DEL MAR : Royal Chariot Really Clipping Now

Royal Chariot didn’t have much interest in being a race horse in his younger days.

“He was very studdish and hard to handle,” remembered trainer Ed Gregson. “He was always rearing up.”

Such behavior led to four dreary performances in Royal Chariot’s 3-year-old season and prompted Gregson and owners Dorothy and Vincent Kanowsky to have him gelded.

Royal Chariot is now much more businesslike, according to Gregson. In 10 starts as a gelding, he has five victories, two seconds and two thirds.

The Kentucky-bred became a stakes winner for the first time when he won the $75,000-added Wickerr Handicap on Aug. 2 and will try for a bigger prize today in the $250,000 Del Mar Handicap. He is the 4-1 second choice on the morning line in the field of 11.

Able to win at distances ranging from seven furlongs to 1 1/8 miles and proven on both dirt and turf, Royal Chariot will stretch out to 1 3/8 miles today over a grass course he loves. He is perfect in two starts on Del Mar grass, having upset 1994 Hollywood Gold Cup winner Slew Of Damascus in the Wickerr.

“[Today’s distance] is always a question,” Gregson said. “When he won at Santa Anita [on Oct. 20, 1994 on the main track] going 1 1/8 miles, he was going strong at the finish, and he had a half brother who won a race going 1 3/8 miles.”

Since returning June 1 from a three-month break, Royal Chariot has raced strictly on turf, even though he has won three times on dirt. Problems with his feet are the reason he is sticking to the grass.

“I ran him against Best Pal last fall at Hollywood [Park in the Native Diver Handicap on Dec. 4], and he came out of the race with quarter cracks,” Gregson said. “[Jockey] Corey [Black] got off him [after he finished third behind Best Pal and Tossofthecoin] and said the track was just too hard for him.

“Before that, he had wonderful feet, but we decided to put him on turf because of the problems. Maybe, it was a lucky accident.”

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French Deputy, who was one of the country’s more promising 3-year-olds earlier this year, will make his long-awaited return to the races in the $200,000 Jerome Handicap Monday at Belmont Park. French Deputy has been out with hoof problems since Feb. 23.

Gary Stevens, who will be in New York on Sunday to ride Serena’s Song in the $150,000 Gazelle, will stay there to handle French Deputy in the one-mile Jerome.