Sentimental Farewell to McAnally Favorite

Hello was insured for $1 million.

“That took some of the sting out it,” trainer Ron McAnally said. “But he was such a nice horse, and he was one of my all-time favorites. Every time something like this happens, it never gets you ready for the next time.”

Hello, a pocket-sized colt who came to the United States from Europe last year and finished third this year, behind Free House and Silver Charm, in the Santa Anita Derby, was put down at Hollywood Park last Sunday after he broke down in the stretch in the $500,000 Swaps Stakes. He was trying to come from behind, as was his style, and although he wouldn’t have beaten Free House, he wouldn’t have given up, which was also his style.

“He made up for a lack of size with a lot of fight,” McAnally said.

After he suffered a compound fracture of the cannon bone in his left foreleg, Hello got up, with jockey Chris McCarron on the ground, and instinctively tried to lurch in the direction of the finish line. It was not a pretty sight.

McAnally had seen something like this before: Go For Wand, the odds-on favorite in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Distaff in 1990, getting up and trying to run on three legs at Belmont Park. McAnally’s mare, Bayakoa, won the race, but he didn’t want the victory that way. McAnally and Bayakoa’s owners, Jan Whitham and her late husband Frank, were a grim-visaged gathering in the winner’s circle.

The Irish-bred Hello won a major stake in Italy as a 2-year-old before Al and Sandee Kirkwood of Vancouver, Wash., bought him for an estimated $300,000 toward the end of last year. The first time McAnally saddled him, in November, Hello won the Generous Stakes on the grass at Hollywood Park. This year, Hello raced on dirt for the first time, winning the Santa Catalina at Santa Anita and finishing third after he broke through the gate before the start of the San Rafael Stakes. After the Santa Anita Derby, Hello finished eighth in the Kentucky Derby and ran second in the Affirmed Handicap at Hollywood Park.

A few days before the Kentucky Derby, McAnally and Murray Friedlander, the bloodstock agent who secured Hello for the Kirkwoods, were seen in a Louisville supermarket, with a shopping cart stuffed with raw carrots. Only in racing--a Hall of Fame trainer, days away from the big race, getting carrots for his horse.

“He loved those carrots,” McAnally said the other day. “Every morning you’d arrive at the barn, he’d be looking for a few of them. He knew that if you were there, the carrots couldn’t be too far behind.”

After the Swaps, trainer Wally Dollase, whose Deputy Commander finished second to Free House, lashed out at Hollywood Park for running races over a sun-baked track that he felt was too hard.

“I felt the same way,” McAnally said. “But I didn’t want to say anything, because I thought it might come out like sour grapes.”

McCarron, who sprained his left shoulder in the spill, told McAnally after the Swaps that Hello was traveling well when he broke down.

“It was unfortunate,” McAnally said. “It’s the part of the game that you hate to see.”

McAnally will be represented in both of today’s stakes as he tries to upset the favorites in the $100,000 San Clemente Handicap and the $150,000 San Diego Handicap. His hope in the San Clemente is Sister Queen, a filly who is largely untested at this level; and in the San Diego he’ll saddle Misnomer, a minor stakes winner who lacks the credentials of Benchmark, Northern Afleet, Elmhurst and Semoran.

McCarron, who missed the first three days of the Del Mar meet because of the shoulder injury, is scheduled to ride Sister Queen in the San Clemente and has the assignment on Northern Afleet in the San Diego.

At 118 pounds, Northern Afleet is the high weight in the San Diego. High weight in the San Clemente, with 120 pounds, is Famous Digger, who was claimed by her trainer, Barry Abrams, from trainer Richard Mandella for $40,000 in late January. Since then, Famous Digger broke her maiden running for a $50,000 claiming tag and has won three stakes, including the Grade III Honeymoon Handicap at Hollywood Park on May 24.

Horse Racing Notes

Free House, winner of the Swaps Stakes, will tackle Belmont Stakes winner Touch Gold in the $1-million Haskell Handicap a week from Sunday at Monmouth Park. Free House’s owners, John Toffan and Trudy McCaffery, made the decision Friday and said that next Wednesday their colt will be on the same plane with Touch Gold and Anet, another California-based horse who is scheduled to run in the Haskell. Other probable starters for the Haskell are Blushing K.D., the filly who won the Kentucky Oaks; Frisk Me Now, the Ohio Derby and Flamingo winner; and undefeated Tale Of The Cat.

Gary Stevens, who won with Predappio last month at Royal Ascot, will ride the 12-1 shot today in the $840,250 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot, which is near London. The field also includes Helissio, last year’s Arc de Triomphe winner; Pilsudski, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf last year; and Singspiel, winner of the Japan Cup and this year’s Dubai World Cup. After riding at Del Mar on Thursday, Stevens left for England, but his flight out of Phoenix was delayed because of engine trouble. He was scheduled to arrive in London today. He will return to ride six races at Del Mar on Sunday.

A Mass for Lou Eilken is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at St. Dorothy’s Church in Glendora. Eilken, who was 82, died last Sunday. During a long career as a racing secretary at many tracks, he worked at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar.

Rattle My Nerves, a daughter of Bertrando, overtook Czarina in the final strides to win the $112,120 California Throughbred Breeders’ Assn. Stakes as Del Mar ran the first of four Friday-night twilight cards. Dereks Baby Girl, the 7-5 favorite, was third. Rattle My Nerves, ridden by Rene Douglas, was 5-1 as she became the first offspring from Bertrando to win a stakes race. Bertrando won the 1991 Del Mar Futurity and the 1993 Pacific Classic.