HORSE RACING / Bill Christine : Gene Klein Was Rare Horse Owner

Gene Klein named one of his horses Contempt. The colt ran 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Hollywood Park in 1987.

“Named after a sportswriter?” a sportswriter asked Klein.

“No,” Klein said. “Al Davis.”

The money was one thing, but Klein enjoyed even more the chance to rattle Al Davis’ cage in a lawsuit that he won and then lost after an appeal. Klein, who had a history of heart trouble, promised that any money awarded from Davis, the operator of the Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders, would be contributed to cardiac research.

A reporter who interviewed Klein shortly after the former owner of the San Diego Charger got into racing quoted him as saying that he had heart trouble because he wasn’t taking care of himself and was 40 pounds overweight. Since Klein’s suit suggested that Davis’ antitrust action against the National Football League had brought on Klein’s heart attack, Davis’ attorneys took a deposition from the reporter.

“Davis’ people are desperate,” Klein said with characteristic bluster one day at Santa Anita. “By the way, what is it that was said that they’re so excited about?”

Told of the quote, Klein said: “Did I really say that? Maybe it was said in a different context.”

A few years ago, there was a horse named Al Davis running in New York. Somebody should have scheduled a match race between Al Davis and Contempt.

The match that did come off was Klein with Wayne Lukas, the trainer who spent millions of Klein’s money at horse auctions, and gave Klein more thrills at race tracks than he ever had in football stadiums.

Several years ago, Lukas threw an expensive party in the back yard of his luxurious home near Santa Anita, inviting perhaps 500 people to a sit-down dinner that was eaten while a full orchestra played.

Late in the evening, Gene Klein got a big smile on his face and said: “Why am I having such a good time? I’m the guy who’s really paying for all this.”

Klein was one of those rare owners who could actually match Lukas word for word, no small achievement. After they had won the Kentucky Derby in 1988 with Winning Colors, the filly was bumped repeatedly by Forty Niner, the Derby runner-up, in a roughly run Preakness. While Forty Niner and Winning Colors were bouncing off one another, Risen Star won the race.

While Klein and his jockey, Gary Stevens, heatedly criticized trainer Woody Stephens and jockey Pat Day for the way Forty Niner was ridden, Lukas retreated from the furor, in one of his rare silent postures. Klein said that Day would never ride any of his horses again, a threat that had disintegrated by the end of summer.

But Klein sure used the Preakness incident to stir up the racing Establishment. The Daily Racing Form, which takes an editorial stand about every millennium, sided with Klein and censured Stephens for poor sportsmanship.

Envious of Klein’s immediate racing successes, some horsemen said that he bought his way in, but Lukas says that is an oversimplification.

“Sure, we paid top dollar for horses,” Lukas said. “But there were more important factors. Gene came into this game using the same positive business principles that worked for him in other areas. And we were both driven by the need to succeed at what we were doing.”

There are many plutocrats in racing, people richer than even Gene Klein.

“Racing people have said for years that money can’t buy success,” said Tommy Trotter, racing secretary at Gulfstream Park. “But Klein did, and he’s the only one I know that did. And it’s amazing what success he had in just a few years.”

Last Sunday, Klein and Lukas talked on the phone and scheduled a lunch date for Tuesday.

“You sound tired, Gene,” Lukas said.

“No, I feel great,” Klein said.

Less than 24 hours later, Klein was dead.

Has there ever been a $500,000 race in which all of the horses have been beaten in their previous starts?

That is the case here Saturday for the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. The nine-horse field in the 1 1/8-mile stake has this lineup:

Ross’s Warning, eighth in the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream in his last start, with Richard Migliore riding; Sunny Serve, fourth in the FOY, Nick Petro; Top Snob, 11th in the FOY, Jerry Bailey; Unbridled, third in the FOY, Pat Day; Country Day, second in an allowance at Gulfstream, Doug Valiente; Roanoke, fifth in the FOY, Craig Perret; Run Turn, seventh in the FOY, Earlie Fires; Slavic, sixth in the FOY, Jose Santos; Single Dawn, third in the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows, Laffit Pincay.

The $50,000 Swale Stakes, a seven-furlong race that will be run earlier on the Florida Derby program, could turn out to be a more significant Kentucky Derby prep.

Summer Squall, undefeated in five races as a 2-year-old but a colt whose training in Florida has been compromised by a bleeding problem, is the 8-5 favorite, but Housebuster, a superior sprinter, and Senor Pete, the Belmont Futurity winner making his first start as a 3-year-old, are formidable opponents. Thirty Six Red, Johnny Ross and Cox’s Enchante complete the six-horse field.

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Ron McAnally, who will be at Gulfstream Saturday to saddle Single Dawn, is leaning toward starting Silver Ending in the San Felipe Handicap at Santa Anita Sunday, even though the speed-favoring track will work against the $1,500 yearling’s running style. . . . Top Cash is the 2-1 favorite in the 11-horse, $250,000 Remington Park Derby on Saturday, and Smelly is the 8-5 favorite over eight rivals in the $200,000 Federico Tesio at Pimlico.

In another Kentucky Derby prep, Burnt Hills, a California shipper, runs Sunday in the $150,000 Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds. Another California invader, Forty Niner Days, will not run after a slow workout over the New Orleans track. . . . There’s a glaring oversight on the ballot for the Racing Hall of Fame: Pat Day, a three-time Eclipse Award winner, isn’t among the jockey candidates. Day rode his first winner the year before Chris McCarron started his career, and McCarron was elected in 1989, the first year he was eligible. The jockeys on this year’s ballot are Don Brumfield, Eddie Delahoussaye, Sandy Hawley, Larry Snyder and Jorge Velasquez.

Among horses, John Henry is on the ballot for the first time, along with Arts and Letters, High Gun, Hill Prince and Noor. And McAnally, John Henry’s trainer, is also eligible. Other trainers on the ballot are Phil Johnson, Tommy Kelly, Willard Proctor and Tennessee Wright. In the contemporary female category, eligible horses are All Along, Bold ‘n Determined, Parlo, Princess Rooney and Royal Native.

In the horses-of-yesteryear category, the eligibles are Bimelech, Black Helen, Borrow, Cavalcade and Morvich. . . . Unlike baseball, which has a better system, only one candidate from each category can be elected into the racing hall each year.