Whittingham Distantly Eyes Silver Ending

Charlie Whittingham sits in his office, adjoining his horses’ residence at Hollywood Park, allowing he may not go back to the Kentucky Derby for another 26 years.

Since Charlie is 76, he would be bringing a wealth of experience to the race, which he once skipped for 26 years for precisely the reason he is skipping this one.

“We’re not ready for that kind of race today,” says Charlie, speaking for his client, Warcraft, who finished third in the Santa Anita Derby. “It is important you stay out of Kentucky unless you’re ready. Otherwise, you are there for social reasons, and, God knows, enough others are there for that purpose.”

Charlie doesn’t make it clear whether the horses or trainers and owners go there for social reasons. Some horses, you know, like to grace the scene. They show up at championship fights, introduced at ringside.

And the playoffs come along for the Lakers and you will find them in the floor seats, next to Walter Matthau.

It distresses Whittingham that a horse that wins the Derby, as his Sunday Silence did last year, never can draw the billing of defending champion.

That’s because the winner isn’t permitted to defend.

“You can defend a title in the World Series, the Super Bowl, the NBA and at Wimbledon,” Charlie says. “You can defend in the Stanley Cup, the World Cup, the Olympics and in chess. But in the Derby, you get two minutes and you’re gone forever.”

“Is there any science to getting a horse ready for the Derby, or is it mostly luck?” Whittingham is asked.

“What you aim for,” he answers, “is to get a Mister Frisky to peak at just the right moment. You try to pick the right time to arrive in Louisville. You work the horse the right number of times at what you feel are the right speeds and distances. You bring along the hay he is used to eating. And you watch what happens.

“In my case, horses have won and they have finished in the pack. And I had two (Porterhouse and Temperate Sil) that got sick and couldn’t even start. It’s no game of genius.”

Having made his decision on Warcraft, Charlie will watch the Derby today at Hollywood Park, one of 201 horse casinos about the hemisphere that will take betting action on this proposition.

“Do you like Mister Frisky’s chances?” Charlie is asked.

“Any horse that wins 16 in a row gets my respect,” he answers. “But Santa Anita this winter favored speed horses. Silver Ending didn’t like the surface, so (trainer) Ron McAnally shifted him to Arkansas where he won the Derby there galloping. You want to watch out for this horse. That track at Louisville may be good for him.”

To be run today for the 116th time, the Kentucky Derby has seen interesting changes. For one thing, it wasn’t booked automatically on the first Saturday in May until 1932. Before that, they ran it anywhere from April 29 until May 23.

Nor was 126 pounds assigned entrants until 1920. The year before, Sir Barton, first Triple Crown winner, slipped into the Derby with 110, going to the post with 112 1/2 when his jockey reported overweight.

Since horses started drawing 126, only one ever has run heavier. That was 1971 when an unfortunate creature named Saigon Warrior picks up a rider who conditions himself so matchlessly for this opportunity of a lifetime that he weighs in at 127.

It is one of the most dramatic Derbies in memory. First, Saigon Warrior, a field horse, runs last in a herd of 20.

Four fellow field horses finish 19th, 18th, 17th and 16th.

And the sixth field horse is a guy named Canonero II, se habla Espanol in much the manner of Mister Frisky.

Racing in Caracas, as Mister Frisky has raced in San Juan, Canonero II is put on a plane for Miami, from where he is to proceed to Louisville. The plane catches fire. It returns to Caracas, Canonero clutching his beads.

Placed on another plane, he lands in Miami, where he is hurled into a long quarantine without his regular food. He gets sick. He is then put on a van for the hard, dusty ride to Kentucky.

From his vantage point, in 18th place at a half-mile, he decides to circle the field. If he is coming by way of Indiana, you deduce, he has to cross the Ohio.

Down the stretch he comes, with a rush and a roar. He wins it by 3 3/4.

If this provides inspiration for Mister Frisky, we remain untouched, recalling that our savant, Charlie Whittingham, says to watch out for Silver Ending.

We accept this evaluation. Charlie wears a hat, but doesn’t often talk through it.