HOLLYWOOD PARK : No Longer a Winless Rogue, Royal Chariot Captures Turf Cup

Trainer Eddie Gregson said that the day Royal Chariot ran for a $50,000 claiming price, another trainer tore up his claim slip because of the way the horse behaved before the race.

“My horse went nuts in the paddock,” Gregson said.

That was on July 10, 1994, at Hollywood Park. Royal Chariot could have been claimed a month before for even less--$32,000. He was a winless rogue in those days, a horse with a bad knee who had once gone off at 77-1 at Del Mar, a horse who was losing by 10 lengths or more.

Not any longer. Royal Chariot’s reclamation under Gregson reached its zenith Sunday, when jockey Alex Solis guided the 5-year-old gelding through a hole at the top of the stretch and Royal Chariot withstood Talloires’ desperate late move to win the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Cup by a half-length.

In a 14-horse race that lacked a distinctive favorite--Tikkanen, who hadn’t won since his Breeders’ Cup Turf victory 13 months ago, was the shortest price at 4-1--Royal Chariot paid $18.60 for $2.

“When I schooled him [Saturday] in the paddock, he fell asleep,” Gregson said. “I thank God that I didn’t lose him for $50,000. I didn’t think I would, though. He had terrible form, and not many 4-year-old maiden geldings get claimed for $50,000, even if they are by Strawberry Road.”

The day of the $50,000 non-claim, Royal Chariot broke his maiden, but the red-letter day in the horse’s career came when Gregson switched him from dirt to grass last June. He had won three of 10 on dirt at the time, and since then he has won three more races, including the Del Mar Handicap, and in October, over a Santa Anita course that he couldn’t handle, he still finished third behind Northern Spur and Sandpit, two of the best grass horses in the country.

Northern Spur, who won the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Belmont Park three weeks after the Santa Anita race, would have been favored Sunday, but he was unable to run because of a cough.

Gregson’s prep for the Turf Cup was the Citation Handicap on Nov. 25, when Royal Chariot, ridden by Solis for the first time, finished fourth behind Fastness, who was setting a course record for 1 1/8 miles.

“He gave me the feeling that day that he was a horse who might like to run farther,” Solis said.

Royal Chariot carried 126 pounds Sunday, the heaviest impost of his career and nine pounds more than what he was assigned for the Citation. Owned by Dorothy and Vincent Kanaowsky of Newport Beach, Royal Chariot ran 1 1/2 miles Sunday in 2:25, only a fifth of a second slower than the stakes record that Itsallgreektome set in 1990. Royal Chariot earned $275,000, giving him a career total of $645,177.

Talloires, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, couldn’t find a hole like Solis did, and finished 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Earl Of Barking, who was third, one length better than the filly Privity. Tikkanen, in his last race, ran seventh, and Parme, the morning-line favorite who went off as the 5-1 second choice, was 10th after dumping his rider, Corey Nakatani, and running off for about an eighth of a mile in the post parade.

“[Talloires] just didn’t have anywhere to go, from the three-eighths pole to the eighth pole,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “He got tied up and could never make his move. Then he just didn’t have enough time to catch the winner.”

Solis felt that he got every break with Royal Chariot. Gregson said that it was the owners’ decision to replace Laffit Pincay as the horse’s jockey after the Oak Tree Invitational.

For Gregson, the Turf Cup victory came during a barren time. The 57-year-old trainer won the Kentucky Derby with Gato Del Sol, a 21-1 shot, in 1982, but his successes have been well-scattered since then, and last year his horses won only 15 races and earned less than $500,000. Gregson said his last Grade I victory before Sunday was with Petite Ile in the old Sunset Handicap in 1990.

“I think Royal Chariot always had ability,” Gregson said. “But he had some mental problems when he was a young horse. Now he’s learned to settle down and learn what it’s all about. Coming into the race, I thought that I had the horse to beat.”

Horse Racing Notes

W.R. Hawn, whose stable won some of the most important races, died in Dallas on Friday. Hawn, who was 85, was nicknamed “Fritz.” He was a former board chairman at Del Mar and once was a minority owner of the Dallas Cowboys. In 1964, he won the Kentucky Oaks with Blue Norther and the Hollywood Gold Cup with Colorado King, and he won the Santa Anita Handicap with Vigors in 1978. . . . Slew Of Damascus, beaten by a half-length by Lukatill Hil in Saturday’s William P. Kyne Handicap at Bay Meadows, suffered a hairline fracture of his right foreleg. Trainer Craig Roberts said the injury will be allowed to heal without surgery.