Whittingham Takes a Look at Arlington Cup

Following are the comments of Sunday Silence’s trainer, Charlie Whittingham, who was preparing for Saturday’s $600,000 Arlington Challenge Cup at Arlington International Racecourse.

Sunday Silence’s main competition for the race is Steinlen, who is trained by D. Wayne Lukas. Steinlen won the 1989 Arlington Million. Lukas and Whittingham are longtime rivals and don’t always see eye-to-eye.

Question: Were you a little surprised to see Lukas pull Criminal Type out of Saturday’s race and replace him with a turf horse like Steinlen?

Whittingham: No, not really. Wayne is a fan--Wayne Lukas, he doesn’t sit around and wait for them to come up. He takes his chances. He’s a gambler.

Q: Regarding gambling, you’re gambling a little bit too by taking Steinlen on at this point of Sunday Silence’s career. If Steinlen jumps up and runs as well on the dirt as he has on the grass, he may prove to be a spectacular horse.

A: Well, that’s possible, but he’s 7 years old, so he’s got age and he’s seasoned well. But I’m not frightened of him at all.

Q: You’ve got a little age on Wayne Lukas.

A: Yep. So we’re trading each away. He’s got an old horse and we’ve got an old trainer.

Q: Is this the best horse you’ve ever trained?

A: Yes. (He won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness), and he does everything and he ran with a very good horse when he won with Easy Goer. They were the two best 3-year-olds that year in 1989.

Q: Lukas has commented that he’s pretty certain his horse is going in the race to win. How do you feel about that?

A: Well, I think everybody in there is going in to race to win because most people don’t like to run for fourth money. We had a very good workout this morning (Tuesday), half a mile in 47.5.

Q: Do you have any specific strategy going into the race on Saturday?

A: Not really. You never know how a race will come up. Most jockeys forget what you tell them anyway.