Whittingham Colt Suffers Fatal Injury

“Gonna win another Derby, Mr. Whittingham?”

The unknowing well-wisher was leaving Clockers’ Corner at Santa Anita early Thursday morning, en route to the parking lot.

A drawn Charlie Whittingham was standing next to the bridle path that leads back to the barn area.

“Won’t be running this year,” Whittingham politely said to the man. “My horse got hurt.”

“Oh, sorry to hear that,” the man said.

No matter how many horses veteran trainers lose, there are never any emotional cushions around. Early Thursday, Whittingham was supervising a routine gallop by Effect. One trip around the one-mile oval and the son of Halo would be ready for Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Derby.

About 30 yards past the finish line, there was a “pop” as Effect’s left front leg caved in.

“He had been doing fine,” Whittingham said, minutes after it happened. “Not a pimple on him. But I think they’re going to have to put him down.”

A little later, they did euthanize Effect, who shattered a sesamoid bone in his left foreleg. Arthur Hancock III, the breeder and co-owner of Effect, was on his way to Los Angeles from Florida, not aware that his horse was dead.

Wayne Shumate, a fellow Kentuckian and Hancock’s partner in Effect, walked around Clockers’ Corner in a daze, waiting for the post-position draw that would now be done without their horse.

“I’ve got to go to the airport to meet the Hawk [Hancock],” Shumate said. “What can I say to him when he gets off the plane?”

Effect, who might have been 12-1 on Saturday’s morning line, did not look like a sequel to Sunday Silence, another son of Halo who won the Santa Anita Derby and the Kentucky Derby for Hancock and Whittingham and their partner, Dr. Ernest Gaillard, in 1989. But Ferdinand, Whittingham’s first Kentucky Derby winner, sneaked up on the throng at Churchill Downs after running third in the 1986 Santa Anita Derby, and Whittingham was hoping that Effect might be another colt for the moment this year.

Thursday’s draw for the 60th Santa Anita Derby produced 11 horses, the biggest field since 1981. With Eddie Delahoussaye, Effect’s rider, becoming available, trainer Riley Griffiths decided to run King Crimson rather than ship him to Keeneland for the Blue Grass Stakes a week from Saturday.

Santa Anita’s favorites, according to track linemaker Jeff Tufts, are the filly Sharp Cat at 2-1 and Silver Charm at 5-2. They both drew on the inside, with Hello in between, and Wayne Lukas, Sharp Cat’s trainer, said he would have preferred the No. 3 spot that went to Silver Charm. Two of the last four winners, Cavonnier and Personal Hope, broke from the No. 1 post, but before them the last winner from the inside was Solar Salute in 1972.

Free House, who defeated Silver Charm by three-quarters of a length in the San Rafael on March 16, and stablemate Bagshot will be coupled in the betting. All of the horses will carry 120 pounds, except Sharp Cat, who will run with 115 because of a sex allowance.

Effect, who had won twice in seven starts, one of them a come-from-behind win at 1 1/16 miles Feb. 15, made his stakes debut in the San Felipe three weeks ago and had an excuse for finishing seventh. He bled from the lungs and would have run with the diuretic Lasix on Saturday. Whittingham had been scheduled to breeze the colt today.

“He was galloping as sound as could be,” Whittingham said. “I thought he had as good a chance as anybody to win Saturday.”

Effect was a late foal, his dam Consequences not dropping him until June 7, 1994. He first ran last October, finishing second twice before breaking his maiden in his fourth start, on the day after Christmas at Santa Anita.

Effect’s fatal injury came almost a year to the day that Smithfield, another Whittingham Santa Anita Derby probable, was sidelined. Smithfield, who had finished second to Odyle in the San Felipe, wrenched an ankle a few days before last year’s race and didn’t return to action until recently.

Whittingham, a Hall of Fame trainer who will turn 84 on April 13, has been personally snake-bitten as well. Cataract surgery in October resulted in a post-operative staph infection that cost him his sight in the right eye.

Horse Racing Notes

First post Saturday is at noon, with the Santa Anita Derby, the sixth race, scheduled for 2:43 p.m. . . . In other races on the card, Northern Afleet is the 118-pound high weight in the $200,000 Potrero Grande Breeders’ Cup Handicap and Labeeb and Talloires carry 120 pounds and 118 pounds, respectively, as they make their 1997 debuts in the $125,000 El Rincon Handicap. . . . Gary Stevens told the stewards he was ill and took off the rest of Thursday’s mounts after the fourth race. . . . Despite an unimpressive run in the Jim Beam, Funontherun is still in the Kentucky Derby picture and may run on grass in the California Derby at Golden Gate Fields on April 19. “That last race wasn’t him,” trainer Mel Stute said, “so we’re throwing it out. It reminded me of the way Snow Chief ran in the Kentucky Derby.” Eleventh in the 1986 Derby, Stute’s Snow Chief won the Preakness two weeks later. . . . The nine-horse field for Saturday’s $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap includes Isitingood, Atticus, Editor’s Note and Victory Speech. Isitingood will carry 120 pounds, five more than Tejano Run, the 9-5 favorite, and one more than Atticus. . . . Hi Ho Silverheel’s faces six rivals tonight at Los Alamitos in the $100,000 finale to the Arnold Pacing Series.

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The Lineup

This is the lineup for the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby (a 1 1/8-mile race) in post-position order with jockeys and odds:

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HORSE JOCKEY ODDS Sharp Cat Corey Nakatani 2-1 Hello Chris McCarron 4-1 Silver Charm Gary Stevens 5-2 Free House Kent Desormeaux 6-1 Classic Credential Alex Solis 8-1 King Crimson E. Delahoussaye 15-1 P.T. Indy Robbie Davis 15-1 Bagshot Julio Garcia 6-1 Steel Ruhlr Brice Blanc 30-1 Swiss Yodeler Rene Douglas 30-1 Carmen’s Baby Goncalino Almeida 30-1

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