HORSE RACING : Dominant Dancer Is Coming Back

Dominant Dancer, the classy filly unceremoniously bounced from the $500,000 Starlet Stakes 10 days ago for failing a veterinarian’s examination, is being prepared to run against the boys this Sunday in the $1-million Hollywood Futurity at Hollywood Park.

Her owners, Jamie Schloss and Yale Farar, must put up a late fee of $50,000 to run, but their trainer, Don (Whitey) Harper, says it is worth the gamble.

“I would be the first to back off if there was something seriously wrong with her,” Harper said Tuesday morning at his Santa Anita stable. “The truth is, I really don’t think there’s anything on four legs that can beat her.”

After his filly was scratched from the Dec. 3 Starlet, Schloss said Dominant Dancer would be getting a rest to nurse her chronically sore left shin. But the owner changed his mind when Dominant Dancer worked six furlongs last Sunday in a very fast 1:12 2/5.

“It was a tremendous work,” Schloss said. “Ray Sibille was on her and said she was going easy all the way. As far as I was concerned, it cleared the air about her condition.”

The people in Dominant Dancer camp’s have gone to great lengths to persuade themselves--and track officials--that the filly is sound enough to run. X-rays of her left shin have been sent to such noted veterinarians as Dr. Alex Harthill of Kentucky and Dr. John Wheat of UC Davis.

“She’s got a little ding in the bone that looks a little suspect,” Dr. Wheat said. “But the pictures I looked at were kind of inconclusive. They took some fresh ones Tuesday and are sending them on up.

“A fissure fracture is something a horse can have all his life and still race on it,” Wheat added. “It comes down to what the horse tells you. I see where she worked pretty fast on Sunday, so she couldn’t be too bad off.”

Dominant Dancer’s former veterinarian, Dr. Karen Valko, voiced serious reservations about running the filly until that increasingly famous left shin was more completely healed. Valko quit as Harper’s vet on the day after the Starlet Stakes fiasco.

“Dr. Wheat and Dr. Harthill are two of the very finest veterinarians in the country,” said Valko, who had been tending to Dominant Dancer’s veterinary needs since September. “But in this case you cannot know the whole picture just by looking at a set of X-rays.

“In my opinion, the leg has not healed well enough to where the filly would not be at risk of further injury by running in a race. I’ve had disagreements with clients before and I’m not saying I’m always right. But this is the first time there has been such a large conflict of views.”

Harper is determined to prove he would do nothing to jeopardize the welfare of Dominant Dancer, a winner of four stakes and more than $400,000 this year. Last Sunday’s work went a long way toward vindicating his position, he believes.

“To get a filly to work that good one week after she was supposedly dead lame, man, I’ve got to be some kind of genius,” Harper said sarcastically.

The trainer conceded that Dominant Dancer’s left shin is tender to the touch because it is healing from a stress fracture, a common injury that could have been sustained as long ago as last May, when the filly began to race. He also noted that his filly is notorious for her rough way of jogging first thing in the morning.

Harper further suggested that any additional soreness in Dominant Dancer’s left foreleg on the morning of the Starlet may have been the result of a mishap on a treadmill conditioning machine a few days before the race.

“She kicked out with that same left leg and cut herself a little bit above the hoof,” Harper said. “It was no big deal, but we had to cut some skin away, so she still might have been tender there.

“As far as that shin is concerned, it is an old injury, there’s calcification forming and it is healing,” the trainer said. “You would think they’d give me the benefit of the doubt, since I’m the guy who knows her best and been with her every day for the last six months.

“Heck, if you scratched every 2-year-old with sore shins, you’d never fill a race,” Harper added. “I won a race last Wednesday with a filly named Tramp Dancer, and they didn’t feel her shin on the morning of the race. If they did, she would have gone over backwards.”

If anything, Harper has been unusually candid about the condition of his prize filly. After she won the Landaluce Stakes at Hollywood Park on July 8, he suggested she might have to miss the Del Mar meeting because of the shin problem. As it turned out, she was able to race twice at Del Mar, finishing second in both the Junior Miss Stakes and the Del Mar Debutante.

Dominant Dancer then won the Lady Canterbury Stakes in Minnesota and the Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita consecutively. Once again, following the Oct. 9 Oak Leaf, Harper went public about his filly’s condition, and a likely trip to the Breeders’ Cup was scrapped.

As a result of her scratch from the Starlet, Dominant Dancer has had to clear a series of bureaucratic hurdles before running in the Futurity--or any other race, for that matter.

For her to be removed from the restricted veterinarian’s list, Dominant Dancer’s work last Sunday had to be observed by Dr. Ray Baran, Hollywood Park’s official vet.

“She moved very well during the workout and walked off sound,” said Baran, who also drew a blood sample after the filly’s exercise.

As long as the blood test comes back negative for the presence of any improper medications, Harper may go ahead and enter Dominant Dancer in the Futurity Friday morning. Still, the filly must satisfy Dr. Donald Dooley, racing board veterinarian, on the morning of the race. And it was Dooley who pronounced her unfit to race before the Starlet.

“I hold no grudge against Dr. Dooley for scratching the filly,” Harper said. “But I’m convinced he was carrying out a decision that had already been made. I have it on good authority that anonymous calls were made to the race track, telling them that the filly was a danger to other horses in the race. It was just the same as a bomb scare.”

Hollywood Park steward Pete Pedersen said his office received no anonymous tips about Dominant Dancer’s condition before the Starlet. He did note, however, that there had been backstretch rumors about the filly’s condition.

“We don’t act on rumors,” Pedersen said. “But we certainly like to check them out if possible. In this case, I’m sure our veterinarians heard the same stories we’d been hearing. They had been very public about her shin injury for quite a while.”

With her considerable speed and fondness for Hollywood Park’s main track, Dominant Dancer should be well backed if she goes in the Futurity. Her opposition will include Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up Grand Canyon, Prevue Stakes winner Individualist and Hoist the Flag Stakes winner Single Dawn.

“If she wins, it’s the Cinderella story of the year,” Harper said. “Maybe they did us a favor in the Starlet, and I’ll end up winning a half-million-dollar pot instead of $250,000.

Horse Racing Notes

Eclipse Award ballots went out this week to 177 turf reporters, 95 editorial and field personnel of the Daily Racing Form and 34 racing secretaries. Top owner, apprentice jockey and champions in nine sub-categories (sprint, grass, 2-year-olds, etc.) will be announced on Jan. 8, while the horse of the year and the champion trainer and jockey will be announced at Santa Anita Park and shown on “Wide World of Sports” on Jan. 27.

Herman Smith, former general manager of the Oak Tree Racing Assn., is working for the Lloyd Arnold operation at Los Alamitos Racetrack. Smith will serve as general manager of a quarter horse meeting at Los Alamitos tentatively scheduled for next spring.

The $250,000 Bay Meadows Handicap Saturday will mark the final race in the colorful career of Simply Majestic. The 5-year-old son of Majestic Light cost $575,000 as a yearling, has won more than $1.6 million and has set or equaled seven records, including the world record of 1:45 for 1 1/8 miles on the main track. Simply Majestic enters the race with 18 wins in 43 starts. Among those trying to spoil his finale will be Fair Judgment, River Master, Delegant, Variety Road and Ten Keys.