THOROUGHBRED RACING / BILL CHRISTINE : ’81 Del Mar Futurity Provided Gregson With Roots of Glory

Twelve summers ago, Eddie Gregson began a trail that led to national acclaim when he saddled Gato Del Sol before his victory in the Del Mar Futurity.

About eight months later, Gato Del Sol and Gregson were in another winner’s circle, the one at Churchill Downs, after their stunning upset in the Kentucky Derby at odds of 21-1.

When Del Mar runs its Futurity here on closing day, Sept. 15, the distance will be seven furlongs, an eighth of a mile shorter than Gato Del Sol ran.

“They didn’t have a seven-eighths-mile chute here in ‘81,” Gregson said. “But I think changing the distance from a mile is a mistake. This is a mile racetrack, and races at a mile are exciting for the fans, because they start in front of the stands, and that means they go by twice. Racing’s got to find ways to make the game more exciting. We don’t have the superstars to parade before the public anymore, the record is clear on that, so we’ve got to be creative with what we have.”

Even at the longer distance, in retrospect it’s astonishing that Gato Del Sol was able to win the Del Mar Futurity. In most of his races after that, it would take the son of Cougar II at least that much ground simply to get warmed up.

“He was a true plodder,” Gregson said. “But he was unbelievably sound, just like his sire.”

The theory of the late Andy Warhol, that everyone’s entitled to 15 minutes of fame, fit Gato Del Sol. The gray colt really only had it for 2 minutes 2 2/5 seconds, the time it took to win the Derby. After that, he won only three races--and went winless in 1984. By the end of his career, as a 6-year-old in 1985, Charlie Whittingham, not Gregson, was doing the training.

Gregson, who celebrated his 55th birthday last month, has been back to the Derby only once, finishing eighth with Candi’s Gold in 1987. The year before that, convinced that Icy Groom didn’t belong in the race, he turned over the colt to another trainer. Icy Groom finished eighth.

Since Gato Del Sol, Gregson’s top horses have included Super Diamond, an ornery, sore-legged gelding who won two Del Mar Handicaps, the Hollywood Gold Cup and, as a 9-year-old, the San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita; and Tsunami Slew, a winner at all stops on the Southern California circuit, including the Del Mar Derby and the Eddie Read Handicap here.

Dare To Duel, saddled by Gregson, won a division of the Oceanside Stakes on opening day here and will be back Monday to run in the $300,000 Del Mar Derby, a 1 1/8-mile grass race.

Gregson incurred the wrath of Chick Lang, Pimlico’s general manager, when he wouldn’t run Gato Del Sol in the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown. Pimlico’s tight turns would compromise Gato Del Sol’s running style, Gregson said, and he didn’t think the colt had enough finishing kick to win the shorter Preakness.

When Spend A Buck won the 1985 Derby and also skipped the Preakness, racing came up with the Triple Crown bonuses of $1 million and $5 million to keep horsemen interested.

Gregson, a former Hollywood actor who died of snakebite in his biggest part, as a soldier in “The Naked and the Dead,” and once studied European history at Stanford, makes no apologies for his peaks-and-valleys career as a horseman.

“I’ve done what I wanted to do,” he said. “I’ve always tried to develop a good horse, and I’ve usually had at least one good horse in my barn. I trained for some big outfits, like Juddmonte and Loblolly, but they moved on to other trainers. One thing I’m not is getting any younger. Maybe the younger trainers have more appeal these days. I’d like to think that I’ve been successful. Considering all the guys that train horses, what percentage of them really turns out to be successful?”

Regarding Dare To Duel, Gregson answers to 20 owners, a syndicate that paid $33,000 for him as a yearling.

“This is a group that just wants to have a little fun racing horses,” Gregson said. “They’re not interested in breeding. We go to the sales with a ceiling of $50,000 to spend per horse, and we buy nothing but colts. If we have to geld them later, we can, because breeding isn’t a consideration.”

Dare To Duel was introduced to the races a year ago at Del Mar, breaking his maiden in his second start. Gregson got Eddie Delahoussaye, who had won the Derby with Gato Del Sol, to ride the son of Kris S. in the Del Mar Futurity, but they had a crowded trip and after the race Dare To Duel required ankle surgery.

He didn’t run again for seven months, and since his return, Gregson has switched him to the grass. Gary Stevens, who rode him at Del Mar in his first two starts last year, was reunited with Dare To Duel in the Oceanside.

“The horse’s mother (Mardi Gras Mombo) liked the grass, and we had felt all along that he’d make a grass horse,” Gregson said.

At Santa Anita and Hollywood Park, Dare To Duel won one of four starts before his victory here on July 28.

“Monday’s distance is the least of my worries,” Gregson said. “My real concerns are all the other things, such as the post position and getting a clean trip.”

Horse Racing Notes

Chris McCarron, unseated by his mount, Canadian Chance, leaving the gate in Thursday’s fourth race, suffered minor injuries, inlcuding a bruised back, and took off the rest of his rides. Martin Pedroza picked up a McCarron mount in the ninth race on Both Guns Blazing and won. . . .

Phone Chatter and Noassemblyrequired, the respective first- and third-place finishers in the Sorrento Stakes on Aug. 14, are part of the eight-horse field Saturday in the $250,000 Del Mar Debutante for 2-year-old fillies. The stakes-winning Rhapsodic, second in the Sorrento, has been coughing, according to trainer Brian Mayberry, and wasn’t entered. Mayberry will run Sardula besides Noassemblyrequired. A year ago, Mayberry’s two-pronged attack of Zoonaqua and Fibs Galore was thwarted in the Debutante when Beal Street Blues, a Chicago shipper, won the stake, which has been shortened from a mile to seven furlongs.

Here is Saturday’s field, in post-position order: Top Of The Sky, Noassemblyrequired, Sardula, Stellar Cat, Tin, Ballerina Gal, Becky’s Appeal and Phone Chatter. When Laffit Pincay won a record 12 stakes at Del Mar in 1976, one of the victories was aboard Telferner in the Debutante, and he’ll try for his fifth triumph in the stake astride Phone Chatter.

Kotashaan, perhaps the best grass horse in the country, will carry high weight of 123 pounds in the $250,000 Del Mar Handicap. . . . Bertrando and Missionary Ridge, the 1-2 finishers in the $1-million Pacific Classic, are scheduled to run in the $500,000 Woodward at Belmont Park on Sept. 18.

Actor Don Ameche is at Del Mar, where he has four 2-year-olds with trainer Gary Jones. One of them, Ferrara, broke his maiden at the meeting and is a candidate for the Del Mar Futurity. . . . Paseana will leave California for her prep races for the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita on Nov. 6. On her schedule is the Ruffian Handicap at Belmont on Sept. 19 and the Spinster at Keeneland on Oct. 17. Paseana ran second in the Spinster last year before winning the Distaff at Gulfstream Park.