SANTA ANITA : Duchossois May Hold Pair of Aces

Two of the most promising 3-year-olds in California belong to Dick Duchossois, whose New Year’s resolution probably was to make sure that 1991 did not turn out like 1990.

Duchossois, owner of Arlington International Racecourse, campaigns both Excavate and Whadjathink, who between them are undefeated in three races. Excavate easily beat maidens in late November at Hollywood Park, and Whadjathink, after winning his first start at Santa Anita on Jan. 5, came back Monday to win by 5 1/2 lengths while trying two turns for the first time.

“If anybody deserves a good horse, it’s Dick Duchossois,” said Michael Whittingham, who trains Whadjathink. Charlie Whittingham, Michael’s father, trains Excavate.

Michael Whittingham was referring obliquely to the investments that Duchossois has made in racing: an Illinois breeding farm and the Arlington track, which Duchossois rebuilt after its main buildings were destroyed in a 1985 fire.

Duchossois, whose other businesses include radio and television stations, railroad freight-car manufacturing and a munitions works that makes artillery shells, is said to be worth $350 million, but lately many of these enterprises have been in decline. This includes Arlington, which has been called a state-of-the-art track.

Last year, business nose dived, purses were slashed and the track reportedly lost $15 million. Arlington’s $1-million race for Sunday Silence and Easy Goer fell apart in August when both horses were injured, and recently the track reneged on its promise to hold a $500,000 race next July that was supposed to be an important part of the new American Racing Championship Series.

What Duchossois may need is some good horses to take his mind off these headaches, and Excavate and Whadjathink could qualify. Excavate, a $1.1-million yearling, suffered a hoof injury while training on the hard ground at Hollywood Park, but he has resumed workouts and covered five furlongs in 1:03 1/5 Thursday at Santa Anita.

Michael Whittingham, who plans to run Whadjathink in the 1 1/8-mile Bradbury Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 20, is impressed by the sheer physical ability of the brown colt, who was bred by Duchossois via a mating of Seattle Song and Katerina the Great. Seattle Song, a son of Seattle Slew, was a grass specialist who won major races in France and the United States.

“This colt is very athletic,” young Whittingham said of Whadjathink. “He’s deceptive when you look at him, but he’s raw-boned and is very powerful when he runs.”

Historically, Whadjathink has two strikes against him as far as winning the Kentucky Derby is concerned. He is an Illinois-bred, and in 116 runnings, only one horse from that state, Dust Commander in 1970, has won the race.

Second, Whadjathink didn’t run as a 2-year-old, and not since Apollo, in 1882, has a horse won the Derby without having racing experience the year before.

The new Apollo, whose name was inadvertently approved by the Jockey Club, continues his road to the Derby on Sunday when he runs at Santa Anita in the seven-furlong California Breeders’ Champion Stakes. This Apollo is undefeated in three starts.

The American Racing Championship Series announced Thursday that a $500,000, 1 1/8-mile race at Rockingham Park, scheduled for July 20, has taken Arlington’s spot. The New England Classic will be the seventh race in the 10-race series, which begins on Feb. 9 with the $500,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

More than 360 3-year-olds have been nominated for this year’s Triple Crown races, and one of them, To Freedom, remained undefeated last Sunday by winning the six-furlong Spectacular Bid Breeders’ Cup Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

To Freedom, who has won five in a row, beat Dark Brew, who once ran for a $30,000 claiming price, by a neck, but this was the first start for To Freedom, a Blue Ensign-Hindu Diplomat colt, in 5 1/2 months.

To Freedom, trained by John Tammaro, won three races in Kentucky last year by 24 lengths, then won by a head over Fighting Affair in the Saratoga Special in August. Shortly after that, To Freedom was injured in a barn incident that also involved some cutting horses at Saratoga, and Tammaro has brought him back slowly.

The first deadline for Triple Crown nominations was Wednesday, at a cost of $600 a horse. The late deadline, at a cost of $4,500, is April 8. Horses can also be supplemented into the three races. The fee is $150,000 for all three races, $100,000 for the Preakness and the Belmont and $50,000 for the Belmont.

A Wild Ride, who will be favored, drew the outside post in a field of seven for Saturday’s $200,000 La Canada at Santa Anita. From the rail out, the other 4-year-old fillies entered are Vieille Vigne, Palace Chill, Fit to Scout, Questioning, Highland Tide and Somethingmerry. A Wild Ride was shipped to Kentucky after winning the El Encino, sold at auction for $525,000 and then returned to trainer Wayne Lukas’ barn at Santa Anita.

Horse Racing Notes

Sandy Hawley, whose horses earned $3.2 million in Canada last year, will begin riding at Santa Anita next week. . . . Iraq Attack, a 5-year-old mare, finished fifth in a race at Gulfstream Park Monday. The horse’s dam is Missile Princess. . . . Carl Icahn, whose 2-year-old filly, Meadow Star, is a cinch to be named division champion, probably won’t attend the Eclipse Awards dinner in San Francisco on Feb. 9, because his airline, TWA, is busy supplying planes for the war in the Persian Gulf. . . . Earlie Fires is the winner of the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in voting by the nation’s jockeys. Fires, 43, went over the 5,000 mark in career victories last year. . . . Dominant Star, winner of the 1989 Oak Leaf, will try to make her comeback out of trainer Bill Spawr’s barn.