THOROUGHBRED RACING : Fast Start for Shoemaker Fund

The Bill Shoemaker Foundation, which was launched to provide financial aid to needy horsemen who have suffered catastrophic injuries, has raised about $1.4 million, it was announced Sunday at Hollywood Park.

R.D. Hubbard, chairman of Hollywood Park and one of the organizers of the foundation about three months ago, said he expects the fund to reach the $2-million mark by next year.

The first recipient from the foundation, Hubbard said, will be the Donald MacBeth Memorial Fund for Disabled Jockeys, which will receive $25,000. The MacBeth fund, named after the jockey who died after a battle with cancer, was started in 1987.

“We want to make it plain that we are not in competition with similar existing programs,” Hubbard said. “Bill Shoemaker will be a major recipient from the foundation sometime in the future.”

Shoemaker, racing’s most successful jockey with 8,833 victories, had barely begun his training career when he suffered paralyzing injuries in an automobile accident in early April. His medical bills have been estimated to be $1 million.

Much of the money for the Shoemaker Foundation was raised Saturday night at a $250-per-plate dinner dance that was attended by about 800 at Hollywood Park.

Besides ticket sales and program advertising, there was an auction that ranged from Gen. Omar Bradley memorabilia to fur coats to breeding rights to prominent stallions.

An audio tape of Shoemaker speaking from his hospital room in Englewood, Colo., was played at the dinner.

“I’m hoping to be down at Del Mar for a few days toward the end of the season,” Shoemaker said. “And I’m hoping to be back training horses before too long, too.”

Shoemaker has usually celebrated his birthday, Aug. 19, at the seaside track, where the season this year runs through Sept. 11. Shoemaker, who will turn 60, won the Del Mar riding title seven times and sent out Baldomero, his first stakes winner as a trainer, at the track last year.

Shoemaker joked on the tape about adjusting to a wheelchair at the hospital. “The first couple of times I tried it, I ran into three people and ran into the wall,” Shoemaker said. “But now I can run it all night.”

Before she wept while acknowledging the support of the Shoemaker Foundation on Saturday night, Cindy Shoemaker, the trainer’s wife, referred to her husband’s misadventures with the wheelchair.

“The people he ran into were two of the prettiest nurses on the floor,” she said. “That was no mistake. That was the old Shoe.”

Once he returns home, Shoemaker reportedly will need three wheelchairs that cost $25,000 apiece.

Fritz Hawn, an owner and breeder, former partner in the Dallas Cowboys and an ex-board member at Del Mar, has donated $200,000 to the Shoemaker Foundation.

The foundation also earned an estimated $400,000 for the breeding rights to 16 stallions. The sire who brought the most was Nureyev, the son of Northern Dancer who stands at Walmac International Farm in Lexington, Ky.

Dick Eamer of Pacific Palisades, who owns Mandsyland Farm in the Santa Ynez Valley, had the winning bid of $185,000 for the one-time mating to Nureyev, who has sired 56 stakes winners and 11 champions.

Eamer said that he will breed Nureyev next year to Daloma, the French-bred gray mare who was a multiple stakes winner in California.

Hubbard said that Clarence and Dorothy Scharbauer, who won the Kentucky Derby in 1987 with Alysheba, will donate a breeding to the stallion next year to the Shoemaker Foundation, and a breeding in Storm Bird will come from Robert Sangster. On Sunday, the foundation received more than $150,000 from off-track betting on Hollywood Park’s Sunset Handicap, with 12 tracks donating their share of the handle.

Horse Racing Notes

Don Robbins became president of Hollywood Park on Sunday. Robbins, 43, is a holdover from the Marje Everett regime and has been general manager of the track since 1986. R.D. Hubbard will continue as Hollywood’s board chairman and chief executive officer.

The Hollywood Park meet ends today with the running of the Hollywood Juvenile. Three of the seven 2-year-olds entered have never lost, but while Zurich and Silver Ray have won only against maidens, Burnished Bronze won the Ladbroke Futurity at Golden Gate Fields a month ago. Trainer Wayne Lukas, who has won the Juvenile four times, including last year with Deposit Ticket, will saddle Border Cat, who won while running for a $50,000 claiming price last month.

Entries have been drawn for opening day at Del Mar on Wednesday, and the Oceanside Stakes will be run in two divisions for the 10th time in 15 years. . . . Mister Frisky, whose debut as a 4-year-old might come in an allowance race at Del Mar Aug. 2, worked a mile in 1:37 4/5 before the first race at Hollywood.