DEL MAR : Sept. 7, Down Through Racing Ages
On a quiet afternoon at Del Mar, during a lull before the storm of activity in the final days of the meeting, the mind is allowed to wander. Given the chance, race track memories come flooding back. A little focus is required, and Sept. 7 must have some significance somewhere in the foggy past. So, Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for . . .
1989--OK, not a real long trip, but still a day to remember. The real horseplayers who save their programs will note that Pat Valenzuela stole the Sept. 7 Del Mar show with five winners on eight mounts.
In retrospect, the lasting memory from one year ago came out of the fifth race. Fernando Toro, who was contemplating retirement after 32 years in the saddle, rode what turned out to be his last Del Mar winner, a $50,000 claimer named Feeling Tipsy, trained by Richard Mandella. There was no fanfare, only polite applause as Toro cleaned out of his Del Mar cubicle in sixth place on the list of all-time local stakes riders, with three victories in the Del Mar Handicap.
One year later, Toro is spending his mornings at the track alongside Mandella. The 49-year-old native of Chile continues to ponder a career as a trainer, but in his words, “I’m in no hurry.”
Added Toro, who officially quit June 29 after riding 3,573 winners: “I put myself under a lot of pressure when I was deciding to retire. So, there’s no rush to make a decision. I like being able to do whatever I want.”
1980--John Henry was not yet a legend. He was simply a hard-working 5-year-old gelding with two trainers and a colorful name. But he was well on his way to his first grass championship, and Sept. 7 at Belmont Park, he beat Premier Ministre by a neck in the Brighton Beach Handicap while spotting the runner-up eight pounds. Angel Cordero was in the saddle.
Darrel McHargue had been John Henry’s regular rider through the first half of 1980, and his record on the budding superstar was excellent--11 rides, seven wins and four seconds. But McHargue broke his collarbone at Saratoga in early August and was pushing to make it back in time for the Brighton Beach.
“My agent kept telling me that we’d get the mount if I could heal up in time,” recalled McHargue, now a racing official at Del Mar. “Right up to the last minute, I was expecting to get named on the horse for the Brighton Beach.”
However, the John Henry camp--trainers Ron McAnally and Lefty Nickerson and owner Sam Rubin--decided that McHargue was coming back too soon. They gave the ride to Cordero, despite the fact that McHargue was suited up and in the Belmont Park jockeys’ room.
“I actually rode the last race on the card that day,” McHargue said. “That’s when I re-broke my collarbone. It put me out for another five weeks. Shows you what a little too much ambition can do to you sometimes.”
1973--Triple Crown winner Secretariat had just recovered from a debilitating illness when Lucien Laurin began training the superhorse for the inaugural Marlboro Cup at Belmont Park. The success of the Cup hinged on Secretariat’s participation, but he seemed a far cry from the brilliant flame that burned the field in the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths the previous spring.
After going without serious exercise for more than three weeks, Secretariat turned in a pair of lackluster workouts that had Laurin tearing at his white hair. Big Red was sleepwalking, and time was running out.
On the morning of Sept. 7, Secretariat needed a serious mile workout. He came home in 1:37, a mediocre clocking for an animal who had shaded 1:35 just before his Belmont victory. Rumors began to buzz on the backstretch that all was not well.
Then, five days later, Laurin finally got what he wanted, a blistering six-furlong drill in 1:08 4/5. The wise guys cracked that Secretariat had just left his Marlboro Cup on the track, free of charge. Not true. The champion won the Sept. 15 race by 3 1/2 lengths and set a world record for 1 1/8 miles in the bargain.
1964--After reigning as America’s horse of the year for four seasons, 1960-63, tough old Kelso was beginning to show signs of wear. His 1964 campaign had begun with failure in California and continued through a frustrating summer.
At the same time, Gun Bow, the new kid on the block, was running up a record Kelso could not match. In fact, the 7-year-old “Kelly” had not even won a significant ’64 stake before suiting up against 4-year-old Gun Bow at equal weights for the Aqueduct Stakes on Sept. 7.
It was Labor Day, and 65,066 turned out at Aqueduct to witness the nine-furlong battle. Gun Bow’s style was fast and furious, and he led Kelso by as many as five lengths around the clubhouse turn and down the backstretch. Then, on the far turn, Kelso leveled out and went after his nemesis.
Charles Hatton, then the dean of America’s racing reporters, described the ensuing 30 seconds as if he were standing in the midst of a hurricane.
“It was like the brink of Niagara,” he wrote. “Deafening and almost terrifying.”
Kelso took the lead with just over a furlong to run, but Gun Bow fought back. In the final sixteenth, wrote Hatton, “They went at one another with the fury of wounded tigers.” At the wire, it was Kelso by a grudging three-quarters of a length.
“Perfect strangers thumped one another on the back,” Hatton reported. “Rebel whoops and yells rent the welkin, and there was a continuous roar of applause that did not end until Kelso disappeared from view.”
1907--Whoa there! Is this to say nothing of significance happened in horse racing on any of the September 7s between ’07 and ‘64? Of course not.
On Sept. 7, 1957, Eddie Arcaro won his one and only Del Mar stakes race in the $64,680 Futurity aboard Old Pueblo. In 1940, an obscure 9-year-old named Distribute set a world record of 2:51 3/5 for 13 1/2 furlongs at River Downs. And on that date in 1925, the great mare Princess Doreen beat colts in the Cincinnati Enquirer Handicap at the brand new Coney Island Jockey Club in New York.
But 1907 was the year of Colin, and on Sept. 7, the 2-year-old son of Commando ran his unbeaten streak to nine with a three-length victory in the Flatbush Stakes at the old Sheepshead Bay course on Long Island. Colin won three more races that season and three the next before being sent to England.
Unfortunately, Colin was injured and never raced again. But his perfect 15-for-15 record has not been equaled in this century.
Horse Racing Notes
Earth Angel, who started her career with seven losses and was on the verge of being a $750,000 yearling bust, will be seeking her third victory in 21 days when she heads the field in today’s Torrey Pines Stakes at Del Mar. . . . Strub Stakes winner Flying Continental worked a half-mile in :46 4/5 Thursday in preparation for Sunday’s $200,000 Breeders’ Cup-sponsored race at Del Mar, in which he will face Ruhlmann, Lively One and, perhaps, 3-year-old Stalwart Charger.