THOROUGHBRED RACING : Scheib Spent Part of Final Day in Winning Style of Horseman

He was in a wheelchair, but in most other ways the start of the last day of Earl Scheib’s life was like many of his other days.

Celebrating his 85th birthday, Scheib arrived at Santa Anita a week ago Friday full of anticipation. The horse he was running in the fourth race was a 4-year-old maiden, but several handicappers gave him a chance.

Scheib’s pockets were among the deepest in town. He once offered to put up $5 million if the state would let him run Del Mar. And when trainer Red McDaniel, at the peak of his career, jumped off the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, his estate was small, considering all the races he had won. Scheib gave Evelyn McDaniel, the trainer’s widow, a job in his car-painting company’s office.

A week ago Friday, Scheib saw his favorite elevator operator, Gail McNeal, at Santa Anita and wanted to give her a $10 tip. Scheib was always giving McNeal tips, sometimes more than $10 when his horses were running well.

“Got change for a twenty?” Scheib said.

McNeal changed Scheib’s $20 bill, and he gave her $10, saying: “Now don’t spend that too soon. I might be back and need it later.”

One of the promises Scheib made in the television commercials he did for his company was one price, “no ups and no extras,” but when Scheib was on a roll at the track, the opposite applied.

Foaled on Valentine’s Day, 1982, and named after Scheib’s wife, Fran’s Valentine was his most famous horse, for both the right and the wrong reasons.

Fran’s Valentine earned more than $1.3 million, still the record for a California-bred female, and in 1985 trainer Joe Manzi took her to Kentucky and Pat Valenzuela rode her to victory in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. Scheib loved to laugh about that one.

“You ain’t done nothing until you’ve beat those Kentucky hardboots on their own turf,” he said.

The year before, in the first Breeders’ Cup, Fran’s Valentine had taken Scheib to the depths of emotion. She had won a race by 19 lengths six weeks earlier, but that was at Pomona, so for the Juvenile Fillies at Hollywood Park she was sent off at 74-1. Valenzuela was riding, and they won by a half-length, after almost knocking down another filly at the top of the stretch.

As Scheib moved toward the winner’s circle, wondering if they would let him in, Manzi gave him false hope by saying: “This has got to be like the (Kentucky) Derby. (The stewards) won’t take a horse down in a million-dollar race.”

For her hit-and-run tactics, though, Fran’s Valentine was dropped to 10th place.

“I was crushed,” Scheib said. “It broke my heart. But I just kept my mouth shut and walked away.”

After the disqualification, the commercial that appeared on NBC’s national telecast of the races was Scheib’s “No ups and no extras. R-r-r-ight!”

In the days after the disqualification, Scheib’s friends phoned and mailed in their regrets about Fran’s Valentine. Some even wondered how Scheib, considering the circumstances, could have been so hearty in the commercial.

“They thought I did it live,” Scheib said. “I didn’t have the heart to tell them that it was taped.”

Scheib’s wife died in 1984, as her namesake filly was beginning her career. Their 40-acre Green Thumb Farm in Chino also was named for Fran Scheib, who raised prize-winning orchids. Surrounded by commercial development, Green Thumb had more value as real estate than as a farm, but Scheib, devoted to his horses, turned down repeated offers.

Manzi’s phone would ring early every morning in the trainer’s barn office.

“That’ll be Earl,” Manzi would say. “He calls every morning. He’s a good guy. He’ll let you train, but he just wants to know what’s going on.”

Scheib once made an unsuccessful pitch to take over the fall racing dates at Santa Anita, and in 1988 he made a remarkable bid for the racing lease at Del Mar. Scheib was 80, but the lease he sought was for 20 years.

He didn’t get his wish then, but he did on his final day. That 4-year-old maiden, Cause I’m Leaving, won his race, and Scheib, suffering from emphysema, made it to the winner’s circle, no foul claim to wait for this time.

So Scheib went home happy that day. But late that night, the 50-year-old wife of Matt Griffin, Scheib’s farm manager, died of a heart attack.

Saturday morning, Scheib’s housekeeper went to his bedroom to tell him the bad news. But Scheib hadn’t lived long enough to find out.

Horse Racing Notes

The Santa Anita Oaks, the race that Fran’s Valentine won in 1985, will be run Sunday for the 53rd time. Pleasant Stage, last year’s champion 2-year-old filly, will run for the first time since her Breeders’ Cup victory. . . . Others entered in the 1 1/16-mile race are Queens Court Queen, Golden Treat, I Aim High, Hopeful Amber, Don B’s Princess, Magical Maiden, Red Bandana, Fantastic Kim, Looie Capote and Crownette. . . . Trainer Neil Drysdale hasn’t decided whether A.P. Indy, the San Rafael winner, will run in the San Felipe Stakes on March 15 before he tries the Santa Anita Derby on April 4. Drysdale said that A.P. Indy was in good condition after the San Rafael.

Pine Bluff, probably the best 3-year-old training in Arkansas, heads a six-horse field today in the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park today. . . . Casual Lies will be favored over five opponents in the Sausalito Stakes at Golden Gate Fields. . . . Snappy Landing, another Kentucky Derby candidate, finished second Thursday in his second sprint appearance of the winter at Aqueduct.