Weekend Racing at Del Mar : Jet-Setting Gelding Comes Home

Honor Medal will make a rare hometown appearance today in the $220,800 Cabrillo Handicap at Del Mar.

The 8-year-old gelding will test the 4-year-old Lively One, who figures to be a heavy favorite in the field of six going 1 1/8 miles on the main track.

Honor Medal, a son of 1975 Belmont Stakes winner Avatar, has run at 14 race tracks over the last 3 1/2 years, earning nearly $1.3 million.

“He loves the travel,” said Neil Drysdale, who has trained Honor Medal in all but one of his starts. “New surroundings pick him up, keep him from getting bored. And he loves the shipping routine, when everyone is making a fuss over him.”

This season, Honor Medal has been comparatively idle. After beginning the year with two races in New Orleans, he ran once in Kentucky, twice in Chicago, then went back to Kentucky. His most recent race was at Los Alamitos Aug. 12, where he finished fourth in the Orange County Handicap.

During the 1987 and ’88 campaigns, however, Honor Medal was a candidate to show up anywhere. He ran in Louisiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Washington, California, Minnesota, Arizona and Nebraska, winning nine of 31 starts.

Drysdale was asked if he ever had had a horse who traveled so much.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a horse anywhere that has traveled as much as this fellow,” he said.

Honor Medal’s road record compares favorably with two of racing’s great geldings: John Henry, 18 tracks and 83 starts, and Exterminator, 19 tracks and 100 starts. Both ran for eight years.

Honor Medal, who has run 77 times, has done most of his traveling since April of 1986, when he was claimed for $110,000 at Santa Anita by Lee Person, an Omaha produce supplier. At the time, Drysdale was training Honor Medal for his breeder, Elmendorf Farm.

But Person had his own trainer, Terry Knight, and wanted to see his new purchase compete at Omaha’s Ak-Sar-Ben track. Knight ran Honor Medal once in Nebraska, losing both the race--fifth in the slop--and the horse, who was soon back on a plane to Drysdale in Southern California.

Honor Medal has three thirds and a second in seven starts this year, and Del Mar is not the most encouraging place for him to end his losing streak. He has run there five times without winning.

“Del Mar may not be exactly his favorite surface,” Drysdale said. “But he’s doing so well, and the Cabrillo didn’t come up terribly strong.”

Lively One, the 123-pound top-weight, was impressive but not overpowering in winning the San Diego Handicap at Del Mar Aug. 5, his first stakes victory in more than a year. Speedratic, second in the San Fernando Stakes last February, has had one good sprint since recovering from an injury. The others--Putting, Rogue’s Realm and You’re No Bargain--have run their best races on the turf.

As they age, geldings can tend to get a bit sullen, sometimes downright mean. Honor Medal has become the class clown.

“There’s not a rider who can stay on him when he wants to drop one in the morning,” Drysdale said with a smile. “He’ll simply wheel around, lower one shoulder and that’s it. Then he’ll stand over the rider and stare at him--innocently.

“But when he’s playful, he always seems to run a big race,” Drysdale added. “On several occasions he’s thrown his rider in the morning, then won that same afternoon. So I’m hoping for a harmless little spill Saturday morning, just for a good sign.”

Horse Racing Notes

Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Sunday Silence worked six furlongs in 1:10 4/5 Friday morning, a sign that there are no lingering effects from a slight cough two weeks ago. The Super Derby Sept. 24 remains his next target. . . . Del Mar patrons will be able to bet on the $200,000 Longacres Mile this Sunday between the sixth and seventh races.