THOROUGHBRED RACING : Jolie’s Halo Is Looking Bright

The laid-back horse has come to laid-back Del Mar and forgotten how to act.

Sean Crowell, Jolie’s Halo’s assistant trainer, stood in front of the big 5-year-old’s stall the other day, bragging about how tractable the horse is, when Jimmy (Soldier) Wilson, the groom, blew the horse’s cover.

“You could drive a train in there and he wouldn’t care,” Crowell said , pointing to Jolie’s Halo. “He doesn’t bite or kick or anything.’

“He doesn’t bite?” Wilson said as he edged a tub of ice into the stall. “Well, he got me this morning.”

With that, Wilson showed a little nip on his right shoulder.

“Well, that means he’s getting sharper,” Crowell insisted. “This horse is class, all the way.”

Jolie’s Halo showed plenty of class early last year, winning the Donn and Gulfstream Park Handicaps within six weeks in Florida, and finishing third against top horses in the Oaklawn Handicap and the Pimlico Special. He finished with earnings of $848,540, but by the end of 1991 was a horse with problems: A respiratory bleeding condition and a hairline fracture in his right front leg.

A long rest has helped heal the leg and Jolie’s Halo runs on a medication that curbs the bleeding. He seems to be peaking at precisely the right time--for Sunday’s $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar, with the Breeders’ Cup around the corner. This year’s Breeders’ Cup races will be run on Oct. 31 at Gulfstream Park, where Jolie’s Halo has run some of his best races.

Last year’s Breeders’ Cup was the imperfect end to what had started as the perfect season. Jolie’s Halo’s three summer races in New York were so dismal that the track handicapper threw him into the mutuel betting field for the Breeders’ Cup Mile, indicating that the horse’s chances of winning the grass race were negligible.

The assessment proved accurate, with Jolie’s Halo running an ineffective sixth. Then, back on dirt, he threw in another clinker before his new trainer, Bob Camac, decided a long rest was necessary.

When Jolie’s Halo returned to the races on July 4, he was ready to run again. That first start, a mile on grass again, produced a front-running victory in the Ft. McHenry Handicap at Laurel. A month later, Jolie’s Halo shrugged off Loach, that equine rabbit who has been used to help the late-running Strike The Gold win his races, and won the Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park, running 1 1/8 miles on dirt in 1:46 4/5, which matched the track record.

Granted, the New Jersey racing strip was playing like Tarmac then. Gilded Time, the 2-year-old colt from California, ran six furlongs in 1:07 4/5 the same weekend, and even cheap horses were producing exceptional times.

Camac doesn’t feel, however, that the speed bias should detract from Jolie’s Halo’s accomplishment.

“I was very pleased with the gameness he showed,” the trainer said. “He blew his left front shoe at the head of the stretch. He bobbled a bit, and that’s when that other horse (Out Of Place) had a chance to get him. It’s amazing that he held on after losing that shoe and considering his lack of seasoning this year. He’s class and courage.”

Before Camac got Jolie’s Halo, the horse was being trained by Happy Alter, who wears big white hats, drives fancy cars and regales barn visitors with stories about top boxers he has known.

Typically, the reasons for switching trainers were vague, but apparently Arthur and Martha Appleton, who bred and race Jolie’s Halo, tired of haggling with Alter about the care and direction of the horse. For example, after Jolie’s Halo bled in his first New York race, Alter continued to race him there, where Lasix medication is prohibited. Jolie’s Halo bled at least once more, while running last in the Woodward Stakes at Belmont Park.

With about 450 horses on their Florida farm and in training, the Appletons use several trainers. Camac, a top trainer on the Pennsylvania-New Jersey circuit, had handled some of their moderate horses, although he won more than $700,000 with Fire Plug, their pigeon-toed sprinter.

“When I got Jolie’s Halo in the fall, he was dull,” Camac said. “We found the fracture through some routine X-rays. He’s been training a lot better since he’s come back. He’s much more aggressive and wants to do some running.”

Encouraged by Sultry Song’s victory in Hollywood Gold Cup in June, the Appletons are paying a $30,000 supplementary fee--plus the $15,000 that all the starters must pay--to see if Jolie’s Halo can beat favored Paseana and five other starters Sunday. Besides the $550,000 first-place purse, they are also shooting for $225,000 in bonus money, which Jolie’s Halo can earn by winning the Pacific Classic and finishing third in the American Championship Racing Series standings. Strike The Gold, without running in the Pacific Classic, has clinched the top bonus of $750,000.

In 1991, the first year of the series, Jolie’s Halo won the first race, coasting home by eight lengths in the Donn Handicap. At the end of that series, he was in fourth place, earning $150,000 in bonus money. Now he’s running in the second year’s last race, better prepared for the finishing kick that was missing in 1991.

Horse Racing Notes

Edgar Prado, who has ridden Jolie’s Halo in the horse’s two victories this year, is a 25-year-old Peruvian who is leading the Maryland circuit that produced Chris McCarron and Kent Desormeaux before they moved to California. Through mid-August, Prado had won 242 races, ranking him second nationally to Russell Baze. . . . Including the ride in the van, Jolie’s Halo’s trip to Del Mar from Philadelphia took 8 1/2 hours. . . . Jolie’s Halo is the 2-1 second choice in the Pacific Classic, behind Paseana at 9-5. Linemaker Jeff Tufts’ other odds are Another Review, 5-2; Defensive Play, 6-1; Claret, 15-1; Reign Road, 20-1, and Missionary Ridge, 30-1.

A.P. Indy, who is growing back a cracked hoof since winning the Belmont Stakes, will leave Del Mar to run in the Molson Export Million, a 1 1/8-mile dirt race for 3-year-olds at Woodbine in Toronto on Sept. 13. . . . Tight Spot, about to be sold to Japanese breeders, will be retired and not run in the Arlington Million a week from Sunday at Chicago. Tight Spot ran the race last year and was voted the Eclipse Award for best male horse on grass. . . . Flawlessly, the probable favorite for the $500,000 Beverly D Stakes a week from today at Arlington, will not run because of a fever since winning the Ramona Handicap at Del Mar.