HOLLYWOOD PARK : Spawr Hasn’t Lost Eye for Runners

Bill Spawr isn’t hard to find during the day at Hollywood Park.

More often than not, the trainer is perched alongside the paddock, checking out the horses in the next race. Anyone close to Spawr, 50, takes notice when he makes a mark next to a horse’s name on his program.

A 2-year-old first-time starter in Wednesday’s fourth race was worthy of such a notation.

“On conformation, I thought he was the best looking horse in the field,” said Spawr.

The thoroughbred in question was My Man Tarzan. And the 2-year-old, first-time starter performed like Tarzan, drawing away in the final stages, winning by two lengths and paying $92.20.

There is plenty more evidence supporting Spawr’s eye for a horse.

One of the sharper players of the claiming game, he was voted the top trainer at Santa Anita by those who covered the meeting for a season where he won with nearly 30% of his runners, 24 of 81.

Spawr isn’t clicking with the same regularity at Hollywood Park, but he is hardly having a slow season and he has been a little unlucky. He has eight wins and 12 seconds in 43 starts and lost one victory when Sperry was disqualified in last Sunday’s ninth race.

Although he has become more visible in the last couple of years, Spawr has done well with some other shrewd purchases in the recent past.

Restage, claimed for $12,500, went on to earn more than $250,000 and won 17 races. Mister Gennaro, taken for $32,000, developed into a crack sprinter. Included among his triumphs was a 1:07 4/5 score in the 1986 Phoenix Gold Cup at Turf Paradise. Sensational Star, also a $32,000 claimer, moved up the ladder, scoring his biggest victory in Hollywood Park’s Triple Bend Handicap just over a year ago.

In 1990, there have been several horses Spawr claimed, then won with the first time he started them--Lighest Ray, Reassured, Showmanship, Chapperal Motel and Inquisitorial, to name a few. So handicappers have learned to pay special attention to Spawr’s claimers.

“I look at a lot of things,” he said. “I look at soundness, I look at the (Daily Racing) Form and I try to catch a horse I think might improve or a horse that I feel is on the way up.

“Sometimes, I’ll see little signs that maybe a horse is changing and, if I like the way they look in the paddock, I might claim them.”

Spawr can be spotted in his usual place even before the nonclaiming races.

“It helps polish your eye,” he said.

Born in Bell, Spawr was introduced to racing by a neighbor while he was in high school in the late 1950s.

“The sport fascinated me,” he said. “The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. And I’m still learning. I wanted to know what made (the horses) tick.”

Spawr had plenty of racing-related occupations before going on his own 13 years ago.

His first job was holding horses for a blacksmith. He served as a groom for Jerry Fanning and the late Wally Dunn, who trained, among others, Colorado King. He broke yearlings and helped open and managed the Chino Veterinary Hospital. He also worked as an assistant to Joe Manzi, who died at the beginning of the 1989 Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting.

From modest beginnings--Spawr started his training career with five horses in Northern California--he now has a barn with 47 residents. In a transient business, much of his help has remained with him through the years. He hopes to expand and set up two stables.

No doubt Spawr’s recent success has helped him pick up new clients. Earlier this week, he took over Dominant Dancer, who had fallen on hard times but was one of last year’s best 2-year-old fillies. Spawr succeeds Jack Van Berg, who had replaced Don Harper.

“When (co-owner) Jamie (Schloss) came to me, he said he wasn’t doing well with a good horse, I’ve been doing well with claimers, so see what you can do with a good horse,” said Spawr. “(Dominant Dancer) just needs a little bit of time. I think she’s stressed.”

Form prevailed on a day on which there was a double carry-over in the Pick Six.

Nobody had isolated six winners on Sunday or Wednesday, so there was a pool of $328,803.28 Thursday.

Only two horses paid in double figures--Svelte and J.D.’s Love--so there were 298 perfect tickets, each worth $2,258. The total Pick Six pool was $861,110.

Horse Racing Notes

According to track sources, King owner Bruce McNall’s election to Hollywood Park’s board of directors is imminent. McNall has been involved in racing for many years and his Summa Stable has featured runners such as Trempolino, Dahar and Track Robbery, among others.

Julio Garcia moved into sole possession of second place in the jockey standings with three winners Thursday. He took the opener on Make it Quick, the third on J.D.’s Love and the ninth aboard Son of One. He now has 32 victories, seven fewer than leader Patrick Valenzuela.

Kent Desormeaux won twice, finishing in a dead heat with Dark Heat in the fourth on Dragonetta and the eighth on Cat’s Air.