RACING NOTEBOOK : Turf Giants Readying for Rematch

It is time to start plotting the next collision courses for Sunday Silence and Easy Goer, whose exploits are sure to dominate the last half of the 1990 racing season.

The colts could meet again on Aug. 4 at Arlington International Racecourse in Chicago, where a $1 million purse is guaranteed if they both show up for a special 1 1/4-mile event. Their appeal is obvious, for without them the race would be worth just $250,000.

When last seen in public, Sunday Silence and Easy Goer were writing another chapter of their rivalry in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4 at Gulfstream Park in Florida. Sunday Silence won by a neck that day to nail down horse-of-the-year honors and run his record to 3-1 against Easy Goer.

But the Classic left Easy Goer’s fans hungry for a rematch. That conclusive neck has shrunk to a head or even a long nose in the imagination, as partisans maintain that their hero was gobbling up Sunday Silence with every stride.

Their battles took a heavy toll. Sunday Silence emerged from the Classic with bone chips in his right knee that required surgery. Easy Goer, who wintered in Florida, was treated for inflamed ankles and given a healthy rest, according to trainer Shug McGaughey.

“After the Breeders’ Cup, I knew I wouldn’t be running him for a long time,” McGaughey said from his Belmont Park stable office Wednesday. “But that time is almost here.”

Both colts are back in steady training and appear to have blossomed after recovering from repairs. Their progress so far as 4-year-olds has been similar, as they trade training blows from a safe range of 3,000 miles.

After about two months of galloping, Easy Goer had his first three-furlong exercise on March 30 at Gulfstream. The caramel-colored son of Alydar followed with three more Florida works before shipping to his Belmont headquarters with the rest of the McGaughey stable.

Sunday Silence let off his first bit of steam with three furlongs in :39 4/5 on April 5 at Santa Anita. He followed that with three furlongs in :37 4/5 on April 10, four furlongs in :50 on April 15 and four furlongs in :49 4/5 on April 20, all at Santa Anita.

Since then it has been point-counterpoint for the two stars:

April 26--Sunday Silence works five furlongs in 1:02.

April 26--Easy Goer works five furlongs in 1:01 3/5.

May 1--Sunday Silence works five furlongs in 1:01 3/5.

May 2--Easy Goer works six furlongs in 1:12.

May 6--Sunday Silence works six furlongs in 1:13 1/5.

May 8--Easy Goer works five furlongs in 1:00.

Tentative plans call for Easy Goer to run in Belmont’s $500,000 Metropolitan Mile on May 28 and then possibly the $350,000 Suburban Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on July 4.

Trainer and part-owner Charlie Whittingham has circled Hollywood Park’s $300,000 Californian at 1 1/8 miles on June 3 and then the $1-million Hollywood Gold Cup at 1 1/4 miles on June 24 for Sunday Silence.

After that, it will be on to Chicago.

“That race is on as far as I’m concerned,” McGaughey said of the Arlington event. “It’s still a long way off, but I hope both colts get there.

“I’m happy with the way my colt’s been training. His work Tuesday was excellent. He hasn’t changed a whole lot since last year, though maybe he’s filled out just a little more.”

The idea of more Easy Goer is a bit scary. Even early in his 3-year-old season, he was an imposing specimen. Sunday Silence, on the other hand, was more angular and unfinished.

Things change, and Sunday Silence has transformed from Bruce Wayne into Batman. Whittingham can hardly contain his delight these days when he watches the near-black son of Halo flex his muscles. At the same time, the trainer will not rush his champion back into action.

“The Californian will be tight, but I think we’ll make it,” Whittingham said recently. “He’s a lot more relaxed than when he was younger, and that makes it easier to get him ready. But I want to get him ready first, and then worry about finding him a race.”

Jockey Dave Patton spent his 28th birthday at his Arcadia home Wednesday in a condition that has become all too familiar--broken, bruised and out of action.

The Orange County native suffered a severe bruise on his left heel Sunday at Hollywood Park when the filly, Cool Clear Water, reared and sat back in the starting gate before the sixth race. Patton hopes to return in two weeks.

“She’s always been a little jittery,” said Patton, who had ridden Cool Clear Water several times. “This time, she climbed up the front of the gate and gave me the signal she was going to go over. I pushed myself away from her just at the time she started to go back. Before I could get away from her, my foot got trapped between her and the back of the gate.”

With his weight flying backward and 1,000 pounds of horseflesh bearing down, Patton hyper-extended his left foot so badly that doctors at first suspected a break.

“Actually, I consider myself very lucky,” he said. “I was afraid I had done more damage than what came up. What they probably saw on the X-rays was an old fracture of the same foot.”

Patton has been X-rayed more often than airport luggage. It’s easy to see why doctors might need a road map to sort out this year’s damage from that in 1989, ’88 or ’87.

Patton is a bread-and-butter type of jockey whose best moments usually occur far from the bright lights of the feature race. Although he rarely penetrates the local top 10, he makes a good living with a handful of loyal customers who rely on him to ride the rogues as well as the angels.

“As many crazy horses as I get on, because of the kind of stock I get on, I feel pretty lucky,” Patton said. But when he gets a good one, he makes the most of it. One week before his most recent injury, Patton scored a mild upset in the $150,000 California Oaks at Golden Gate Fields aboard Freya Stark for trainer Jude Feld.

Patton enjoyed considerable success as an apprentice. He was the leading “bug” rider at the 1986 Hollywood Park fall meeting, as well as the ’87 Hollywood summer season, and finished second to Corey Black in the overall standings at Fairplex Park in 1987.

Then came his nightmare season.

“I figured I missed almost half of 1988 with various injuries,” Patton said. “I broke a lot of ribs, my arm, my shoulder, fractured some bones in the top of my foot. I’d come back strong, but it was just one incident after another.”

In the meantime, Patton is becoming intimately familiar with the tolerance of the human body for pain and trauma.

“They say your feet are almost the key to your whole body because they have all those nerve endings,” Patton said. “And after smashing my foot, I tend to believe that, because my whole body hurts.”

Horse Racing Notes

John Sadler used dark humor to dull the disappointment of Saturday’s Triple Bend Handicap, in which Frost Free finished fourth and heavily favored Olympic Prospect ran fifth. “I’m just glad I use an electric razor,” the trainer said. “They both came out of the race OK. Frost Free’s race is still a little confusing to me. As for Olympic Prospect, it appears he needs even more time between races than I’ve been giving him. His good races--like the Potrero Grande before the Triple Bend--are better than ever, but they take more out of him.”

An Assembly bill that would have allowed satellite betting between Northern and Southern California harness and quarter horse tracks was voted down Tuesday, 5-1, by the Governmental Organization Committee of the State Senate.