HOLLYWOOD PARK : Story Took a Turn for the Better

The most dramatic part of the Hollywood Park program last Sunday was not Another Review’s performance in the featured Californian. Nor was it the comeback of Forest Glow in the co-featured Chinook Pass Handicap.

That moment came about 25 seconds into the second race, when the pacesetter, Tu Eres Mi Heroe, led the field of $10,000 claimers around the clubhouse turn.

He survived.

He also went on to win the race, but that seems almost trivial compared to the physical battles he has fought and won in the last year.

Thirteen months earlier--on May 12, 1991--Tu Eres Mi Heroe led a similar field of horses around the same Hollywood Park turn. Instead of banking smoothly onto the backstretch, however, the bay horse veered sharply to the right and made a frantic beeline for the outside railing.

Pat Valenzuela, his rider, wisely bailed out when it was apparent the horse could not be controlled. The jockey got lucky and escaped unhurt, but Tu Eres Mi Heroe hit the metal rail full force. He suffered a puncture wound to his chest, a contusion above one knee, and, as a result of his terrified thrashing, he severely scraped the flesh of his underbelly.

Dr. Jeff Oney, the veterinarian on duty at the Hollywood Park Equine Hospital that day, said it looked as bad as anything he’d ever seen. With help from Dr. Susan Bauer, trainer Jeffrey Copland, groom Don Chatloss, and Peter Lyons--an assistant to Charlie Whittingham--Oney spent nearly five hours putting Tu Eres Mi Heroe back together again. No one bothered counting the stitches. Oney could only estimate “several hundred.”

The horse survived, but the idea that he would ever race again was pretty far-fetched. The recovery period was a grim round of cleaning wounds and changing dressing.

“He was helpless,” said Copland, a 43-year-old disciple of trainers like Bobby Frankel, Eddie Gregson and W.L. Proctor. “He’d go to a corner of his stall and just stay there, too miserable to move. I’d just put the feed tub in front of him wherever he ended up.”

Eventually, the wounds healed, and Copland put Tu Eres Mi Heroe back in light training. On Jan. 30, 1992, much to the amazement of everyone who had known about the incident, Copland had his horse back in action at Santa Anita, running for a $10,000 claiming tag. Tu Eres Mi Heroe won by two lengths.

“I can’t imagine anything making me happier than this,” Copland said at the time. “But just seeing him pull through made it all worthwhile. Compared to that, winning is gravy.”

Tu Eres Mi Heroe subsequently bruised a foot and didn’t make it back to the races until May 23. In a defensive move characteristic of the claiming game, Copland ran him for a $60,000 price tag in a turf sprint, figuring that no one would put up that kind of money for a horse who had won for just $10,000.

With that prep race under his belt, Tu Eres Mi Heroe was back last Sunday, facing his personal Deadman’s Curve again.

“I’ll have to admit, I was a little scared watching him go into that turn,” Copland said after Sunday’s win. “Horses aren’t as dumb as people think. They’re creatures of habit, and they remember.”

Wearing a outside blinker and a extension bit that gives the jockey greater control, Tu Eres Mi Heroe took the backstretch turn like a champ. He did bear out badly on the turn for home, though, allowing favored Super Hooper through along the inside.

“That might have worked for the best, because I’ve got no blinker on the inside and he was able to see that other horse,” Copland said.

Tu Eres Mi Heroe--ridden this time by Larry Sterling Jr., surrendered the lead, then came back on to win by a head in the closest finish on the card.

It is no surprise that Tu Eres Mi Heroe has become a minor legend around the backstretch. He began life as a well-bred colt from the nursery of Robert E. Hibbert, owner of champion Roving Boy. In fact, Tu Eres Mi Heroe is closely related to Roving Boy and several other top Hibbert horses.

As an unnamed 2-year-old in the spring of 1989, Tu Eres Mi Heroe went through a Kentucky sale and was bought for $4,000 by Joe Manzi, Hibbert’s trainer at the time. Three days later, Manzi died of a heart attack.

“Joe thought a lot of the colt,” said Sandra Manzi, the trainer’s wife. “So I decided to name it after him: You Are My Hero, in Spanish.”

Copland and owners--Marty Nadel, Pete Accardy and Bill Snyder--claimed the horse two years ago for $40,000. Since then, Tu Eres Mi Heroe’s veterinarian bills have outraced his earnings, with throat and knee surgery prior to his accident. As an investment, he may be a bust so far. But he’s quite an inspiration.

“I pride myself in what I’ve done with this horse,” Copland said. “There were days last year when I’d look at him and think, ‘He’s got no chance.’ And look at him now.

“He deserves to win races. That’s what I owe him.”