Winner’s Owner Went to Class Instead of Race

Some teen-agers consider themselves lucky if their parents give them summer jobs in the family business. Gus Headley’s father’s business is training race horses.

Gus, 15, didn’t get a summer job, he got a thoroughbred.

Gus is the listed owner of Bertrando, a colt who came with a $17,545 price tag.

Bertrando proved a bona fide bargain in Wednesday’s Del Mar Futurity. He was supplemented into the meeting’s final stakes race for $10,000 against much more expensive and supposedly much more promising 2-year-olds. One of them, Scherando, was purchased for $141,525.

A bona fide bargain? How about a steal? Bertrando went wire to wire for his second victory in as many starts.

But Gus was not on hand in the winner’s circle afterward. There wasn’t really room for him, anyway, as some 30 other “owners” crowded into the circle.

Which brought about two questions:

Who were all these unlisted owners, and, where was the listed owner?

Karen Headley, 22, Gus’ sister-turned-spokesman, said she couldn’t answer the first one. She had less trouble with the second.

“My mother is a school teacher,” she said. “Do you really think she would let him out of school?”

At least his Arcadia High classmates will have a good target to hit up for lunch money.

Bertrando won $197,500. No doubt providing an astronomical jump in Gus’ allowance.

It might also provide for some awkwardness around the Headley household. This time Dad will be collecting his paycheck from the son.

But that day will wait. Gus was not the only family member absent for the payday. Bruce Headley, father, trainer and employee, was in Kentucky.

While there, his son’s horse more than doubled the elder Headley’s winnings at Del Mar’s 43-day season.

Going into the final day, Headley-trained horses had finished in the money 12 times in 26 starts and earned $140,195. When the meeting closed after Wednesday, that figure stood at $337,695.

Which wasn’t enough to make it into the final trainer standings.

Gus, however, made it into the final owner standings. The $213,420 earned by Bertrando in two outings ranks Gus as the Del Mar season’s seventh most successful owner.

Karen Headley said the decision to pay Bertrando’s $10,000 supplemental fee was an easy one.

“After we saw his last race,” she said. “We decided to put him in this one.”

Bertrando won his debut, here Aug. 25, by 1 1/2 lengths over Ebonair and by three over Simple King. Both Ebonair and Simple King went on to win their maidens.

But Bertrando had some problems in that first one.

“He got in a lot of trouble,” Karen said. “He got bumped two or three times. But this time he shot right out.”

A good strategy. Make it a one-horse race and there’s no others to bump you.

And that’s what jockey Alex Solis did. Bertrando won by three lengths and led by as many as four.

“Alex Solis has been riding him really well,” Karen said. “You couldn’t ask for a better jockey and he knows exactly what my father wants.”

Gus, on the other hand, has a lesser role in working with the horse of which he is the listed owner.

“He cleans some stalls,” Karen said. “Quote me on that.”

Karen apparently has her own lunch money.