THOROUGHBRED RACING : Perkins Offers an Added Asset to Field for Hollywood Oaks

Peter Perkins, who didn’t become a trainer until he turned 70 five years ago, has a lifetime job.

Perkins has never had an argument with the owner of his horses. He runs them where he thinks they fit, and he hires and fires jockeys with no consultation. Perkins also never has to hound his owner to pay the training bills.

This is all because the owner of Peter Perkins’ horses is Peter Perkins.

It has happened before, a high-profile owner deciding to train his own horses. About 10 years ago, Bert Firestone had a promising 3-year-old, a son of Secretariat, who looked like a Kentucky Derby candidate. Firestone gave the colt the hands-on treatment, took out a license and began training. The horse never made it to the Derby.

“My reasons were different,” Perkins said. “I didn’t just want to sit down and do nothing. I wanted to give myself something to do.”

He’s doing it. Perkins has a 15-horse stable, and he and his wife, Diane, arrived Thursday in California, where they will run Added Asset on Sunday in the $200,000 Hollywood Oaks.

The 3-year-old filly will be stabled at trainer Charlie Whittingham’s barn at Hollywood Park. Whittingham, 80, and Perkins go way back, and in 1985 they teamed with jockey Bill Shoemaker to win the Santa Anita Handicap with Lord At War before 85,527, the largest crowd in the history of the track.

“Peter’s been around horses all his life,” Whittingham said. “He used to break his own horses at the farm. He’s been a top polo player for years, and (training horses) just continues to keep him active.”

Arthur Perkins, Peter’s father, was also a star polo player. He was an associate of Hal Roach, the movie mogul and one of the founders of Santa Anita. Arthur Perkins once managed Roach’s farm in Culver City.

Polo players are graded on a scale of one to 10, and Peter Perkins said that for 20 years he was never less than an eight-goal player.

Perkins was a polo-playing resident of the Philippines when World War II started. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army, he fell into Japanese hands on the island. He was a prisoner of war for 3 1/2 years, the last year in Japan, and wasn’t released until after the war ended in 1945.

“There are all the horrible stories,” he said. “Stories that have been told before by a lot of us.”

As a trainer, Perkins’ first important horse was La Gueriere, a multiple stakes winner who won the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland in 1991. More recently, Perkins won this year’s Regret Stakes at Churchill Downs with Lovat’s Lady. La Gueriere, Lovat’s Lady and Added Asset are all daughters of Lord At War.

Asked why he was invading Hollywood Park with Added Asset, Perkins said, “All the tough 3-year-old fillies are back East, so we had nowhere else to go.”

Diane Perkins elaborated.

“We finished second, three lengths ahead of Fit To Lead, in the Beaumont Stakes (at Keeneland on April 4), which gave us a frame of reference with the horses out here.”

Fit To Lead, who won the Princess Stakes at Hollywood on June 19, is nominated for Sunday’s Oaks, but trainer Dick Mandella said Thursday that there’s only a small chance she will run. Mandella plans to run Likeable Style, who has won stakes on grass and dirt this season at Hollywood. Entries for the 1 1/8-mile stake will be taken today.

Besides his Big ‘Cap victory, Lord At War also won five other stakes on dirt and grass in California, including the Citation and Native Diver handicaps at Hollywood. He finished with 10 victories in 17 starts and earned $789,439. The year after he won the Big ‘Cap, the purse of the stake doubled, to $1 million.

Added Asset has won two of nine starts and been second in four consecutive races.

“That’s one of the reasons we’ve brought her to California,” Perkins said. “To get rid of her ‘second-itis.’ ”

The trainer’s owner agreed with him, wholeheartedly.

Horse Racing Notes

Nine 2-year-old fillies are entered in Saturday’s $100,000 Landaluce Stakes, including Rhapsodic and Frigid Coed, who are trained by Brian Mayberry, winner of the stake four of the last five years. Mayberry’s winners have been Zealous Connection, Fluttery Danseur, Garden Gal and Distinctive Sis, all owned by the Mace Siegel family. In post-position order, here is Saturday’s lineup: Dance With Grace, Rushing Attack, Sharper Bye One, Miss Gibson County, Becky’s Appeal, Gold Shivers, Frigid Coed, Rhapsodic and Spiritual Path. Frigid Coed also races for the Siegels.

Hollywood will take bets Saturday on the telecast of the $100,000 Round Table Stakes for 3-year-olds from Arlington International in Chicago. In a 12-horse field, the high weight, at 123 pounds, is California shipper Lykatill Hill, who will be ridden by Pat Day. . . . A Sunday addition at Hollywood is the Queen’s Plate from Woodbine in Toronto. The favorite, Cheery Knight, is trained by Roger Attfield, who has won the stake five times.