DEL MAR : ‘Have Horse, Will Travel’ Plan Works for East Coast Trainer

The rivalry between East and West Coast horses has usually been a one-way street, the exports from California far outnumbering Easterners that travel West. But when Maryland trainer Dick Small has a horse with a chance in a California race, he orders a plane, as he has done for Valley Crossing, one of the six horses that will take a shot at heavily favored Best Pal Saturday in the $1-million Pacific Classic.

Small, a 47-year-old former Green Beret combat officer who played football and lacrosse at the University of Pennsylvania, paused between training hours at Del Mar to recall his first trip with a horse to California.

“We brought Festive Mood out (to Santa Anita) for that 1976 race (the $350,000 Champions Invitational Handicap),” Small said. “He was an old 7-year-old gelding, but he ran third and almost beat King Pellinore that day.

“It’s not easy shipping a horse to California. For one thing, it’s expensive. When everything’s done, we’ll have spent about $25,000 to get Valley Crossing here for this race. So you need somebody who’s willing to take the chance.”

For Small, that somebody is Robert Meyerhoff, a Baltimore real estate developer who has bred and owned horses for about 30 years.

Meyerhoff’s brother, Harry, left more of an imprint on racing because of the flamboyant way he campaigned Spectacular Bid, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner in 1979 and the horse of the year in 1980, but the more reserved Meyerhoff has been a Maryland fixture, raising horses at his 300-acre farm and breeding seven of the 10 stakes winners he has campaigned.

Robert Meyerhoff and Small brought Broad Brush to Santa Anita in the winter of 1987. The hometown heroes were Ferdinand, winner of the 1986 Kentucky Derby, and Snow Chief, the Preakness winner and champion 3-year-old in 1986.

The idea of Broad Brush beating them on their own ground seemed far-fetched from the start, and when Small’s colt ran second to Variety Road in the San Fernando Stakes and third behind Snow Chief and Ferdinand in the Strub, a less perceptive trainer might have gone home.

But Small stayed for the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap, which had been the goal all along.

“Broad Brush wasn’t at his best in those first two races,” Small said. “I was still pretty confident. He had finished ahead of Snow Chief and Ferdinand in that first race.”

At 7-1, Broad Brush beat Ferdinand in a photo finish in the Big ‘Cap. Standing on the track, waiting for the placing judges to examine the picture, Small still wasn’t sure when they posted Broad Brush’s winning number on the tote board.

“Who’s the 3 horse?” he shouted to people around him.

At the end of his career, Broad Brush had won 12 stakes and $2.6 million, and as a stallion has sired four stakes winners for Meyerhoff.

Valley Crossing, a 5-year-old son of Private Account and Chic And Sassy, a filly that Meyerhoff bought for $130,000, has earned $1.1 million, mostly the hard way, because he has won only eight of 38 starts and supplemented his purse total with 10 second-place finishes and five thirds.

“It costs a fortune to play this game, and this horse keeps chipping in,” Small said. “We never thought of retiring him, because he’s just getting started.

“It’s difficult to compare the horses. Broad Brush matured earlier, and Valley Crossing has taken time to develop. Broad Brush was headstrong and difficult to train and keep interested. He’d get bored easily, but he had an indescribable will to win. He would go wild if he got beat. Valley Crossing is a perfect-looking horse. He reminds me of a painting.”

That’s an apt description, since Meyerhoff is a prominent collector of modern American art. But for 16 months, before he won the Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park on July 24, a painting of any of Valley Crossing’s races would have required the inclusion of the horses finishing ahead of him. He might have been earning checks, but Small’s horse was on a 14-race losing streak. Before the Iselin, Valley Crossing’s biggest achievement was winning the 1991 Pennsylvania Derby at 78-1.

“I’ve been very pleased with this horse’s career,” Small said. “He’s run against the best horses and been very competitive, and he’s always come out of his races with enough left for the next one, and sometimes that’s more important than even winning the race.

“Everybody laughed at us when we ran in the Pennsylvania Derby, but I knew all along that this horse would win some races. The horse has been doing well. He had a very good workout at Pimlico (a 1:37 mile) before we shipped, and this was the logical race for us.”

A horse who suffers from pulmonary bleeding, Valley Crossing was back on the medication Lasix for the Iselin, after running twice without the drug in New York, where it is banned. In his second Belmont Park race, the Suburban Handicap, Valley Crossing ran sixth.

“If we had skipped this race and run in the Whitney at Saratoga, it would have been without Lasix again,” Small said. “The horse had run two straight races without Lasix, and I think that left him flat in the Suburban.”

Valley Crossing will be treated with Lasix when he runs Saturday, but even that might not be enough for him to overcome the Pacific Classic’s 1 1/4-mile distance. In the 1 1/8-mile Iselin, carrying 113 pounds, he hung on by a head against Devil His Due, who had a 123-pound impost.

“(Valley Crossing) waited a bit when he made the lead,” jockey Chris Antley said. “Then (Devil His Due) came on again. That race was the perfect distance. I’m glad it wasn’t any farther.”

Horse Racing Notes

With Flagship Commander sidelined because of sore shins, Troyalty becomes the favorite among six 2-year-olds running today in the Balboa Stakes. Troyalty has already won a stake at the meeting, beating California-breds at six furlongs on Aug. 4. . . . Ramblin Guy, winner of the Hollywood Juvenile, is skipping the Balboa. Trainer Brian Mayberry’s plan is to run him in the Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 13, closing day here, and then in the Norfolk at Santa Anita on Oct. 10 as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile there on Nov. 6.

The future-book odds on Dehere for the Juvenile dropped from 8-1 to 2-1 after Chris McCarron rode the undefeated colt to a five-length victory in the Sanford at Saratoga last week. Dehere will try to become only the third horse--after Regret in 1914 and Campfire in 1916--to sweep Saratoga’s three-race series for 2-year-olds when he runs in the Hopeful on Aug. 29.

McCarron will be at Saratoga on Saturday, to ride Miner’s Mark, the 3-1 second choice in the $1-million Travers, which will be part of the betting program at Del Mar. Colonial Affair, winner of the Belmont Stakes, is the 5-2 favorite in an 11-horse field. Sea Hero, the Kentucky Derby winner, is 8-1. Sea Hero, who raced on Lasix in the Derby, has been winless since, having not been able to race with the anti-bleeding medication in New York.

Here’s the Travers field, in post-position order with jockeys: Colonial Affair, Julie Krone; Kissin Kris, Jose Santos; El Bakan, Craig Perret; Wild Gale, Robbie Davis; Devoted Brass, Laffit Pincay; Silver Of Silver, Jacinto Vasquez; Sea Hero, Jerry Bailey; Miner’s Mark, McCarron; Wallenda, Herb McCauley; Cherokee Run, Pat Day; and Foxtrail, Mike Smith. Wallenda and Cherokee Run are an entry, both trained by Frank Alexander.

A few horses who might wind up running in the Nov. 6 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, including Thirty Slews, winner of the $1-million race last year, are entered in Saturday’s $100,000 Pat O’Brien Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Del Mar. The Bobby Frankel-trained entry of Western Approach and Now Listen drew the 1-2 posts. Outside them come Thirty Slews, Silver Ray, Portoferraio, Cardmania and Slerp. Thirty Slews is the high weight at 121 pounds, two more than Now Listen. Western Approach is at the bottom of the weights with 112 pounds.

Mary Bradley and Joe Dolphin, owners who run horses with the same trainer, Rodney Rash, were married Tuesday. Dolphin also has horses with Leonard Dorfman, and Bradley’s other trainer is Charlie Whittingham, who conditioned her 1972 grass champion, Cougar II, and Greinton, winner of the 1986 Santa Anita Handicap. Bradley’s Fast Cure will be saddled by Rash today in the Windy Sands Handicap.