Weekend Racing at Del Mar : Top Three in Crosby Are Lucky to Run at All

Instead of a trophy, Del Mar officials ought to give the winner of Sunday’s Bing Crosby Handicap a health insurance policy and a lifetime supply of gauze.

On paper, the six-furlong event shapes up as the most exciting sprint of the California season, with On the Line, Sam Who and defending Crosby champion Olympic Prospect leading the field of 10.

Although there are solid arguments for calling any of those three the best sprinter in the country, it’s really amazing that they are still running at all. Their medical records do not make for good reading.

On the Line, owned by Gene Klein, suffered a broken cannon bone in his leg trying to win the 1988 Strub Stakes at Santa Anita and was out for 10 months. In addition, the son of Mehmet has been plagued by chronically bad hoofs.

Calcification around the steel pins inserted to mend the fracture have left On the Line with a knobby, unsightly ankle. Yet no one in Wayne Lukas’ barn is quibbling over aesthetics. Since his return last December, the 5-year-old chestnut has won four sprint stakes in New York and California.

Sam Who is lucky to be alive. The 4-year-old son of Lypheor was hospitalized for more than two months after his birth, suffering from a blood infection, pneumonia and ulcers. He was a pot-bellied little runt who gave owners Nita Brooks and Sam Stevens little reason for hope.

When he was finally strong enough to stand training, Sam Who came up with a whole new list of problems. Bruised hoofs and bone chips in a knee slowed his progress last year, but lately they have been calling him Sam Wow. In the Crosby, Sam Who will be going after his sixth consecutive victory.

Olympic Prospect was hardly a perfect specimen when he was claimed by Greg Alsdorf and Drs. Lawrence Opas and Frank R. Sinatra for $32,000 in 1987. His chronically weak left knee always has been a problem, which inevitably leads to other minor ailments.

John Sadler, who trains the powerful son of Northern Jove, gives Olympic Prospect long vacations to recover. The gelding returned from his latest seven-month sabbatical and won a Breeders’ Cup sponsored race at Louisiana Downs on July 22 by 11 1/2 lengths.

Five days later, Sadler surprised some observers by entering Olympic Prospect in the Crosby.

“I won’t make my final decision to run him until Sunday morning,” Sadler said. “It is in the back of my mind that he could (regress) off his Louisiana race.

“But he had a very easy win back there, and all his shipping went like clockwork. I would love to run him at home. My only alternative is to head East, looking for six-furlong stakes and keep him back there. He could be the best sprinter in the country. It’s up to us to choose the right races to make sure he gets a chance to show it.”

Today, Annoconnor and Claire Marine--the two best grass fillies in the country--will meet for the first time in the $109,800 Palomar Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

In four races since mid-April, Claire Marine has won a Breeders’ Cup-sponsored race at Santa Anita, the Wilshire and Beverly Hills handicaps at Hollywood Park and was beaten by a nose in the Gamely Handicap. Annoconnor, meanwhile, twice beat males in the Rolling Green Handicap at Golden Gate and won a Breeders’ Cup-sponsored race at River Downs in Ohio.