HORSE RACING : 1990: It Has Been a Year of Tears

The major part of the racing year has been framed by elderly women crying.

In May, at Churchill Downs, Frances Genter, 92, cried as her 3-year-old colt, Unbridled, crossed the finish line, winning the Kentucky Derby.

And last Saturday, at Belmont Park, Jane du Pont Lunger, 76, cried in anguish when her 3-year-old filly, Go For Wand, snapped a foreleg in the stretch of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and was destroyed on the track.

About two hours after that tragedy, Unbridled, not out of sight but virtually out of mind since his Derby victory, won the Breeders’ Cup Classic against older horses, bouncing back into contention for horse of the year.

Frances Genter, who recently broke a hip in a fall, and is suffering from high blood pressure, couldn’t be at Belmont last Saturday. The Bloomington (Minn.) woman watched on television as Unbridled won, and then she had her family replay the race over and over on a VCR.

There were no requests anywhere for replays of Go For Wand’s last race, and reruns of the spill in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, which led to the deaths of two other horses, were not popular for the same reason. These are race tapes that should be kept in permanent storage, along with the video of Ruffian’s breakdown in the match race against Foolish Pleasure at Belmont in 1975.

Frances Genter couldn’t come to the phone Wednesday, but her husband, Earl Knudtson, talked about last Saturday in Bloomington.

When Go For Wand went down about a sixteenth of a mile from home, Knudtson said that the accident reminded his wife of why she seldom races her horses more than two years.

“She’s always afraid they’re going to get hurt, like Go For Wand was,” Knudtson said. “She figures she’s fortunate getting just two years of enjoyment out of a horse, and usually retires them after that.

“Remember Smile (winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in 1986)? She went too far with him, trying to race him the following year (as a 5-year-old). Now she’s always hesitant about running horses too long.”

Genter will make an exception, though, with Unbridled, who is scheduled to get a rest before he returns to the races as a 4-year-old.

He is one of the few survivors of a punishing season for the top horses. Even before the multiple wipeout in the Breeders’ Cup, racing had lost Sunday Silence, Easy Goer, Criminal Type, Golden Pheasant, Eastern Echo and Gorgeous through injuries.

None will be back next year, nor will Safely Kept, In the Wings and Royal Academy, Breeders’ Cup winners who are being retired.

A year ago, at least there was the prospect--unrealized, it turned out--of Sunday Silence and Easy Goer renewing their heated rivalry. Nothing is nearly so promising this time. The notable holdovers are Unbridled, Summer Squall, Housebuster and Bayakoa.

The crop of 2-year-old colts has no one enthralled, and Meadow Star, the undefeated 2-year-old filly and a Triple Crown candidate, did not run on Breeders’ Cup day like a horse who could handle colts at 1 1/4 miles. Meadow Star won her race, but only after Jose Santos had to whip the horse 22 times through the stretch to keep her interest.

LeRoy Jolley, who trains Meadow Star, also trained Foolish Pleasure. After Ruffian died, Jolley harshly said: “This is not a game for anybody wearing short pants.”

Fifteen years later, the day after Go For Wand’s fatal injury, Jolly was more sentimental.

“Every day, we (trainers) live with the thought that a horse might get hurt,” he said. “And you hate the thought, but every time horses run, their lives are on the line.”

Horse Racing Notes

Eddie Delahoussaye is riding two of the morning-line favorites at Santa Anita in Saturday’s California Cup, the 5-2 Shirkee in the Mile and Pillaring, who is 7-5 in the Juvenile.

Other favorites in the seven races, which are worth $1 million, are Variety Road, who is 3-1 in the Classic; Sensational Star, even money in the Sprint; Paper Princess, 7-2 in the Distaff; Theresa’s Pleasure, 7-2 in the Juvenile Fillies; and Meadow’s Interco, 7-2 in the Starter Handicap.

Snow Chief, whose owner, Ben Rochelle, is sponsoring one of the races, will be in the Santa Anita walking ring before the Juvenile and will also make an appearance on the track. Snow Chief, champion 3-year-old colt in 1986, stands at stud at Valley Creek Farm in Valley Center, Calif.

Plenty of Grace, the 3-year-old Roberto filly who races for Darby Dan Farm, has arrived at Santa Anita to join an estimated 11 other fillies and mares for Sunday’s $400,000 Yellow Ribbon. Plenty of Grace won the Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Keeneland in her last start. . . . Rial and Eradicate, the 1-2 finishers in the Oak Tree Invitational, are scheduled to run Monday, the closing day of the meeting, in the $200,000 Burke Handicap.

The battle for the national money title among jockeys will be largely settled at Hollywood Park, with Jose Santos coming from New York to ride in California the last two months of the year. Gary Stevens is the leader, by about $500,000. Hollywood’s 37-day meeting starts next Wednesday and runs through Dec. 24. . . . Corwyn Bay, who almost tripped over Mr. Nickerson in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, is back in California, with cuts on both hind legs. He’ll be rested until the Santa Anita winter season opens on Dec. 26.