron, because the 3-year-old colt is one of the favorites in today’s $500,000 Santa Anita Derby.

Although Sunday Silence is the second betting choice, at 2-1 according to track linemaker Jeff Tufts, winning doesn’t figure to be easy for any of the six horses.

Trainer Wayne Lukas, for instance, says that the Santa Anita Derby will be remembered as the toughest prep race for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 6. Undefeated in three starts, Lukas’ Houston is the 7-5 favorite, and his challengers in the six-horse field include major winners Hawkster and Music Merci, plus Sunday Silence and Flying Continental, who ran 1-2 in the San Felipe Handicap three weeks ago.

That 1 3/4-length victory was the third for Sunday Silence in five starts. The near-black son of Halo and Wishing Well has been second the two other times, in the first race of his career at Santa Anita last October and against Houston, who beat him by a head over 6 1/2 furlongs at Hollywood Park four months ago.

Sunday Silence now races in the interests of Hancock, who owns 50%, trainer Charlie Whittingham and Ernest Gaillard, a surgeon from La Jolla, who each own 25%.

Hancock boards Halo, Sunday Silence’s syndicated sire, at his Stone Farm near Paris, Ky., for Tom Tatham’s Oak Cliff Thoroughbreds. At Keeneland’s 1987 sale for fancy yearlings, Hancock wound up consigning the colt because Ted Keefer of Oak Cliff didn’t like him.

“He thought he was cow-hocked,” Hancock said. “He was a weedy horse. He reminded you of a skinny teen-ager.”

A cow-hocked horse has upper rear legs close together and lower legs that spread out.

At Keeneland, the bidding stopped on Sunday Silence at $17,000, so Hancock bought him back for that amount, which was one of the lowest prices at the sale.

Hoping he could turn a profit by selling the horse for an estimated $50,000, Hancock sent him to a sale of unraced 2-year-olds at Hollywood Park in March of 1988. Again, the response was disappointing.

“I think people thought I had sent my culls to the sale,” Hancock said. “And even though Halo was standing (at stud) for $75,000 or $80,000 then and had sired Sunny’s Halo (the 1983 Kentucky Derby winner), Goodbye Halo and a bunch of other good horses, people were down on him.

“When people get down on a horse, they treat him like a dog. They want to kick him. But you know what Charlie Whittingham says, ‘Never knock a horse until he’s been dead at least 10 years.’ Stallions can be like grass; they can spring up where there wasn’t any growth before.”

After the Hollywood Park sale, Sunday Silence still belonged to Hancock, the buyback costing $32,000. Paul Sullivan had been Hancock’s partner in the horse at one time, but he wasn’t interested in racing him.

From Hollywood Park, Sunday Silence was returned. to Kentucky. Someplace in Texas, there was an accident--Hancock heard that the driver suffered a heart attack and the van overturned--and Sunday Silence, who was shaken up, spent a couple of weeks in an Oklahoma clinic. Another colt in the van was seriously injured and still hasn’t recovered.

When Sunday Silence arrived belatedly in Kentucky, there was concern that he might have a major problem.

“He spent three days in his stall,” Hancock said. “We thought he might be a wobbler.”

Wobblers have spinal deficiencies that prevent them from walking without staggering.

Eventually, Sunday Silence was sent back to California and Whittingham, with Hancock selling half of the horse to the trainer and Whittingham selling a 25% interest to Gaillard.

The vagaries of the racing game have long fascinated Hancock, whose father, the legendary Bull Hancock, stood Bold Ruler, the highly successful stallion, at the family’s Claiborne Farm. Bull Hancock died in 1972.

“When my father first saw Bold Ruler, he didn’t think he was much and sent him to the back of the farm with the horses that didn’t figure to be much,” Arthur Hancock said.

“Remember that horse in California, what was her name, Little Hailey? I told (owner) Mary Bradley that if that horse won, I’d sell my farm and go back into the music business. The horse had crooked legs and a parrot mouth, but she still went on to be a stakes winner.”

As a writer and singer, Hancock has dabbled in country music. He published an album, “The Horse of a Different Color,” around the time Gato Del Sol won the Kentucky Derby. One of his more recent songs was called, “The Life of the Party Is the Death of Her Home.”

Hancock figures that by still owning Sunday Silence, he has gotten a pay-back from providence, compensation for the year he might have bought Seattle Slew, but didn’t.

That was 1975, when Hancock and three partners had about $50,000 to spend on horses. Seattle Slew was consigned to the Fasig-Tipton sale in Kentucky and Hancock loved the yearling’s pedigree. His sire was Bold Reasoning, a grandson of Bold Ruler, and the dam was My Charmer, who was by Poker. Hancock had worked as a groom for the late Eddie Neloy when the trainer had Poker in the 1960s.

“Slew’s price would have been within our range, and my reasons for liking the bloodlines were obvious,” Hancock said. “But Fasig-Tipton was a rival of the Keeneland sales, and since I was on the board of directors at Keeneland, I felt my loyalty was to them.”

Seattle Slew was sold for $17,500. Two years later, he won the Kentucky Derby and swept the Triple Crown. The thought of owning that horse still crosses Hancock’s mind. If it weren’t for Sunday Silence, he would be tempted to sit down and write some sad lyric about that.

Horse Racing Notes

Santa Anita’s first race today is at 12:10 p.m., with post time for the Santa Anita Derby--the fifth race--at 2:45. . . . Another stake on the Santa Anita card today is the Santa Gertrude Handicap, with Waki River carrying top weight of 118 pounds. . . . On Sunday, Steinlen will try to win the El Rincon Handicap for the second consecutive year . . . Others in the field are Political Ambition, Patchy Groundfog, Wait Til Monday, Raykour and Peace. . . . Russell Baze and James Corral, injured in recent spills, are expected to resume riding soon. Baze is scheduled to ride today at Oaklawn Park and Corral may return at Santa Anita next Wednesday. . . . The 100-degree heat hurts Hawkster’s chances in the Santa Anita Derby. He wasn’t able to adjust to the heat and humidity at Gulfstream Park and ran fourth in the Florida Derby. . . . There’s a chance of rain and even wet snow overnight at Aqueduct, but trainer Shug McGaughey said that he will run favored Easy Goer in today’s Gotham even if there’s an off track.

SANTA ANITA DERBY FIELD IN POST POSITION ORDER

HORSE JOCKEY TRAINER Mr. Bolg Fernando Toro Yves Seguin Flying Continental E. Delahoussaye Jay Robbins Music Merci Gary Stevens Craig Lewis Sunday Silence Pat Valenzuela C. Whittingham Houston Laffit Pincay Wayne Lukas Hawkster Chris McCarron Ron McAnally

HORSE OWNER ODDS Mr. Bolg Rael Brothers 30-1 Flying Continental Jack Kent Cooke 4-1 Music Merci Pendleton & Royal T Stable 5-1 Sunday Silence Gaillard, Hancock III, Whittingham 2-1 Houston Beal, French, Lukas 7-5 Hawkster J. Shelton Meredith 8-1

WEIGHT: 122 pounds. DISTANCE: 1 1/8 miles. PURSE: $500,000.

TIME OF RACE: Today, approximately 2:45 p.m.

TELEVISION: Channels 7, 3, 42 (4:30 p.m., delayed).