Despite Surgery, Greenman Is Not About to Miss a Beat

Three weeks ago, trainer Walter Greenman was at Scripps Memorial Hospital, undergoing 2 1/2 hours of surgery to remove a tumor that had been pressing against his brain.

Greenman had been feeling poorly for the last year, and although routine physical exams turned up nothing wrong, an MRI finally revealed that emergency surgery would be required.

“What does this guy do?” someone at the hospital asked after reading the MRI.

“He trains horses at Del Mar,” was the answer.

“Trains horses? Man, this guy shouldn’t even be walking around.”

Two days after surgery, Greenman was back at Del Mar, giving orders to the grooms at his 30-horse barn.

The day after that, Greenman was working at open throttle, sending horses to the track for workouts and supervising the training of the whole shebang. It was as though he had never been away.

“Those first few days, I didn’t get to the barn until 7 a.m.,” Greenman said, practically apologizing. “But I’ve been here at 5 ever since.”

Gary Biszantz stood outside Greenman’s barn Friday, nodded at the white-haired, 59-year-old trainer and smiled.

“Walter looks and acts terrific,” Biszantz said. “I’m just tickled over how he’s come back from all this. Sometimes miracles happen. Would there be a better ending than him winning the race Sunday?”

Biszantz owns, and Greenman trains, Such Charisma, one of eight horses entered in the $1-million Pacific Classic. Such Charisma, a 5-year-old gelding, has won four of 13 starts, but he’s winless in three stakes starts for Greenman and on Sunday will be racing on dirt for the first time. The 20-1 morning-line price is not an exaggeration. In order for Such Charisma to win, Walter Greenman will need to pull another miracle out of his hat.

“I think it’s a wide-open race,” Biszantz said.

Greenman, who also owns a small piece of Such Charisma, said that the defections, through injury, of Victory Gallop, Real Quiet and Mazel Trick have shoved his horse into the race. Winning another race at the Del Mar meet would not be uncharacteristic for the Greenman barn, which has produced five victories, three seconds and seven thirds out of 31 starters.

“Walter’s a complete horseman, through and through,” Biszantz said. “There are a lot of people in this world who find their work to be just that--work. But not Walter. This is the only place he wants to be.”

Unless someone can come out of the woodwork with another name, Greenman may be the only horseman who has had five-victory days as a jockey and a trainer. He got the five riding wins at Turf Paradise in Phoenix when he was a teenager, not long after he had dropped out of school to begin a life at the racetrack. Then on Nov. 25, 1970--he was only 30 but well into a training career--Greenman saddled five winners at Bay Meadows, tying the track record.

Greenman will continue post-operative care at Scripps, beginning radiation treatment five days a week Monday. Meantime, he’s following orders by not driving his car, no longer ponying horses to the track in the mornings and allowing his son, Dean, to saddle all the horses in the afternoons. Even more than soybeans, racing is a game of futures, though, and in a couple of weeks, he will be on a plane to Kentucky, to buy yearlings at the Keeneland sale.

“It’s amazing how good I’m feeling,” Greenman said. “Before the operation, I had lost all my drive and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Now I feel better, and seem to have double the energy I had before.”

Such Charisma, who’ll be ridden by Laffit Pincay, came from France to begin his U.S. career at Del Mar last year. The horse wasn’t close in his first four races, but then he won, with Pincay aboard, in a grass allowance race at Santa Anita in January. He won again at Santa Anita in March, but since, after moving into stakes company, has been seventh in the San Francisco Mile, fourth in the Inglewood Handicap at Hollywood Park and fourth a month ago in the Wickerr Handicap at Del Mar.

On paper, this looks like a horse that will finish up the track against Malek, General Challenge and the others Sunday. That’s unless Walter Greenman’s angel is still on his shoulder.

Horse Racing Notes

Banshee Breeze’s four-race winning streak ended Friday when Beautiful Pleasure, at 9-2, beat her by 2 1/4 lengths in the $400,000 Personal Ensign Handicap at Saratoga in New York. Keeper Hill, winless since the Kentucky Oaks in May of last year, ran third, 1 1/2 lengths behind Banshee Breeze. Beautiful Pleasure, ridden by Jorge Chavez, carried 113 pounds, 11 less than Banshee Breeze, while running 1 1/4 miles in 2:02 2/5. Banshee Breeze, who was fourth early, moved into second under Jerry Bailey, but couldn’t out-kick the winner.

The track at Saratoga began drying out late Friday, and with only a slight chance of rain today, there’s a good chance that the racing strip will be fast for the $1-million Travers. Trainer Elliott Walden appears to have the race covered either way. Menifee is his No. 1 chance, but he’s also running Ecton Park, who won the Jim Dandy at Saratoga over a sloppy track. Menifee, second to Charismatic in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, was eighth in the Belmont before rebounding with a victory in the Haskell Handicap on Aug. 8 at Monmouth Park in New Jersey.

Mazel Trick, who broke both sesamoid bones in his right foreleg Tuesday while preparing for the Pacific Classic, underwent 2 1/2 hours of surgery Friday. His leg was placed in a cast and he was eating at trainer Bobby Frankel’s barn shortly after the operation. Eighteen screws and a compression plate were inserted during the surgery. . . . Cover Gal, winner of her first start by 12 lengths, won Friday night’s Generous Portion Stakes by three lengths.