A Long Road for Koch Since Telly’s Pop

Thirty years ago, when Bill Koch was 5, he trailed his grandfather to tracks all over California to see a 2-year-old gelding called Telly’s Pop run.

Young Koch was here in 1975 when Telly’s Pop, owned by actor Telly Savalas and movie producer Howard W. Koch, won the Del Mar Futurity.

“Has it been that long?” Bill Koch said. “Well, I’m 35, so I guess it has been.”

Koch was talking on a cellphone from the Del Mar barn of Don Chatlos, who trained Singletary to win the Breeders’ Cup Mile last year at Lone Star Park near Dallas. Koch, one of the many owners of the syndicated Singletary, said that the 5-year-old would run Sunday in the $400,000 Eddie Read Handicap, one of the first two Grade I races at the 43-day meet that opens today.

As usual, the meet starts with the Oceanside Stakes -- split into divisions for the 17th year in a row -- and among the other opening-week stakes is the Grade I John C. Mabee Handicap on Saturday.

“That was such a time,” Koch said, as the memories of Telly’s Pop rattled around. “After Telly’s Pop would win a race, Telly -- who always had a lollipop in his mouth when he played Kojak -- would throw lollipops to the crowd. They gave me lollipops to throw too.”

It must have been a hard-to-resist temptation for a young boy, who was handed a fistful of sweets and then told to give them away. Koch, who works in film production, says he still has one of Telly’s Pop’s blankets in his home.

“It’s got a red lollipop on it,” Koch said.

Koch asked if a reporter had the Daily Racing Form’s chart of Telly’s Pop’s Futurity, then did a thorough job of recreating the race without it.

“It gives me chills just to think about it,” Koch said. “Telly’s Pop was used to running off the pace, but this day he had the lead at the half-mile pole. Lexington Laugh, who usually ran on the lead, was coming from off the pace. At the quarter pole, Lexington Laugh made the lead, and I thought Telly’s Pop was dead. But he re-broke and came on again to beat the other horse.”

Telly’s Pop kept winning -- the Norfolk at Santa Anita, the California Juvenile at Bay Meadows in San Mateo -- and by the end of 1975, Savalas and Howard Koch thought they had a legitimate Kentucky Derby contender.

“Telly’s Pop was ranked second to Honest Pleasure on the Experimental Handicap,” Bill Koch said about the theoretical rating of 2-year-olds by the Jockey Club. “I think he knew whether he won or lost. He’d stand in his stall with his head down when he got beat. He was a big horse, and you didn’t want to be around him on a bad day. But they let me visit him. I was one of the few who was allowed in the stall. I guess they figured he wouldn’t beat up on somebody as small as me.”

Early in 1976, Telly’s Pop won the California Derby, but then he finished fifth in the Santa Anita Derby, sixth in the Hollywood Derby and the story took a dark turn. Knee surgery was required, and Telly’s Pop foundered and had to be euthanized.

Telly’s Pop earned $340,000. Singletary is another cheaply bought horse who has outrun his pedigree. Telly’s Pop, who was bred by his trainer, Mel Stute, was sold to Savalas and Howard Koch for $6,000. “I needed the money,” said the 77-year-old Stute, who has won 282 races at Del Mar and is here this season trying to win some more.

Savalas died in 1994. Howard Koch, who died in 2001, once remembered old-friend Stute calling him with an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“Howard, I’m in need of $6,000 to pay some bills,” Stute said. “You can either buy this horse for that amount, or just loan me the money.”

Koch was sitting with Savalas at the time. Koch felt he owed Walter Matthau, who had partnered a few other horses, first shot at Stute’s horse, but when Matthau said no, Savalas bought in for $3,000. Telly’s Pop was either named by Koch, in recognition of Kojak’s lollipops, or by Savalas, in honor of his ailing father, depending on which of the stories you want to believe.

Singletary, who has earned $1.5 million, was sold as a yearling for $3,200, then later bought by the Bill Koch group for about $25,000. In his last two starts, he won the Arcadia Handicap at Santa Anita and finished fourth in the Shoemaker Mile at Hollywood Park. Castledale, winner of the Shoemaker, is also expected to run in the Eddie Read.

Singletary should remember Del Mar. His first graded stakes win came here in 2003. He ran second in a division of the Oceanside, won the Grade III La Jolla Handicap and finished fifth in the Del Mar Derby. Last summer, Chatlos resisted running Singletary here, figuring he’d need a fresh horse for the Breeders’ Cup. After running second in the 2004 Shoemaker in May, the horse made only one start before his win at Lone Star.

“Racing needed a horse like Telly’s Pop,” Bill Koch said. “It needs more horses like him now. He was so popular that you had to crowd into the winner’s circle when he won. There’d be a couple of hundred people in there with Telly and my grandfather.

“I was bound to wind up in the game after being exposed to all that at such an early age. Maybe with Singletary we’ll get lucky again down here, just like we were when I was a 5-year-old.”

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Del Mar ’05

Facts and figures on the Del Mar summer season, which opens today:

*--* * Dates: Today-Sept. 7 (43 days). * Post times: 2 p.m. Wednesday-Monday except 4 p.m. on July 22, July 29, Aug. 5 and Aug. 12; 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 19, Aug. 26 and Sept. 2; 1 p.m. on Aug. 21. * Significant races: $400,000 John C. Mabee Handicap (Saturday); $400,000 Eddie Read Handicap (Sunday), $300,000 Bing Crosby Handicap (July 31), $300,000 Del Mar Oaks (Aug. 20), $1 million Pacific Classic (Aug. 21), $250,000 Del Mar Debutante (Aug. 27), $400,000 Del Mar Derby (Sept. 5) and $250,000 Del Mar Futurity (Sept. 7). * Leading jockey (2004 meet): Corey Nakatani (54 wins). * Leading trainer (2004 meet): Doug O’Neill (28 wins).

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