Being Stranded Might Be Blessing for Nostalgia’s Star

In racing parlance, a stuck horse is an entry that a trainer wants to scratch but can’t because the stewards won’t let him.

Nostalgia’s Star is a stuck horse, but his situation has nothing to do with a scratch. If someone wanted to write a song about the end of Nostalgia’s Star’s long career, the title might be, “I Won’t Be Home for Christmas.”

Nostalgia’s Star, who has earned $2.1 million--more than any other California-bred except Snow Chief--is stranded in New York over Christmas because of Christmas. After the 6-year-old had won the Gallant Fox Handicap at Aqueduct on Dec. 10, he was supposed to be put on a plane and returned to California for the start of a stud career here in February.

But the plane in New York had prior commitments. Tex Sutton, the Lexington (Ky.) shipper who flies top horses all over the country, had leased out Nostalgia Star’s plane to a freight company that needs extra aircraft at Christmas time. It might be said that Nostalgia’s Star has been bumped by Santa Claus.

Nothing in Nostalgia’s Star’s career has come easy, and his owners--Jack and Maggie Robbins, Fred Duckett and Mary Jane Hinds--are not upset that their horse’s return to California has been delayed. In fact, they may even capitalize on it and run him in the $75,000 Display Handicap at Aqueduct on Dec. 31. The stake is 2 1/4 miles, the perfect distance for a horse who will have the rest of his life to rest.

The other morning at Hollywood Park, Jack Robbins, the veterinarian who treated John Henry, 2-time horse of the year, reached into his wallet and pulled out a paper with the race-by-race record of Nostalgia’s Star.

“There’s a long line of bettors’ tears on this record,” Robbins said.

What Robbins meant was that although Nostalgia’s Star was worth the $95,000 that he and his partners paid for him in 1984, a horse that wins only 9 of 57 starts can drive a win bettor daffy. Bets across the board on Nostalgia’s Star would have cushioned the grief, since he ran second 15 times and third 13 times. With the 9 wins, he finished in the money almost 65% of the time.

Most of the time, Nostalgia’s Star was not good enough to beat the best horses, but he cashed so many checks for runner-up finishes that his purse total evolved more than it grew. As Robbins puts it, “The horse nickel-dimed his way to $2 million.”

In 1987, Nostalgia’s Star earned $756,030 while winning only 2 of 13 starts. One of the victories, though, in the Hawthorne Gold Cup, was worth $277,000 and he collected $165,000 just for finishing second--behind the redoubtable Java Gold--in the Marlboro Cup. At Santa Anita in 1986, Nostalgia’s Star earned $210,000 for running fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Nostalgia’s Star usually ran effectively out of town, being competitive if not victorious. He was second at Sportsman’s Park in the Illinois Derby in 1985; he was fourth in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park in 1987; and this year, shortly before winning the Gallant Fox, he ran second in the Queens County Handicap at Aqueduct.

“This horse would have done even better if he had been back East all the time,” Robbins said. “They don’t have hard tracks back there like they do in California, and he liked running over their deep tracks.”

Of the 7 stakes Nostalgia’s Star has won, the only major victory was the Charles H. Strub at Santa Anita in 1986. He had to beat Proud Truth, who had won the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Aqueduct the previous year. The race was run in the mud, which Nostalgia’s Star loves, and which Proud Truth couldn’t handle.

“He made you feel like you were running on a fast track,” said Fernando Toro, who rode Nostalgia’s Star in the Strub. Toro, one of 15 jockeys to ride Nostalgia’s Star, won 3 races with him, more than any other rider.

Jay Robbins, Jack’s son, trained Nostalgia’s Star. It was young Robbins who suggested to his father that they buy the horse when he was running as a 2-year-old at Del Mar and Pomona in 1984.

“Jay kept bugging me,” Jack Robbins said. “We could have bought him (from owner-breeder John Mabee) for $75,000 in the beginning. But we waited until after the horse won that sprint stake at Los Alamitos, and then the price went up to $95,000.”

Nostalgia’s Star is a son of Nostalgia, a multiple stakes winner. He was the first foal produced by the Big Spruce mare, Aunt Carol, who had a 1-race career.

Nostalgia’s Star will go to stud at the Curragh Stock Farm in Santa Ynez. His breeding fee will be $2,500, with a guarantee of a live foal.

“This horse never got a lot of recognition,” Jack Robbins said. “We had another horse, Cassaleria, who got more notice, even though he wasn’t the horse this one was.”

Cassaleria, who had only one eye, was a sentimental favorite who ran 13th in the 1982 Kentucky Derby.

Robbins said that because Nostalgia’s Star has stayed on the track so long, many horsemen have assumed that he’s a gelding and not capable of being bred. To prove his point, Robbins recently asked David Hofmans, the trainer, to ask around about Nostalgia’s Star’s sex. Hofmans reported back that he asked 20 trainers and 17 thought Nostalgia’s Star was a gelding.

“He looks like a 2-year-old,” Robbins said. “His legs are the same as when he started running for us, and there’s not a pimple on them.”

Ironically, Jay Robbins didn’t even get credit for Nostalgia’s Star’s recent victory at Aqueduct. Robbins wasn’t licensed to train in New York, so the horse ran under the name of Shug McGaughey, a local trainer who may win this year’s Eclipse Award for having saddled the winners of 15 major stakes.

McGaughey, who had gone to Florida with most of his horses, also wasn’t at Aqueduct for the Gallant Fox, so Nostalgia’s Star was saddled by Jimmy Baker, one of McGaughey’s assistants.

“This horse has run in a lot of graded stakes and hardly ever missed a check,” Jay Robbins said. “He’s won stakes at (ages) 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, and he’s been more durable than a lot of horses. That ought to count for something.”

Before the Gallant Fox, Nostalgia’s Star had been winless in 10 straight races and was 0 for 8 this year. The Robbinses, Duckett and Hinds were hoping that he might go out a winner, and now he might not even be finished winning. A victory on New Year’s Eve at Aqueduct would be an appropriate curtain to an unusual career, and the owners would have Tex Sutton and Santa Claus to thank.