Free House Returns to Race in Bel Air

In May 1996, an unraced 2-year-old trained by Paco Gonzalez had just finished an eye-catching workout at Hollywood Park.

“His name’s Free House,” Gonzalez said to jockey agent Scott McClellan. “Put his name down in your book.”

McClellan did, and a few days ago, at Gonzalez’s Hollywood Park barn, the trainer and the agent recalled that day.

“Paco’s never said that to me about another horse,” said McClellan, who books mounts for Chris McCarron and Alex Solis. “He came close with another horse once, but he didn’t go that far. He was sure right about this one.”

Free House--remember him? Not quite good enough against Silver Charm and Touch Gold in the 1997 Triple Crown races, he still shipped around the country for owners Trudy McCaffery and John Toffan, winning three stakes and running so consistently that he earned $1.3 million. Not bad for a first-crop son of Smokester, a California stallion that McCaffery and Toffan once stood for $500 a breeding and still couldn’t draw any takers.

Silver Charm, who lost two of three meetings with Free House at Santa Anita before winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, has returned to the races this year, and so has Touch Gold, who beat both Silver Charm and Free House in the Belmont.

Now it’s Free House’s turn. Idle for more than nine months, Gonzalez’s 4-year-old colt is the even-money morning-line favorite today at Hollywood Park in the $100,000 Bel Air Handicap.

If he runs well, Free House will go on to the $1-million Pacific Classic on Aug. 15 at Del Mar, a race that’s also on Silver Charm’s schedule. The two rivals haven’t met since last year at Belmont Park, where Touch Gold ran down Silver Charm, costing him a Triple Crown sweep and the $5-million bonus.

Free House finished third, beaten by less than two lengths.

After that, Free House ran only twice, finishing third to Touch Gold and Anet in the Haskell Handicap and running last in the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs.

Free House suffered serious pulmonary bleeding on a sweltering day in Louisiana. He ran with Lasix, the diuretic that discourages bleeding, but in retrospect Gonzalez said that he should have asked for a larger dose.

“He was never really a bleeder, so we always gave him a minimum amount of Lasix,” Gonzalez said. “But it was very hot and humid in Louisiana, the kind of a day when horses can bleed.”

Returning to California, Free House was debilitated from his 10-race campaign as a 3-year-old.

“I got on him a few times and could tell he was sore,” Gonzalez said. “Especially in back. I asked John [Toffan] if we could give him a rest and he agreed.”

The respite has helped.

“[Free House] has been back in training for two months,” Gonzalez said. “I couldn’t ask him to be doing any better. He should be a better horse than he was last year. I think he’ll relax more than he used to. He had a tough year and deserved the time off. The races that you need to run in just to get to the Triple Crown are tough enough, and then if you get through them you’ve still got the Triple Crown races themselves.”

Free House won the Santa Anita Derby, then was an overlooked horse in the Kentucky Derby and ran third at 10-1. He lost the Preakness by only a head, finishing in the middle of a furious finish that included Silver Charm and Captain Bodgit.

Gonzalez frowns when he recalls that hair-raising day at Pimlico. He was standing near Bob Baffert, Silver Charm’s trainer, as the horses passed the sixteenth pole.

“I kept saying, ‘Come on, wire,’ ” Gonzalez said. “My horse’s head was bobbing up and down, up and down, and I just wanted his nose to be down when they got to the wire.”

When Gonzalez alerted Scott McClellan about Free House’s potential more than two years ago, even the trainer didn’t visualize a career that stands at $1.5 million in purses.

“What I meant was that he might be a good horse for a Cal-bred,” Gonzalez said. “You can never really tell about horses until they start running.”

Horse Racing Notes

Manistique, undefeated in two starts, heads a six-horse field Sunday in the $200,000 Hollywood Oaks. Also entered are Social Noel, Visible Slew, Hope Island, Yolo Lady and Sweet And Ready. Paco Gonzalez trains Visible Slew for Trudy McCaffery and John Toffan. . . . Trainer Sonny Hine told the Daily Racing Form that Skip Away had to shake off a 101.3-degree fever to run in the Hollywood Gold Cup, and that the horse popped a splint bone while winning the race. . . . The Monmouth Park sweeteners for Skip Away to run in the Iselin Handicap are a doubling of the purse, to $500,000, and a change in the distance, from 1 1/16 to 1 1/8 miles. The date is Aug. 30. . . . Jockey Herb McCauley suffered a broken left leg in a spill at Monmouth on Friday.