A Bonus Plan That Really Took Off

The $1-million Haskell Handicap became a $1.25-million race for some horses during a five-hour June flight from Newark, N.J., to Los Angeles.

“Going out there, we heard that Hollywood Park was sweetening the pot for its race [the Swaps Stakes on July 20],” said Hal Handel, the chief operating officer for Monmouth Park. “By the time we got off the plane, our bonus plan had been drawn up.”

The Monmouth officials were en route to Hollywood Park and Santa Anita, where they were going to hustle some horses for the Haskell, the centerpiece of the racing season here. Through a sponsorship deal with Buick, Monmouth had already made the Haskell a $1-million race for the first time, but because Hollywood Park upped the purse for the Swaps with a bonus offer, Handel figured that his track had to do more.

As a result, Touch Gold and Free House, horses stabled at Hollywood Park, will be running for an $850,000 first-place purse in today’s Haskell. First place for the other horses in the race is worth $600,000. Touch Gold, winner of the Belmont Stakes, and Free House, who won the Santa Anita Derby, are eligible for the $250,000 bonus because they have won Grade I races.

There’s not another $1-million race around that pays the winner $850,000. First place in a $1-million Breeders’ Cup race is worth $520,000.

“This whole thing, getting the horses we got, was a soap opera,” Handel said. “We wound up in a cross-country bidding war. Then at the last minute, Touch Gold and Free House had trouble getting here because of plane problems. The race was a work in progress right up to the time we drew for post positions on Friday.”

In the beginning, Silver Charm, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, and second to Touch Gold in the Belmont, was in. But in shipping back to California after the Triple Crown series, the colt got sick and now he’s out for the rest of the year because of a blood infection.

Touch Gold’s owner, Frank Stronach, wanted to run in the Haskell, but his colt, after winning the Belmont with a patched crack on his left front hoof, continued to have foot problems and his training schedule was thrown off. Now the hoof has grown back about half an inch and Touch Gold’s trainer, David Hofmans, likes his position.

“We were going to put on a new patch,” Hofmans said Friday. “But the old patch is holding up fine, so we’re going to leave it where it is.”

When Silver Charm was sidelined and Touch Gold became iffy, Monmouth envisioned not getting any of the Triple Crown stars, because Free House, third in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont and second in the Preakness, was running in the Swaps. Hollywood Park had changed the date of the Swaps to give Touch Gold more time with his foot, and that meant the California race would be run only two weeks before the Haskell.

But Free House rebounded so quickly from his Swaps victory that his owners, John Toffan and Trudy McCaffery, reconsidered.

“They asked me how he was doing and I didn’t want to lie to them,” said Paco Gonzalez, Free House’s trainer. “He was doing great.”

That gave Monmouth Touch Gold and Free House, and by then Blushing K.D., the filly who had won the Kentucky and Monmouth Oaks, was being shipped back to the New Jersey track from Saratoga. She had been ticketed for the Alabama Stakes at Saratoga, but her owners changed their mind. Blushing K.D. was also eligible for the $850,000 purse if she won the Haskell.

Handel was ecstatic. Only one filly--Serena’s Song in 1995--had won the Haskell, and now Monmouth had the best filly in the country and two of the best colts.

But then, in Blushing K.D.’s final workout before today’s race, she broke down. She is still here, being treated for a broken ankle, but her racing career is over.

Even so, Handel said Friday that Blushing K.D.’s owners would share in the unique Monmouth program that will donate today’s paid admissions to charity.

“Each of the owners in the race will designate a charity,” Handel said. “The gate will be shared equally with those charities, and this will include the filly. It’s something that we hope other tracks might consider copying.”

Handel said that Free House’s owners, Toffan and McCaffery, were especially eager to embrace the charity idea.

Handell said: “What was different about this Haskell is that we weren’t that familiar with many of the owners of these horses. Usually when we go out to recruit horses, we know most of their owners fairly well.”

Something else different about the 30th running of the Haskell is that there won’t be a single New York-based horse running, the first time that has happened since 1981. Touch Gold, Free House and Anet come from California; Frisk Me Now and Tale Of The Cat are local horses stabled at Monmouth. Affirmed Success, who is entered in the Haskell, would have been a New York representative, but he is expected to be scratched so he can run in today’s Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga.

The Jim Dandy is worth $250,000, small change compared to the Haskell purse, but it drew eight horses trained by horsemen who don’t have Touch Gold and Free House to beat. The Jim Dandy is Saratoga’s traditional prep for the Travers, a $750,000 race that will be run on Aug. 23. This year’s Travers will be hurt by the Haskell, because Free House is not expected to go on to Saratoga.

“The Travers would be his third race in five weeks,” Gonzalez said. “That would be too hard on him.”

In the aftermath of the Triple Crown, it’s been every track for itself in this all-out battle for the best 3-year-olds. Monmouth Park seems to have come out better than the others.

“When they get in the gate [today], that’s when I’ll believe it,” Handel said. “Those California horses getting to our track the other day looked like something out an Indiana Jones movie.”

Horse Racing Notes

Gary Stevens, who will be inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on Monday, will replace the injured David Flores on Anet. “He’s the best I could come up with,” trainer Bob Baffert said in mock apology. Three of Anet’s five victories came with Flores in the saddle. Stevens has never ridden the colt. . . . Baffert left Silver Charm home but still brought his sense of humor. Referring to the 31-hour odyssey that brought Anet, Touch Gold and Free House to Monmouth on Thursday, Baffert said, “I thought we might get a three-pound jet-lag allowance, but the track hasn’t put it in yet.”

Awesome Again, running today in the Jim Dandy, could join his stablemate, Touch Gold, in the Travers. Both are owned by Frank Stronach and trained by David Hofmans. “Awesome Again has just as much ability as Touch Gold,” Hofmans said. “It’s just the seasoning that separates them.”

Jerry Bailey rode five winners Saturday, tying a Saratoga record, and the fifth was a narrow victory for Will’s Way in the $350,000 Whitney Handicap. Will’s Way won by a nose over Formal Gold, running 1 1/8 miles in 1:48 1/5. The winner paid $6.50. Favored Skip Away never threatened and finished third, beaten by 6 1/2 lengths. In his only other Saratoga start, in last year’s Travers, Skip Away was also third, but after that he went on to win the Eclipse award for best 3-year-old male. Before Bailey, the only Saratoga jockeys to win five races on a card were Mike Smith, Julie Krone, Angel Cordero and Ron Turcotte.

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Haskell Field

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HORSE JOCKEY WT. ODDS Affirmed Success Jorge Chavez 114 10-1 Touch Gold Chris McCarron 125 8-5 Free House Kent Desormeaux 125 9-5 Tale Of The Cat Julie Krone 114 8-1 Frisk Me Now Eddie King 120 5-1 Anet Gary Stevens 120 9-2

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