Turf War

Val’s Prince, one of the favorites in Saturday’s $2-million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Gulfstream Park, is apparently going to be allowed to run, but the bitter, three-cornered battle over the ownership of the 7-year-old gelding is only beginning.

David Romanik, one of the attorneys enmeshed in the wrangling, tried to find some humor by facetiously suggesting that a win by another horse Saturday would devalue Val’s Prince and not make him worth fighting over.

But nobody involved is really laughing, starting with Dale Smallwood, a horseman and ex-convict who has sued in federal and Florida state court to recover the ownership of Val’s Prince. The horse, who has earned $2 million while bouncing from one trainer to another, is 6-1, the third choice on the morning line, for the Turf.

The Val’s Prince imbroglio took another twist this week with a state-court hearing that began Wednesday in Ocala, Fla.

“It’s been continued until [today],” said Steve Weiner, who is listed as 50% owner and managing partner of Val’s Prince. “But no matter what happens before the race, the horse is definitely running. If the judge should decide [today] on putting the horse in receivership, the horse will still run, any purse will be held up, and who gets the money will be decided at a trial.”

You can’t tell the Val’s Prince litigants without a scorecard, so here’s a quick rundown on the cast of characters:

* Dale Smallwood. In April 1994, when Val’s Prince was an unraced 2-year-old, the ex-jockey bought him from his breeders for $12,500. The horse was named after Smallwood’s girlfriend at the time, Valerie Thompson, who according to the horse’s transfer records and court documents became the owner later in the year and was supposed to have been paid $15,000 by Smallwood.

* Steve Weiner. In 1995, the Long Island used-car salesman became the owner of Val’s Prince and another horse in a settlement of a $40,000 debt owed by Smallwood. The $40,000 apparently included the $15,000 that Smallwood owed Thompson.

* Robin Martin. Weiner’s former girlfriend, she has a bill of sale, dated September 1995, which indicates that Weiner, when they were still together, sold her Val’s Prince for $38,000. Despite that document, Val’s Prince continues to race in both of their names and racing officials in New York and elsewhere recognize Weiner as the managing partner of the horse.

* John Parisella. He was the first trainer of Val’s Prince after Weiner bought the horse. Val’s Prince, compromised by a back injury, won only three of 11 starts under Fred Warren, who trained for Smallwood and Thompson in Florida. In those days, the horse broke his maiden in a $12,500 claiming race, but then couldn’t win for claiming prices between $16,000 and $20,000. On June 14, 1995, Parisella had entered Val’s Prince in a race at Belmont Park, and according to Smallwood, he would have been a heavy favorite had he not been scratched. In his suit, Smallwood says that if Val’s Prince had earned $40,000--the amount he owed Weiner--before June 15, 1995, ownership of the horse was supposed to revert to Smallwood.

* Tom Amoss. He followed Parisella as trainer of Val’s Prince, saddling him for one win in three starts in Kentucky and Louisiana.

* Jimmy Picou. He took over the training of Val’s Prince in late 1995, and developed the horse into a solid turf runner who won the Turf Classic at Belmont and the Hong Kong International Cup in 1997.

This year, however, Picou and Weiner had a falling out, and in August, at Saratoga, Val’s Prince was switched to the barn of James Bond, who also trains Behrens, the 3-1 favorite Saturday in the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic. In his only two races with Bond, Val’s Prince won the Man o’ War and the Turf Classic during a four-week span at Belmont.

Picou declined to elaborate on his disagreement with Weiner, but Martin said that from January to July of this year, she was paying Picou 50% of Val’s Prince’s training bill, while Weiner was paying nothing at all. According to Martin, Picou took the matter to the Saratoga stewards, and they ordered that the trainer be paid out of the purse the horse earned when he ran second in the Sword Dancer Handicap on Aug. 14. Martin said Weiner, out of spite, fired Picou a day or two after the Sword Dancer.

Regarding most of the issues in this struggle, the three principals--Weiner, Martin and Smallwood--are in agreement about hardly anything. “Robin Martin is a sick puppy and a habitual liar,” Weiner said of his former companion. “There is no validity to what she says. Money had nothing to do with taking the horse away from Jimmy Picou. I’ve hardly spoken to [Martin] for three years. She should be the happiest person in the world. This horse has made her a millionaire.”

Martin, who travels with a bodyguard, said she was not told that Weiner was firing Picou. Her lawyer, David Romanik, has cautioned her to avoid the pre-race paddock Saturday, for fear that a sheriff might be serving her with court papers on behalf of Smallwood.

“Weiner found the horse, but Robin has been paying for it,” Romanik said. “I think Weiner’s the kind of guy who starts telling the same false stories so often that he winds up believing them.”

Veterinary bills have been considerable. Val’s Prince underwent tumor surgery in 1995, nearly died after two cases of colic in 1996 and was treated for ulcers and suffered a broken sesamoid bone in 1998.

Martin said she has survived this turmoil by remembering something boxer Evander Holyfield said: “I trust God, and everybody else is suspect.”

She has no sympathy for Weiner.

“Steve has dug his own grave on this,” she said. “Anything that’s happened to him, he’s brought it on himself. I’ve made some bad choices, and now I’m in the midst of the storm.”

Smallwood filed his lawsuit last year, when, according to Weiner, he was still serving time for bank fraud in a federal facility in Mississippi. Smallwood couldn’t be reached and his attorney didn’t respond to phone messages from The Times.

In his filing, Smallwood said that in 1995, Weiner and another man, who was carrying a handgun, physically threatened him on two occasions in Ocala. Smallwood said that he was coerced into signing a conditional bill of sale that turned Val’s Prince and the other horse over to Weiner.

“This is the word of a convicted felon and someone who’s had his [racing] license revoked in Florida,” Weiner said. “It’s somebody who’s perjured himself, someone who didn’t come forward until this horse got good and started to earn a lot of money. This guy doesn’t have a dime to his name, and he’s coming after me. I have a document that shows that I own 50% of this horse. I’ve never been guilty of anything, not even a jaywalking violation.”

The battle over Val’s Prince will not be resolved quickly, because Weiner said that if Smallwood prevails in court, he’s ready to launch a countersuit.

“I shouldn’t be saying this,” Romanik said, “because my client owns 50% of Val’s Prince, but maybe it’d be better if someone like Daylami wins the race. Then maybe Val’s Prince wouldn’t be so popular and some of these problems would go away.”

With Val’s Prince having already won $2 million, it’s too late for that.