Horse Racing : Stewards, a Spill and Also-Rans Help Make It an Unforgettable Year

For horse racing, it was not the most ordinary of years. It was the kind of a year when one of the best-remembered races was because of a boner by the stewards and had nothing to do with the horses that ran.

It was the kind of a year when a race is remembered more for the horse that finished second than for the horse that won.

And the kind of a year when a race that won’t go away is one in which seven horses started and only two finished. All of the jockeys finished, but just barely.

There were other races, too--races that didn’t have to be freakish to qualify for this department’s Most Memorable list. Here are the unforgettable 10, in arguable order:

1--The Ferdinand-Shoemaker-Whittingham Kentucky Derby. The horse was young, only because the rules say he has to be. Bill Shoemaker, at 54 the oldest jockey to smell the roses, won the race for the fourth time, at a time when his career was fading. Shoemaker gave Ferdinand a seeing-eye-dog ride; the win catapulting the jockey into his most prosperous year. The 73-year-old Whittingham, the oldest trainer to win a Derby, used to seem almost proud that he wouldn’t push young, immature horses into running 1 miles at Churchill Downs in early May. After a 26-year absence, Whittingham went back to Louisville. He had good reason.

2--Manila’s win in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Stakes. The pre-race hoopla belonged to Dancing Brave, rated the best horse that Europe had seen in the last 10 years. His dance at Santa Anita was a backstep as the colt never threatened and finished fourth. But Manila, thanks to an adroit ride by Jose Santos, who brought the horse to the outside when they were trapped on the rail in mid-stretch, held off Theatrical by a neck at the wire to finish the year with his sixth straight grass win.

3--The Belmont Stakes, and not because Danzig Connection won it. The conditions were all in his favor, a mud specialist drawing a sloppy track, a comparatively fresh colt who was spared the rigors of the first two Triple Crown races. The condition that helped Danzig Connection the most, however, was being a horse trained by Woody Stephens, who was winning the Belmont for a record fifth year in a row. Conquistador Cielo, Caveat, Swale, Creme Fraiche and Danzig Connection--they’re the horses that make up Stephens’ full house in the Belmont.

4--No voters were considering a horse named Allumeuse at Eclipse Awards time this year. But Allumeuse, a 3-year-old filly, will long be remembered, if only because of the infamy that the Saratoga stewards gave her after the second race there on Aug. 2. Allumeuse’s number was wrongly taken down in a disqualification, and although an appeal by her owner was upheld and the purse money was eventually re-distributed, thousands of bettors at the track were deprived of perhaps $500,000 in payoffs. The stewards were reprimanded, fined and even banished, but two New York courts have ruled that the bettors have no recourse.

5--The eighth race at Santa Anita on Oct. 16 started with seven horses, but only Hatim, the winner, and Innamorato finished. The other five either fell or were tripped in a chain-reaction spill that was caused when Encolure broke down on the far turn. Encolure was destroyed on the track and two of the jockeys--Chris McCarron and Terry Lipham--have been sidelined ever since with multiple injuries. McCarron, who was the leading rider on the national purse list at the time, underwent 3 1/2 hours of surgery to repair a broken thigh bone; Lipham had his spleen removed and also suffered a punctured lung and broken ribs.

6--Melair, the undefeated 3-year-old filly, not only beat Preakness winner Snow Chief and 10 other colts in the Silver Screen Handicap at Hollywood Park, but she ran a mile in 1:32 4/5, fastest ever for a filly at that distance and just three-fifths of a second slower than the world record that Dr. Fager set in 1968.

7--Lady’s Secret, a year older than Melair, was another filly who could fly. Secretariat’s gray daughter won so many stakes--10--that it would be difficult to isolate one race, but the Maskette at Belmont Park was as superb as any of them. That day, Lady’s Secret carried 125 pounds and ran a mile in 1:33 2/5, beating Steal a Kiss, who had only 109 pounds, by seven lengths.

8--The track was playing incredibly fast at Hialeah early in the year, but Turkoman’s win in the Widener Handicap was still extraordinary. Trailing by 13 lengths at one point, Turkoman found an afterburner through the stretch to win by a half-length. His time of 1:58 3/5 for 1 miles broke by a second a track record that Bald Eagle set 26 years before.

9--Greinton’s win in the Santa Anita Handicap was a lot like Exceller’s victory in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park in 1978: After the race, almost everybody was talking about the horse who ran second. At Belmont, the horse was Seattle Slew, who had been passed by Exceller in the stretch, then came on again to almost gain the victory. At Santa Anita, the horse was Herat, the tiny son of Northern Dancer who, at 157-1 odds, led almost all the way until Greinton beat him by three-fourths of a length at the wire.

10--Run the day before the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky Oaks is an easy race to forget. But not this year. When Tiffany Lass, Life at the Top, Family Style and Classy Cathy reached the wire in that order, only a head, a neck and another head separated them. Injured later, the undefeated Tiffany Lass didn’t run again all year. Against a field that would continue winning big races the rest of the year, none of Tiffany Lass’ six wins was as hard-earned as the Oaks.

Horse Racing Notes

Uncle Cam, who is named after actor Cameron Mitchell, will run for George Steinbrenner Saturday in the Tropical Park Derby at Calder. The Calder race for just-turned 3-year-olds seldom produces horses that do much in the Triple Crown series, although Caveat, who finished second at Calder in 1983, went on to win the Belmont. Included in Saturday’s field is Rose’s Cantina, a California filly trained by Henry Moreno. Rose’s Cantina won the Bay Meadows Lassie in her last start. A filly has never won the Tropical Park Derby. Davona Dale, champion 3-year-old filly in 1979, finished fourth in the stake. . . . A field of 10 may run Sunday in the San Gabriel Handicap, which is Santa Anita’s first grass stake of the season. Probable starters include Nostalgia’s Star, Spellbound, Silveyville and three horses trained by Charlie Whittingham--Louis Le Grand, Will Dancer and Strawberry Road II. . . . Life at the Top, a contender for champion 3-year-old filly in 1986, is scheduled to make her debut as a 4-year-old in the La Brea Stakes Saturday at Santa Anita. . . . Although the announcements of all Eclipse Awards winners but Horse of the Year will be made Tuesday morning in New York, most of the champions are expected to be West Coast horses and people. . . . Topping Santa Anita’s Pick Nine, Hialeah will offer a Pick Ten when the track opens next week, with a guaranteed $1-million payoff. The $1 million is covered by an insurance policy at the start, but if there’s a winner before the betting pool reaches $1 million, the money that represents the difference between the pool and the guarantee will be paid off over 20 years, like the state lotteries do.