Luthier Fever Boosts West’s Fortunes

Trainer Ted West didn’t win Saturday’s $1-million Santa Anita Handicap, but when his newly acquired Luthier Fever ran second to Mr Purple, the runner-up’s share of the purse was $200,000. That’s about $44,000 more than all of West’s horses earned in 1994.

Last year was even worse for the West outfit, although the 59-year-old trainer didn’t have the figures at his fingertips as he rehashed the Big ‘Cap on Sunday morning at his stable office.

“What I know for sure,” West said, “is that 1995 was the worst year I’ve had in the last 30 years.”

This year didn’t start out any better. West has only nine horses in training, six at Santa Anita and three in Northern California with his 22-year-old son, and he hasn’t won a race locally all winter. What is more, West has been haunted by a tragic race at Hollywood Park in 1992 in which two horses, one of them his, died in a spill. A lawsuit resulted and, in binding arbitration West was ordered to pay $60,000 for the death of the other horse.

“The ruling was unbelievable,” West said Sunday. “It would be like Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal falling over one another on the court, and the owners of their clubs being held responsible for their injuries.”

Luthier Fever’s performance might signal the end of the recent hard times for West, who started training him after his former trainer, Gary Jones, had a falling out with Luthier Fever’s owners, brothers Alphonso and Jose Antonio Lanzagorta.

Luthier Fever’s final workout for the Big ‘Cap, a six-furlong spin in 1:16 1/5 over an off track, came six days before the race and a day before West was hired. Jones was already out of the picture and the Lanzagortas, who are home-builders in Mexico City, supervised the workout.

Luthier Fever had six victories, four seconds and six thirds in 21 starts going into the Big ‘Cap, and while not winning, had run close in recent races to some good horses--Alphabet Soup, Del Mar Dennis, Soul Of The Matter and Tinners Way. He beat Best Pal in the California Cup Classic at Santa Anita in November.

“I couldn’t figure why this horse went off at 64-1,” West said Saturday, minutes after the race was over. “I watched tapes of six of his races, and in one of them he ran a strong second to Alphabet Soup even though be broke slowly and had all kinds of trouble.”

With a new rider, Brice Blanc, aboard Saturday, Luthier Fever lost by two lengths to Mr Purple, who was 18-1. With the favorites, Helmsman and Afternoon Deelites, finishing out of the money, Luthier Fever paid $39.80 to place and $16.40 to show.

“The kid [Blanc] was in traffic at the head of the stretch,” West said. “He had to check for three or four strides. I don’t know if the outcome would have been any different if he had had a perfect trip, but we might have been closer.”

Luthier Fever gives West one of the best training records in the Big ‘Cap. His only other starter, Interco, won the race in 1984. Not a sound horse, Interco ran only three more times after the Big ‘Cap, and was retired with seven stakes victories and purses of $1 million. West bought Interco in France for the late David Sofro.

Led by Interco, the West stable was at its peak in 1984-85, earning $2.6 million.

“It’s gotten to be a real tough game,” West said. “George Warwick died in 1991. He was a man who owned 250 horses, and it’s awful hard to replace a big account like that.”

In two months, the Lanzagortas will be sending West one other horse, the recuperating El Atroz, who won the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows in 1993. Luthier Fever is scheduled to run in the $150,000 San Bernardino Handicap at Santa Anita on March 30. It’s been a while, but Ted West has a couple of decent horses to talk about again.

Horse Racing Notes

One of the options for Mr Purple is the $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap on April 6. But if Cigar misses the $4-million Dubai World Cup on March 27 and goes to Oaklawn Park, trainer Ron McAnally will re-route his colt. . . . Eddie Delahoussaye can keep the mount on Mr Purple if he wants it. “One of my concerns [Saturday] was Eddie not knowing the horse,” McAnally said. “But he rode him exactly according to plan.” . . . McAnally is sending Northern Spur to Florida to run Saturday in Gulfstream Park’s $300,000 Pan American Handicap at 1 1/2 miles. . . . Trainer Richard Mandella is taking the blame for Afternoon Deelites running out of steam and finishing sixth in the Big ‘Cap. “I rushed him into the Malibu, and then it was a rush to get him ready for the Strub as well,” Mandella said. “All that caught up with him Saturday.” Afternoon Deelites’ future is middle-distance races, and Mandella is also considering a campaign that might lead to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in October. . . . Dare And Go, scratched from the Big ‘Cap because of a sore ankle, is entered in Wednesday’s $70,000 Wicked North Stakes. That will be his prep for the Dubai World Cup. . . . Cigar, meanwhile, went back to the track Sunday for the first time since injuring his foot two weeks ago. Wearing a liquid acrylic patch on the injured foot and protective bar shoes on both front feet, the 6-year-old galloped around the Gulfstream racing strip. “He was walking just fine when he came back,” trainer Bill Mott said.