Headley Thinks Kona Gold Is Ready to Pull a Fast One

The week after Kona Gold’s half-length loss to Artax in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Gulfstream Park, trainer Bruce Headley sat down and mapped out a battle plan for attacking the same race this year. The next running of the Sprint will be on Nov. 4 at Churchill Downs, and Headley is comfortable, almost cocky, about Kona Gold’s chances.

“It’s not how fast, but how they last,” said Headley, a veteran conditioner who gets a kick out of occasionally talking in rhyme.

Headley wanted Kona Gold to run only five times leading up to this year’s Breeders’ Cup, and that’s what he’s done. He wanted the 6-year-old gelding to run a strong race three weeks before the Sprint, and that’s what Kona Gold did, winning last Saturday’s Ancient Title Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Santa Anita. With only three other horses running, Kona Gold won by three lengths, running six furlongs--the Breeders’ Cup distance--in 1:08.

This was Kona Gold’s third try at the Ancient Title, and his first win, and in a couple of weeks it will be his third attempt at the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. In 1998, also at Churchill Downs, he went into the Sprint off only five starts and finished third, two lengths behind Reraise, the winner.

“It should be our turn,” Headley said after the Ancient Title.

A lot of horses have run three--even four--times in the Breeders’ Cup, but in the Sprint there have been only two three-time participants. Cardmania, a 7-year-old when he won the Sprint at Santa Anita in 1993, was 12th in the stake the year before and third in his encore attempt in 1994. Senor Speedy was ninth, fourth and eighth in three consecutive Sprints, starting in 1990.

The Ancient Title worked as a successful Breeders’ Cup prep for Cardmania in 1993. He ran the same time then at Santa Anita that Kona Gold did last Saturday.

“If my horse runs the same race that he ran last year, I think he’ll win,” said Headley, talking about the Sprint.

At Gulfstream, it took a bad start by Kona Gold and a Breeders’ Cup record clocking of 1:07 4/5 by Artax to win. The ground broke out from under Kona Gold at the start, and he lurched to the left, bumping the horse inside him as they left the gate. Kona Gold and jockey Alex Solis trailed five horses after the first quarter-mile, then spent the rest of the short race trying to catch up.

“We were just too far back early,” Headley said. “The year before, I went to the Breeders’ Cup with a horse who wasn’t that seasoned, but he still did awfully well.”

Solis, who has ridden Kona Gold in all but one of his 16 races--a second-place finish with Chris McCarron aboard at Hollywood Park in May of 1998--had a bead on Reraise entering the stretch at Churchill Downs, but his horse couldn’t close the gap.

Kona Gold’s win last Saturday was his eighth, to go with six seconds and a third, and his purse total stands at $1.1 million. The only time he didn’t finish in the first three was a fifth-place finish in the Ancient Title in 1998. Headley is a minority partner in the ownership of the horse, with Irwin Molasky, one of the founders of the Lorimar movie-TV company, and his son Andrew Molasky.

The son of Java Gold and Double Sunrise, a Slew o’ Gold mare, Kona Gold gave Headley early vibes that he might have a future. In 1997, as an unraced 3-year-old, he worked six furlongs in 1:11 out of the gate at Santa Anita. But he chipped his knee and Headley gave him time to recover.

“It wasn’t that big of a chip--just a small flake, really--but I wanted to make sure he came back in good shape,” said Headley, who has a reputation for not pushing his horses.

Since then, Kona Gold’s knee has been all right, but his feet have been tender. Headley, 66, ran him six times in 1998, five times last year and now the five starts in 2000. His only loss this year was a second by a head against his stablemate, Son Of A Pistol, in the San Carlos Handicap at Santa Anita in March.

“My barn was close to Charlie Whittingham’s for a lot of years at Santa Anita,” Headley said. “I learned a lot just by being near Charlie. He was known for planning his races a year in advance.”

Headley has never won a Breeders’ Cup race, but all but one of his six starters have earned paychecks.

His first Breeders’ Cup horse, Fine Spirit, was moved up from fourth to third after the disqualification of Fran’s Valentine in the inaugural Juveniles Fillies at Hollywood Park in 1984.

Seven years later, Bertrando was second, running into the buzz saw Arazi, in the Juvenile at Churchill Downs.

Besides Kona Gold, Headley’s other Breeders’ Cup starters have been Lakota Brave, fifth in the 1996 Sprint, and Son Of A Pistol, 13th in last year’s Sprint. The lot of them, without winning, has accounted for $700,000 in purses.

Solis is more in need of a Breeders’ Cup win than Headley. The veteran jockey is 0 for 31 since his first Breeders’ Cup appearance in 1996. His horses have earned $2.4 million--that’s good for 14th on the jockeys’ money list--but still no wins.

Like Headley, Solis is sniffing that first Breeders’ Cup win with both nostrils.

“Kona Gold’s an amazing horse,” Solis said. “You have to encourage him to run, but once he gets rolling, you have to hold on. Bruce’s horses are well prepared, they’re spotted in the right races and they give 100% every time they run. I hope the third time’s the charm.”

Notes

A shipper from Calder, Cruisin Man, gave Laffit Pincay his 8,993rd win. . . . The two winning tickets on the $648,076.80 pick six were sold at Santa Anita and in Wichita, Kan. . . . River Keen, claimed by owner Hugo Reynolds and trainer Bob Baffert for $100,000 before he won last year’s Woodward and Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, has been retired. River Keen, an 8-year-old, ran sixth in last Sunday’s Goodwood Breeders’ Cup Handicap. He earned $1.6 million, all but about $300,000 of it for Reynolds. . . . Besides Tiznow (a payment of $360,000), other supplemental entries for the Breeders’ Cup Classic will be Captain Steve ($290,000) and Gander ($360,000). . . . Co-owner Aaron Jones said that he plans to run Riboletta next year.