THOROUGHBRED RACING : The Tale Lengthens: Sea Cadet to Return in Bel Air Handicap

Not many horses from the 1991 Kentucky Derby are still running. Not many horses with only a hint of a tail have won major races. Not many horses that brought less than $3,000 as yearlings have gone on to earn $1.7 million. Sea Cadet fits all those descriptions, and his remarkable career isn’t over. It has merely turned a corner.

The resilient 6-year-old is scheduled to run Sunday for the first time in 20 months, in the $150,000 Bel Air Handicap at Hollywood Park.

The first time Sea Cadet ran in the Bel Air, he was a 3-year-old who was taking a break from a steady diet of derbies in 1991. He won the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows; finished third, behind Dinard and Best Pal, in the Santa Anita Derby; ran eighth in the Kentucky Derby; was fourth in the Jersey Derby, and won the Longacres Derby.

If the race was shorter than 1 1/4 miles, Sea Cadet was especially dangerous. He led the Kentucky Derby until the top of the stretch, but faded in the last eighth of a mile. Against older horses, he was third in the Bel Air, then finished the year with four victories, a second and three thirds in 10 starts.

“He looks like an ugly duckling, with that tail missing and all,” said Sea Cadet’s trainer, Ron McAnally. “But he’s always trying. He never gives up.”

It’s because of that abbreviated tail that Sea Cadet is racing for Verne Winchell, who bred the Bolger-Hattab Gal colt with Lonnie Owens of Paris, Ky. Owens, the owner of Hattab Gal, consigned Sea Cadet to a yearling auction at Keeneland in 1989, and when the bidding stalled, Winchell’s farm manager, David Fiske, bought the horse back for $2,800.

“There was nothing wrong with the colt’s conformation, but nobody liked him because he didn’t have a regular tail,” Winchell said. “That was a bad day at the sale. There weren’t many live buyers there. If the horse had brought $15,000 or $20,000, we would have let him go through. But $2,800 was too cheap to sell him. We thought that at least he had the potential to become a high-class claimer. But of course as it’s turned out, he’s been much more than that.”

Sea Cadet quietly earned $92,850 in eight starts as a 2-year-old, scoring his only stakes victory in a minor race at Bay Meadows. After earning $679,800 as a 3-year-old, he won more than $1 million in only six starts at four. He found a home in Florida that winter, winning the Donn Handicap and the Gulfstream Park Handicap and beating Strike The Gold, the 1991 Kentucky Derby winner, by seven lengths in the latter race. Sea Cadet came back lame after running second to Best Pal in the Oaklawn Handicap in April.

A tender ankle prevented McAnally from racing Sea Cadet until mid-October, and in his first start he won the Meadowlands Cup, earning $300,000. The $3- million Breeders’ Cup Classic, at Gulfstream Park, was less than three weeks away, and even though Sea Cadet wasn’t eligible, Winchell wasn’t fazed by the $360,000 supplementary fee, or the prospect of facing A.P. Indy.

“If it had been my horse, I would have been reluctant to put up the money,” McAnally said. “After I gave Verne the pros and cons, he decided to go ahead. There was something to the argument that the horse had won twice over the track, once at the same distance (1 1/4 miles) as the Breeders’ Cup race.”

Horses’ tails serve two important functions: They contribute to their sense of balance and they help shoo flies. Three days before the Breeders’ Cup, on a hot, humid morning at Gulfstream, Sea Cadet was kicking at some flies in his stall. He slammed a rear leg against the back wall, was injured and was withdrawn from the race. Winchell’s $120,000--the first payment of the $360,000--was non-refundable. A.P. Indy won the Classic and was voted horse of the year.

Sea Cadet returned to action at the end of the year, running second in the Hawthorne Gold Cup, and hasn’t raced since. Recovered from his leg problems, Sea Cadet was in training this winter at Santa Anita when he was stricken by colitis, an intestinal disorder that is sometimes fatal. The horse spent a couple of months at a hospital in Chino before he was released about two months ago.

“We were lucky,” McAnally said. “Colitis can be fatal if they don’t catch it early. But as it was, we still almost lost him.”

Sea Cadet ran his first race at Hollywood Park, finishing second against maidens on July 22, 1990. He has won twice there, once in the Laz Barrera Handicap, his final start as a 3-year-old. He will carry high weight of 119 pounds Sunday against Lykatil Hill, 118; Region, 117, and Tinners Way, 117, who are next highest in the weights. Others entered in the 1 1/16-mile race are Brilliant Blue, Williamstown, Dr. Pain and Seahawk Gold.

On Tuesday at Hollywood, Sea Cadet worked five furlongs in a fast 58 4/5.

“He’s been working like he might be capable of returning to his former brilliance,” Winchell said. “They did a fine job at Chino to save him. We’re not ready to make a stallion out of him yet--I’ve got enough stallions at my farm these days. I’d like to think that he could run another year after this one.”