Strub Question: Can Helmsman Steer a Course Through Mud?

What has been a good beginning to 1996 could get even better today for trainer Wally Dollase.

A winner of five races at the 30-day-old Santa Anita meeting, four of them stakes victories, Dollase will send out San Fernando Stakes winner Helmsman in the $500,000 Strub Stakes and the promising 3-year-old Alyrob in the Santa Catalina Stakes today.

Those two horses aren’t the only stars in the Dollase stable. He also has the talented filly Windsharp, stakes-winning turf runner Ventiquattrofogli and Jewel Princess, who will try for her second stakes victory of the season in the La Canada a week from today.

All are blessed with ability, and all were relative bargains when purchased by Dollase for his various owners and partners.

Although he doesn’t get into specifics on dollar amounts--except for Alyrob, who cost $50,000 at the Barretts’ March 2-year-old-in-training sale last year--Dollase did have this to say after Helmsman, sold by Robert Sangster, won the San Fernando:

” . . . I do think Mr. Sangster is a little embarrassed.”

Helmsman, Ireland’s champion 2-year-old in 1994, has done little wrong since coming to the United States. He has three victories and two seconds in five starts in this country and showed he could handle Santa Anita’s main track in the San Fernando.

“He had a good shoulder and a long neck and all the things I wanted,” said Dollase in explaining what attracted him to Helmsman. “Plus, he had a good pedigree. He’s by El Gran Senor, and he’s very fashionable in California.

“He just caught my eye and I’ll never buy a horse if my wife [Cincy] doesn’t agree. We always choose together. She has a certain intuition that makes it a good combination.”

Owned by Dollase and nine other partners, Helmsman also had the right kind of action to adapt to racing in the United States.

“A lot of horses in Europe have high action because they run so many races on soft turf,” Dollase explained. “You don’t want that here. You want a horse with the low, daisy-cutting action. That’s the kind you’re looking for.

“[Helmsman] is powerful and a very good-looking horse. When you have that to work with, it just makes for an exceptional runner. But, most of all, the number one ingredient he has is a lot of heart.”

Some sort of off track is a certainty for the Strub, a race Dollase missed winning by a nose with Nonproductiveasset in 1994, and it is a mystery how that would affect Helmsman.

“It’s something he’s never experienced before,” he said. “It’s hit and miss on whether or not they’re going to handle it. I would run him if the track is safe, but the one thing I do know is that he’s gutty and tough as nails.”

Two races earlier, Alyrob will try for his third victory in four starts and first stakes success in the Santa Catalina. He stretched out for the first time in a Jan. 12 allowance race, beating, among others, the highly regarded Prince Of Thieves.

Bothered by a sore shin when purchased almost a year ago, the gelded son of Alysheba was ahead of schedule when he broke his maiden in December at Hollywood Park.

“I told the owners that they’d have to be patient because I didn’t even think he’d run until he was a 3-year-old,” said Dollase. “He’s got nice confirmation, and he’s just a very athletic animal. He’s got tremendous athleticism.

“I thought he might be a decent distance horse, but the remarkable thing about him, being by Alysheba, is that he has so much speed. He’s a push-button horse. He only does what the jockey wants him to do, and I think that’s important with a distance horse.”