HORSE RACING : Recent Turf Records Create Controversy

Ray Rogers sounded a little like Ford Frick when the commissioner of baseball was asked about Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth’s home run record, but taking more games to do it.

Rogers, general manager for the Oak Tree group that races at Santa Anita, is in favor of an asterisk. He figures that might be the best way of noting the spate of records that have been set on Santa Anita’s new turf course.

In effect, asterisks indicate a different set of records. They amount to a way of leaving the record times of the horses who ran over the old grass course on the books, while creating a new category for the horses who have been running lickety-split in the week since Santa Anita unveiled its multimillion-dollar surface hybrid Bermuda grass on the top and a tightly woven mesh underneath.

Even trainer Bruce Headley is in favor of a second set of records. Headley trains Bosphorus, the 4-year-old colt who broke the Santa Anita record for the turf mile with a time of 1:33 1/5 last Friday. The mile record was 1:34 1/5 going into this season, and all three grass races at that distance have been faster. Santa Anita’s record for 1 1/8 miles on grass also has been broken.

Jim Quinn, who has written several books on handicapping, agrees with Rogers and Headley and says the old turf records should be kept intact because of the different texture the horses are running on now.

That is not likely to happen, however, because neither the Daily Racing Form, the unofficial record keeper for racing, nor Cliff Goodrich, the president of Santa Anita, believes there is a need for a separate listing.

The Racing Form usually starts a new set of time records when a track is re-configured, which it did when Hollywood Park lengthened its dirt track from a mile to 1 1/8 miles in 1984. Santa Anita’s grass course has been widened, but it’s still the the same nine-tenths of a mile around the oval.

“We’ve changed the grass surface before and always compared the times against the records that were in existence,” Goodrich said. “I don’t think you should start a new set of records just because the surface is different, because if you did that it would get confusing if you changed the surface often.

“The jockeys have been telling me that one of the reasons the horses are running faster is that they don’t seem to get as tired on this surface. The main thing I’m concerned about is how the horses come out of the races, and so far they’ve come back fine.

“When you see horses running as fast as they’ve been lately, you automatically start to worry about whether the course is kind to their legs.

“The real test for the course will come when the Santa Anita season opens, and we start getting rain. If it rains an inch and a half one day and the course is firm the next, then we’ll know that all the money was worth it.”

In 1983, the Rothmans International at Woodbine, the Turf Classic at Belmont Park and the Washington D.C. International at Laurel were run two weeks apart over a four-week span. The three tracks even got together and put up a million-dollar bonus for a horse that could sweep the races. All Along, a filly from France, did just that on the way to being voted America’s horse of the year.

But that was before 1984, when the Breeders’ Cup, with its seven races worth $10 million, became a fall fixture. Now there is hardly enough room on the calendar for tracks to squeeze in their major races without conflicting with top stakes at other tracks.

The Turf Classic was run last Sunday at Belmont, and on Oct. 22 the Rothmans and D.C. International will be run on the same day. Consequently, none of the horses that ran at Belmont are expected to run Oct. 22, because their trainers will wait for the Breeders’ Cup at Gulfstream Park on Nov. 4, and the Woodbine and Laurel races will suffer.

In a year when the American grass horses haven’t shown much consistency, and when the European stars appear to be tailing off, this conflict is especially noticeable.

A few years ago, when Frank DeFrancis, the late president of Laurel, met with his staff to schedule their fall stakes, he referred to the Breeders’ Cup as “the gorilla.” This year, to the operators of Belmont, Woodbine and Laurel, the Breeders’ Cup looks like King Kong.

Santa Anita is also caught in this scheduling vise, since the Oak Tree Invitational, a major grass race and the richest stake of the season at $500,000, will be run Saturday. The Invitational needed to be positioned this weekend to avoid a conflict with the Eastern races and to allow trainers the time necessary to send their horses to the Breeders’ Cup.

The 1 1/2-mile race has been left with a respectable field, Santa Anita being fortunate that Hawkster and Great Communicator, two of the favorites, are stabled on the West Coast. Other probables are Lively One, Pasakos, Pay the Butler, Pleasant Variety, Saratoga Passage, Warrshan and Indalecio.

Hawkster, not eligible for the Breeders’ Cup, might still be headed for Gulfstream if he wins the Oak Tree. A penalty of $220,000 would have to be paid, though, for him to run in the $2-million Turf Stakes.

A small field is likely at Santa Anita for Sunday’s $200,000 Norfolk Stakes at 1 1/16 miles for 2-year-olds, with Drag Race and Single Dawn, the first- and third-place finishers in the Del Mar Futurity, scheduled to run.

Ron McAnally, who trains Single Dawn, is also planning to start Hero Worker. Grand Canyon is another possible starter.

The two favorites will not be ridden by their usual jockeys. Martin Pedroza replaces the injured Frank Olivares on Drag Race and McAnally has hired Laffit Pincay for Single Dawn, who had traffic problems under Alex Solis at Del Mar.

Horse Racing Notes

Blushing John, who is expected to challenge Easy Goer and Sunday Silence in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, runs Friday night in the $500,000 Meadowlands Cup in New Jersey. The eight-horse race is over 1 1/4 miles, same distance as the Classic. Blushing John, the even-money favorite, carries 124 pounds, eight more than Slew City Slew, who was second in a photo finish against Alysheba in the race a year ago. Pat Day has been Blushing John’s regular rider, but he will be replaced by Angel Cordero, because Day is committed to Sunday Silence in the Classic. On Friday night, Day rides Slew City Slew.

Gary Stevens, who suffered a broken hand and wrist at Del Mar last summer, returns to action Saturday and rides Pay the Butler in the Oak Tree Invitational. . . . Laffit Pincay rides Bayakoa and Corey Black will be aboard Goodbye Halo as those rivals hook up again in the Spinster on Saturday at Keeneland. . . . Chris McCarron will be at Belmont to ride Richard R. in the Champagne.

The $1.25-million sale of Kool Arrival--a California record--is deceptive, because all Pete Valenti and John Coelho did was buy out another partner. A new partner in the horse is Ben Rochelle, one of the owners of Snow Chief and Very Subtle. When the bidding on Kool Arrival went to $1 million, a card had to be held up with the first digit, because the board had room for only six figures.

Old Vic, one of Europe’s top horses, is going to run in the Rothmans, and then probably the Breeders’ Cup Turf. . . . Four of last weekend’s stakes winners--Dominant Dancer in the Oak Leaf, Yankee Affair in the Turf Classic and Sewickley in the Vosburgh at Belmont, and Brown Bess in the California Jockey Club Handicap at Bay Meadows--were not nominated for the Breeders’ Cup.