HORSE RACING DERBY TRIAL : Rash Decision Results in Head Start

Many trainers begin their careers with bottom-of-the-barrel claiming horses, always hoping that some prosperous owners will come along to upgrade their bloodstock.

Rodney Rash, 31, is doing the opposite. He might have no place to go but down, because his first horse as an independent trainer is Honor Grades, a well-bred 3-year-old colt who will run today in the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs.

Rash, who has 15 horses in California, has received this unusual opportunity because Bruce McNall and Wayne Gretzky of the Kings bought Honor Grades earlier this month and turned him over to trainer Charlie Whittingham’s former chief assistant.

“This is a wonderful start, getting horses from some of Charlie’s owners,” Rash said. “But I know I’m going to have to produce.”

If Rash can produce as well as some other former Whittingham assistants, he will do fine. The ranks include Joe Manzi, Neil Drysdale, Dick Lundy and Chris Speckert. Dinard, the probable Kentucky Derby favorite until he suffered a torn ligament earlier this week, is trained by Lundy.

Rash was only 15 when he got on a plane in Baltimore and flew to Los Angeles to look for a racing job at a major track.

He had worked as an exercise rider at the late Art Rooney’s Shamrock Farm, and a groom there gave him a list of trainers to look up. There were Bobby Frankel, Buster Millerick, Henry Moreno and--the last name--Charlie Whittingham, who had already been elected to the Racing Hall of Fame.

“ ‘I’ll put Whittingham’s name down,’ ” Rash said the groom told him. “ ‘But there’s no chance he’ll ever give you a job.’ ”

The brash Rash got off the plane and went straight to Whittingham’s barn at Santa Anita at 5 in the morning. Before the groom wrote Whittingham’s name on that piece of paper, Rash had never heard of the trainer.

“I remember what Charlie did when I walked into his office,” Rash said. “He was reading his newspaper and he never looked up. He acted like I wasn’t even there.”

That made Rash even more determined to work for Whittingham. He found Ed Lambert, Whittingham’s foreman, and Lambert gave him a job as a hot-walker, near the bottom among barn personnel.

In 1982, when Rash was 22, Lundy left to start his own stable. Whittingham promoted Rash, making him the youngest head assistant he has ever had.

When Whittingham came East, winning the Derby with Ferdinand in 1986 and with Sunday Silence in 1989, then continuing on to the other Triple Crown races with those horses, Rash was in charge of the large stable in California, where the stakes winners kept coming. Now, he has picked up horses from the same owners, not only because Whittingham recommended him, but because he ran the operation successfully while the boss was away.

“Charlie’s been like a father to me,” Rash said. “I wasn’t the most cut-and-dried kind of guy when I was first with him. He once said that I was wilder than a peach-orchard boar. But if I can remember just 50% of what he’s taught me, I should be in good shape.”

Rash had considered breaking from Whittingham before this year. “But when Ferdinand and Sunday Silence came along, I got to like the responsibility of running the operation while Charlie was gone,” Rash said. “And how could I find any horses better to work with than what Charlie had?”

Finally, this year, Rash told Whittingham that he would stay until after the Triple Crown, should Excavate and Compelling Sound make it to the Derby. But Excavate was injured and Compelling Sound didn’t run well enough, so Rash was free to make his move at the end of the Santa Anita season last Monday.

“Leaving Charlie was the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make,” Rash said.

Honor Grades is by Danzig, out of Weekend Surprise, the Secretariat mare who also produced Summer Squall. He was bought by McNall and Gretzky from Will Farish and W.S. Kilroy, the colt’s breeders. Under trainer Neil Howard, who won the Preakness with Summer Squall last year, Honor Grades has won three of six starts, while being unable to beat horses such as Richman and Eastern Echo.

He is eligible for the Triple Crown races, but Rash said there are no plans to run him in the Derby, no matter what he does today.

The $75,000 Derby Trial, a one-mile race, has drawn a field of 12, including Big Al’s Express, who has never run a race. Big Al’s Express, vanned 2,500 miles from Stockton last week, is not a welcome addition to the field because other horsemen fear that the colt’s inexperience could compromise their chances. Still, trainer Thomas Allen’s goal is to run Big Al’s Express in the Kentucky Derby.

“This is a tough situation,” said trainer Wayne Lukas, who will start two horses, Formal Dinner and Romiano, in the Derby Trial. “I don’t even know the guy who trains that horse, and I don’t want to mess with his dream. But after a while, reality ought to set in.”

Wednesday, Big Al’s Express failed to persuade Tom Wagoner, Churchill Downs’ official starter, that he was ready to race, sitting down in the gate and needing the urging of two assistant starters before he got back on his feet.

Thursday and Friday, however, Big Al’s Express went to the gate in the morning and did better, so Wagoner has given him the green light to run. He will break from the No. 7 stall, which means that about half of the field, the horses on either side of him, could be vulnerable if he fails to run straight.

Horse Racing Notes

The Kentucky Derby is gaining rather than losing horses, the result of Dinard being scratched. Additions this week included Sea Cadet, Happy Jazz Band and Another Review. With Green Alligator and Kyle’s Our Man on the possible list, there could be as many as 16 that might run. . . . Fly So Free, who will vie with Strike The Gold and Hansel for Derby favoritism, worked six furlongs Friday in 1:12 1/5. Robert Caputo, his exercise rider, needed to go to the whip to get Fly So Free to pass another horse that worked with him.

Strike The Gold worked five furlongs in 1:00, going the last eighth of a mile in a sharp 11 2/5. Chris Antley, who rode him Friday and who also will be aboard in the Derby, thought Churchill Downs was a hard track, with not much dirt on the top. . . . Mane Minister’s work was 1:40 for a mile. . . . Wilder Than Ever went six furlongs in 1:15. . . . Angel Cordero Jr. has the mount on Quintana.

Here is the field for the Derby Trial, in post-position order: Bobby M., Forty Something, Formal Dinner, Young Daniel, To Freedom, Romiano, Big Al’s Express, Alydavid, Honor Grades, Discover, Broadway’s Top Gun and Big Courage. . . . To Freedom, who has won five stakes and six races in nine starts, will be favored, but because of distance limitations he is not considered a Derby candidate.