SANTA ANITA : Restless Con Will Try for Another Helping of Gravy in Today’s San Fernando Stakes
Asked how he wound up buying Restless Con for $17,000 at a Kentucky yearling auction, trainer Duane Offield said: “He looked like he was athletic.”
Any other reasons?
“The best reason of all,” Offield said. “He was in our price range.”
They say in racing that you’re “out” when a horse wins more than he cost, and Offield and the other owners of Restless Con were ahead on their investment after the 4-year-old colt’s fourth race, a victory worth $31,000 in the Leland Stanford Stakes at Bay Meadows at the end of 1989.
Now, with a record of six victories in 12 starts, Restless Con has earned $490,300, so whatever he collects today in the $200,000 San Fernando at Santa Anita is simply more gravy.
With the Belmont Stakes winner, Go and Go; the Arkansas Derby and Pegasus Handicap winner, Silver Ending; the Malibu winner, Pleasant Tap, and the Man o’ War winner, Defensive Play, all running, Restless Con’s assignment is as demanding as some of those major stakes he traveled to last year.
The nine-horse field also includes In Excess, who is moving from grass to dirt after winning the San Gabriel Handicap, and Warcraft, who beat both Pleasant Tap and Go and Go in the Native Diver Handicap at Hollywood Park late last year.
Restless Con is not related to Right Con, the California-bred who won the San Fernando in 1986. Restless Con is a Maryland-bred son of Restless Native, and a grandson of the beautifully named Wallet Lifter. Restless Native, a son of Native Dancer, sired only eight horses--one of them Restless Con--in 1987 and 1988, dying during the 1988 breeding season.
Last year, Restless Con ran six times at five tracks. After running twice and winning small stakes at Golden Gate, he took to the hustings and ran second in the Ohio Derby at Thistledown, won the Haskell Handicap at Monmouth Park, finished ahead of only one horse in the Travers at Saratoga and didn’t beat anyone in the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs.
Rhythm, who Restless Con beat in the Haskell, won the Travers and finished 37 1/2 lengths ahead of Offield’s colt in the Travers, and Restless Con finished 18 1/4 lengths behind Home At Last, the winner of the Super Derby.
Both of those defeats were in $1-million races. Offield doesn’t dwell on the disappointments, he just explains how Restless Con could run so poorly.
“Those were the only two bad races he’s ever run,” Offield said. “The Travers was run on a loose track. It was sandy and deep, and the horse didn’t like it, and it was also terribly hot. If we had been closer to home--like Santa Anita--I would have just loaded him into the van and not even run. But we had what seemed like 8,000 people that came to watch him run at Saratoga, so what are you going to do? It’s all hindsight, I guess.”
The Super Derby was about five weeks after the Travers. The trouble line in the Daily Racing Form says that Restless Con “lost (his) footing,” but Offield ignores that comment by saying: “I just didn’t have him fit enough. I gave him some time after we got back to California. Then I breezed him three times at home and breezed him once in Louisiana, just before the race, but that wasn’t enough.”
When Restless Con went off at 11-1 in the Malibu on Dec. 26, there was at least one trainer--besides Offield--in the Santa Anita paddock who liked his appearance.
“That horse looks like he’s about to run a big race,” said Brian Mayberry, who saddled Doyouseewhatisee in the Malibu. Restless Con, a willing work horse, had been brilliant in the mornings.
Once the gate opened for the seven-furlong race, Magical Mile and Restless Con hooked up in a speed duel that took them through a :44 1/5 half-mile and a 1:08 3/5 six furlongs. Restless Con finished fourth, 3 1/2 lengths behind Pleasant Tap, and a length ahead of Magical Mile.
“The worst thing is that my horse didn’t relax,” Offield said. “I just wish he would have relaxed.”
With Tim Doocy obligated to ride Mizter Interco in today’s El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows, Russell Baze takes over on Restless Con. Baze hasn’t ridden the colt since they were seventh in the Hollywood Juvenile in July of 1989. That was about $450,000 ago.
Horse Racing Notes
Should R.D. Hubbard prevail in his proxy fight to control Hollywood Park, Robert Sangster will join his board of directors. A third-generation operator of an English soccer pool, Sangster is remembered in the United States for his costly bidding battles with oil-rich sheiks for Kentucky’s best yearlings in the 1980s. Sangster, who was especially attached to Northern Dancer bloodlines, won the English Derby with The Minstrel and Golden Fleece, the Arc de Triomphe with Alleged twice and Detroit once, and the Breeders’ Cup Mile with Royal Heroine, who won the Eclipse Award for best female turf horse in North America in 1984.
Sangster sold his soccer-pool company for an estimated $180 million in 1987. Sangster was part of the group that bought a yearling colt for a record $13.1 million at Keeneland in 1985. Named Seattle Dancer, he won two minor stakes in five starts in Europe and earned $189,068. Seattle Dancer stands at Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., and his first foal crop will race this year.
Stormy But Valid and Survive, who ran 1-2 in last year’s Santa Monica Handicap at Santa Anita, will run again in the stake Sunday. Stormy But Valid will carry top weight of 121 pounds, two more than Survive, who is part of a Richard Mandella-trained entry that also includes Devil’s Orchid. Also running are Classic Value, Sexy Slew, Fit To Scout and Island Jamboree. . . . A Wild Ride’s racing career isn’t over. Winner of the El Encino, she was sent to Kentucky a day later and was bought by Zenya Yoshida for $535,000. She will be back with trainer Wayne Lukas and could run in the La Canada at Santa Anita a week from today. . . . Santa Anita will have racing Monday and the card will be highlighted by the San Marcos Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on grass.
