THOROUGHBRED RACING : Little Brianne Gem for New Owner

Little Brianne, the 6-year-old mare who is on the verge of earning $1 million, has done most of her important winning for her current owner, Robert Alick, because her former owner went to jail.

William E. Rooney, a wheeler-dealer in Joliet, Ill., bred Little Brianne and raced her until his empire crumbled in 1989. When Rooney went bankrupt, he owed thousands of investors more than $26 million. Convicted of fraud, Rooney was given two 10-year sentences and is in a federal prison at Terre Haute, Ind.

“Rooney was working the classic Ponzi scheme,” said Eugene Crane, a Chicago lawyer. At one time, Rooney was juggling at least three finance companies and two breeding investment groups, luring customers by paying as much as 23% interest on unsecured, nine-month retirement certificates.

From the summer of 1989 until midway through 1990, Little Brianne ran 12 races for Crane, who as a trustee for the courts was trying to sell Rooney’s horses--four in training and about 40 at the farm, mostly broodmares.

Tommy Soo, an unheralded Chicago horseman, trained Little Brianne for Crane, who was uneasy about keeping Rooney’s trainer, Bert Sonnier. Little Brianne had run 19 times for Sonnier before winning a stakes race.

“He (Crane) wasn’t happy with me because I was a friend of Rooney’s,” said Sonnier, whose daughter is married to Santa Anita jockey Alex Solis. “He asked me if I was on his side or Rooney’s side, and I guess I was on Rooney’s side. I had trained for him for about four years, and I thought he was a first-class guy. He was good for racing.”

Soo, 57, had never trained a horse as good as Little Brianne. “I have a small stable,” he said. “I’m not a public relations guy; I’ve gone out and tried to hustle good horses.”

The day before the 1989 Breeders’ Cup at Gulfstream Park, Little Brianne won the Very Subtle Stakes. That was her second stakes victory in her 29th start.

Then Little Brianne ran some dull races at Gulfstream, and federal government officials, who were interested only in selling her, had trouble comprehending the economics of racing. Soo was charging them his regular rate, $40 per horse per day, to train and stable Little Brianne and Rooney’s three other horses, who weren’t much. When Soo suggested that they run Little Brianne in a stakes race, the government was reluctant to pay the $3,000 in nominating and starting fees.

Soo brought the horses to Chicago early in 1990, and in June, Little Brianne won a stakes race at Arlington International Racecourse, the richest victory in the trainer’s career.

The government was trying to peddle the four horses as a package, but when there was no interest in the three nonentities, it was decided to try selling Little Brianne separately. Soo remembers one of the first offers was $50,000. Crane remembers an offer of $110,000 growing to $125,000, and he also recalls that Dick Duchossois, the owner of Arlington, was once interested in buying Little Brianne.

Jack Van Berg, who trains Little Brianne for Alick, the owner of an international company that rebuilds computers, would not say what they paid for Little Brianne, but both Soo and Crane said the price was about $150,000. “She would have brought a lot more if the government hadn’t been selling her,” Soo said. “She was worth $200,000 or $300,000 just as a broodmare.”

Little Brianne is a daughter of Coastal, who cost Spectacular Bid the Triple Crown by winning the Belmont Stakes in 1979, and Spicy Life, an unraced granddaughter of Bold Ruler.

“She still hadn’t matured when I had her,” Sonnier said of Little Brianne. “I always thought that she’d get better as she got older. She was big, she was sound and she was good-looking.”

For Van Berg, Little Brianne has blossomed into one of the best older females in the country and has shown the versatility to win on either dirt or grass. After winning a minor stakes race at Louisiana Downs, she came to California and has won four more times. Carrying a feather to Bayakoa’s anvil, Little Brianne capitalized on a weight advantage to beat the two-time champion mare twice in as many weeks at Santa Anita in February, winning the Santa Maria and the Santa Margarita Handicaps.

“She’s a good mare and getting better,” Van Berg said. “She looks like she can compete with the best on either surface. She works fast in the mornings and she runs fast in the afternoons.”

Of Rooney’s four horses, Tommy Soo has been left with only one, a 4-year-old colt that the federal government sold for $40,000. He has run second a couple of times this winter at Gulfstream.

“I thought Little Brianne would do well in California,” Soo said. “She liked hard race tracks. If it rained a few days before she’d run, she wouldn’t run so good.”

In Chicago, Eugene Crane is not finished selling off William E. Rooney’s horse-related holdings. There’s the matter of a 1,000-acre farm in Orlando, Fla., not far from Disney World.

“Make me an offer,” Crane said.

Horse Racing Notes

Richman, the winner of the Louisiana Derby, has been installed as the 5-2 favorite, with Apollo the second choice at 7-2, in Saturday’s $500,000 Jim Beam Stakes for 3-year-olds at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky. Richman, who lost for the only time in his past seven starts when he bumped into Fly So Free in the Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park, will be trying to give Pat Day his fifth victory in as many tries in the Beam. Apollo, who has led all five of his races and won four, did not get the best of the draw when he wound up with the outside post in an 11-horse field. Richman, who also likes to lead, breaks from No. 7. Others in the field are Hansel, Subordinated Debt, River Fit, Wilder Than Ever, Bobby M., He Is Risen, Lost Mountain, Discover and Sir Otto.

Meadow Star, the champion 2-year-old filly who may run in the Kentucky Derby, races four rivals Saturday in the Comely, a one-mile race at Aqueduct. At Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., other Derby candidates run in the 1 1/16-mile Rebel. The Wayne Lukas-trained entry of Corporate Report and Battle Creek is the 8-5 favorite, with Fenter the second choice at 2-1. Gary Stevens, who leads the country in purses with more than $3.2 million, will ride Corporate Report and Jorge Velasquez has the mount on Battle Creek.

At Santa Anita Saturday, Fit To Scout will try to beat males in the $250,000 San Bernardino Handicap at 1 1/8 miles. The high weight in the nine-horse field is Pleasant Tap at 116 pounds. Fit To Scout, winner of the La Canada, also was weighted at 116, but she gets five pounds off because of a sex allowance. Others running are Louis Cyphre, Morlando, My Boy Adam, Silver Ending, Trebizond, Anshan and High Energy. Jack Van Berg, who trains Fit To Scout, won the San Bernardino with Alysheba in 1988.