SANTA ANITA : Bertrando’s Two Owners Share Common Interest in Winning

The owners of Bertrando are as different as Oscar Madison and Felix Unger, the characters in Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple.”

Eddie Nahem, 48, the majority owner and breeder of the colt, once showed up in the winner’s circle wearing a bow tie that did everything but light up. It was made of silver-plated metal.

Nahem’s partner, Marshall Naify, 72, is a millionaire who likes people but hates crowds, which partly explains why he has never seen Bertrando run, even though he paid a reported $400,000 for a one-third interest in the colt last year.

Nahem says that Naify, who has followed Bertrando’s career on television, may show up Saturday at Santa Anita, and Jock Jocoy, the horse’s private veterinarian, says that Naify has told him that he will go to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby on May 2, if Bertrando is running.

Naify should be alerted that both of those races will be drawing crowds. Saturday’s race is the $500,000 Santa Anita Derby, and the leading attractions for the 1 1/8-mile race are A.P. Indy, the 6-5 favorite, and Bertrando, who is 8-5 on Jeff Tufts’ morning line.

“I thought the two horses would be about even on the odds,” Nahem said at the post-position draw Thursday, when seven horses were entered. “By the time they get in the gate Saturday, they may be.”

Bertrando, who will be ridden by Alex Solis in the 55th running of the race, and A.P. Indy, with Eddie Delahoussaye aboard, will sandwich Casual Lies, the 9-2 third choice, and jockey Alan Patterson in the gate. The rest of the field is outside them, starting with Proud Memories, a maiden to be ridden by Omar Berrio, in the No. 4 spot at 30-1. The others are Hickman Creek, with Gary Stevens, 6-1; Solid Truth, Corey Nakatani, 20-1; and Fax News, Frank Alvarado, 20-1. Each horse will carry 122 pounds.

Naify does not give interviews. He and Nahem live about three blocks from one another on the beach at Del Mar, get together for gin rummy regularly, and through an overlapping relationship with Bruce Headley, who trains their horses, have come this far with one of the country’s top Kentucky Derby candidates. Bertrando ran second to Arazi in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last year but otherwise his five-race record is perfect. A.P. Indy has also won four of five starts.

In 1990, Forbes magazine estimated that Naify and his younger brother, Robert, were worth $235 million apiece. Their father, a Lebanese immigrant, started out with a nickelodeon in Atlantic City, N.J., in 1912. By the 1920s, Mike Naify had moved to California, doing business with Charlie Chaplin and running a chain of movie theaters. His sons worked as ushers and projectionists. By 1986, the Naify brothers were able to sell United Artists Communications Inc., one of the country’s biggest theater chains and a pioneer in cable television, for $390 million.

Marshall Naify’s theaters were leaders in offering moviegoers candy and concession items other than popcorn, and they were among the first to install air-conditioning. Naify didn’t allow smoking in his theaters, and he still abhors cigarettes. He’s a physical-fitness fanatic who swims in the Pacific Ocean daily, has a training room in his two-story beach house and a private masseur. His cook bakes a high-grain bread daily, and twice a day Naify makes a meal of a fruit-juice cocktail.

Jocoy, who also lives in Del Mar, went swimming with Naify recently.

“Hey,” Jocoy said before they were finished, “you’re a regular Howard Hughes the second.”

Naify didn’t disagree, and even beamed at the suggestion.

Naify has told friends that he has about $10 million invested in racing. He owns four broodmares and several weanlings with Nahem, and has farms near Lexington, Ky., and Fresno.

Bertrando alone could make this wholesale spending worthwhile. The 66-year-old Jocoy, who has accompanied several horses to the Kentucky Derby, including winners Swaps in 1955 and Decidedly in 1962, extols Bertrando’s physical features.

“He’s long and tall,” Jocoy said. “He has a deep chest, which means there’s a lot of room for the lungs, an important thing in a horse, because that’s where they get the air that makes them go. His head and neck are nicely balanced, and he has a good, long stride. And that rump, which is where the power comes from--he looks like a big train in back.”

Bertrando is a California-bred son of Skywalker, who scored his two biggest victories at Santa Anita--the Santa Anita Derby in 1985 and the Breeders’ Cup Classic in 1986. The only Santa Anita Derby winner to sire a winner of the race has been Rough ‘n Tumble, whose victory in 1951 was matched by one by his son, Alley Fighter, in 1968.

Skywalker, who stands at Cardiff Stud Farm north of San Luis Obispo, could join that exclusive company Saturday. Bertrando has already won the Norfolk and the San Felipe Stakes in his only two Santa Anita starts.

“He’s ready for the race,” trainer Bruce Headley said Thursday. “This is his home court, and he loves this track.”

Horse Racing Notes

With no rain in the forecast, the track is expected to be fast Saturday. Since Santa Anita opened Dec. 26, the track has been hit by rain 29 days. The total rainfall has been more than 24 inches. . . . There have been only three off tracks in Santa Anita Derby history, none since 1957. . . . The first race is at 12:15 p.m., with the Santa Anita Derby, the fifth race, scheduled for 2:43.

Proud Memories, winless in four starts and beaten by 43 3/4 lengths in his last three, is one of 17 late nominees for the Triple Crown races. Owner-trainer Kwon Myung Cho also ran a maiden in last year’s Santa Anita Derby, his Bounding Back finishing sixth. Bounding Back is now winless after 17 starts. . . . The other late nominees for the Triple Crown are Arp, Binalong, Bold Assert, Careful Gesture, Catire Bello, Chief Speaker, Disposal, Dr Devious, Forest Rain, Heat Shield, Justfortherecord, Rokeby, Tank’s Number, Technology, Three Peat and Vying Victor. . . . The late fee for the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes was $4,500. There were 389 nominees in January at $600 apiece.

Three Peat, winner of the Bay Shore Stakes, had a cough this week that will keep him from running in Saturday’s $250,000 Gotham Mile at Aqueduct. “If he snaps out of it, we’ll keep him there and consider the Wood Memorial (on April 18),” trainer John Sadler said Thursday at Santa Anita. . . . Lure and Best Decorated are the featured three-year-olds in the Gotham, even though neither horse has won a stake. The other entrants are Western Miner, Devil His Due, Step Out Front, Nines Wild, Al Sabin and Federal Funds. . . . Strike The Gold, winless in 10 starts since winning last year’s Kentucky Derby, is running in another stake on the card.

Best Pal, the Santa Anita Handicap winner, is the high weight at 125 pounds for the Oaklawn Handicap in Arkansas a week from today. Twilight Agenda was assigned 123 pounds and Sea Cadet 120. . . . Flying Continental, at 118 pounds, is the high weight for Saturday’s $200,000 San Bernardino Handicap at Santa Anita, but Kotashaan, a pound lighter, may be favored in the 1 1/8-mile dirt race. The field of 12 also includes Reign Road, Music Prospector, Ibero, Last Lion, Loach, Another Review, Perfectly Proud, Mr. Integrity and the entry of Defensive Play and Now Listen. . . . Another stake on the card is the $100,000 Las Cienegas Breeders’ Cup Handicap, at 6 1/2 furlongs on the grass for fillies and mares. Heart of Joy is the high weight at 123 pounds. Others entered are Steffi Graff, Flower Girl, Forest Fealty, Classy Women, Only Yours, Brazen, Crystal Gazine, Capricciosa, Streamer and Sheltered View.

Santa Anita Derby Field

PP HORSE JOCKEY TRAINER ODDS 1 Bertrando Alex Solis Bruce Headley 8-5 2 Casual Lies Alan Patterson Shelley Riley 9-2 3 A.P. Indy Eddie Delahoussaye Neil Drysdale 6-5 4 Proud Memories Omar Berrio Myung Kwon Cho 30-1 5 Hickman Creek Gary Stevens Wayne Lukas 6-1 6 Solid Truth Corey Nakatani Richard Mulhall 20-1 7 Fax News Frank Alvarado Donn Luby 20-1

POST TIME: Saturday, 2:43 p.m., fifth race. DISTANCE: 1 1/8 miles. PURSE: $500,000. $275,000 for first; $100,000 for second; $75,000 for third; $37,500 for fourth; $12,500 for fifth. WEIGHTS: 122 each.