A Movie Star Before He Stars on the Track

Quite quickly, Real Quiet has gone from no billing at all to the name above the title.

The Kentucky Derby-Preakness winner, who shoots for the Belmont Stakes and a sweep of the Triple Crown in New York on June 6, was featured last summer in a video about conformation, though not by name.

In the 35-minute video, produced by Blood-Horse magazine and titled “Conformation: How to Buy a Winner,” Real Quiet was introduced simply as a son of Quiet American who was bought by trainer Bob Baffert as a yearling for $19,000.

Actually, the auction price was $17,000.

At the time the video was released, Real Quiet was stabled at Del Mar, at least five deep on Baffert’s list of 3-year-olds.

“Quiet American was a tremendous racehorse, but he wasn’t beautiful,” Baffert says on the video, which devotes about five minutes to Real Quiet.

Quiet American, who stood this year for a stud fee of $20,000 at Gainsborough Farm in Versailles, Ky., raced in Europe and the U.S. for Sheik Mohammed of Dubai. Trained by Gary Jones in California, Quiet American won the 1990 New York Racing Assn. Mile in a brilliant 1:32 4/5. Early that year, he ran second to Flying Continental in the Strub Stakes at Santa Anita.

Quiet American ran in the NYRA Mile because a week before he had been excluded from the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont Park. Jones, who believed his horse had a good chance to win, was furious. In September, Quiet American had finished second in the Woodward to Dispersal, who was the 4-1 morning-line favorite in the Breeders’ Cup. Fourteen horses, the maximum, were entered, and Quiet American was in an unusual position, on the also-eligible list despite decent 8-1 odds. There were no scratches, Dispersal finished 12th and the race was won by Unbridled.

Retired in 1991, Quiet American won four of 12 starts, which is similar to the record of Real Quiet. His wins in the Derby and the Preakness, which mark the first time he has had successive victories, give Baffert’s crooked-legged colt four wins in 14 starts.

Real Quiet’s dam, Really Blue, raced for Dennis Diaz, who won the 1985 Derby with Spend A Buck. In two seasons, Really Blue won only three of 21 races and earned $31,920.

On the video, which was made before Real Quiet had won a race, Baffert says, “He was the sleeper of the sale. I bought him on a whim.”

At the time of the sale, Baffert didn’t know that Real Quiet’s breeder, Eduardo Gaviria, had put the colt through surgery to correct his front legs. Despite those crooked legs--referred to on the video as “toeing out”--Real Quiet had attributes that appealed to Baffert. In one sequence, Baffert lifts Real Quiet’s tail.

“The root of his tail is strong,” he says. “That means good power.”

Toeing out, Baffert said, is not necessarily a negative.

“If you’ve got a big, light horse, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “If this horse had been bigger, I probably would have stayed away.”

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Chris McCarron, who helped foil Silver Charm’s bid for last year’s Triple Crown when he rode Touch Gold to a three-quarter-length win in the Belmont, will ride longshot Thomas Jo in this year’s race.

Racing at Pimlico, Thomas Jo has won the $200,000 Federico Tesio and the Sir Barton Stakes in his last two starts. Before he was bought early this year by Pasadena-based Team Valor and New York real estate executive Earle I. Mack, the Texas-bred gelding ran for $25,000 and $30,000 claiming prices last year.

McCarron replaces Steve Hamilton, who rode Thomas Jo in the Tesio and the Sir Barton.

“Steve has put up two flawless rides,” said Barry Irwin, president of Team Valor. “But the next race calls for a rider with experience at a mile and a half.”

McCarron also won the 1986 Belmont with Danzig Connection, the last of five consecutive winners for trainer Woody Stephens in the race.

Team Valor finished second behind A.P. Indy with 18-1 shot My Memoirs in the 1992 Belmont, and last year one of the group’s partnerships raced Captain Bodgit, who was second in the Derby and third in the Preakness.

Horse Racing Notes

Real Quiet returned to the track Thursday for the first time since the Preakness. He galloped 1 1/4 miles at Churchill Downs. . . . Touch Gold, sidelined because of hoof problems since running last in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Hollywood Park in November, has been working at Churchill for his new trainer, Patrick Byrne. The first major objective is the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga on Aug. 8.

The California Horse Racing Board, stepping up its attempt to detect horses running with the illegal drug clenbuterol, is introducing new laboratory procedures that will find the medication at lower levels. Despite widespread rumors of clenbuterol positives among major trainers, the board said Thursday that there are no cases pending. . . . IBA Dasher is the even-money favorite against nine other 2-year-olds in the $383,660 Kindergarten Futurity tonight at Los Alamitos. Wayne Lukas is saddling one of the other fillies, Private Venture. Private Venture is owned by Clarence Scharbauer, who won the 1987 Kentucky Derby and Preakness and the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Classic with Alysheba. Lukas was a leading quarter horse trainer before successfully switching to thoroughbreds in 1978. “Some people go to dinner, play golf or go on cruises,” Lukas said. “I’ve decided to race a few quarter horses again.”