Back to the Start for Gambolati : Trainer Has Had No Luck Finding Another Spend a Buck

Before Spend a Buck entered his life in 1984, Cam Gambolati was just one of hundreds of young trainers trying to build a reputation.

In two years, he had won five races and his stable had earned $40,000 in purses.

Enter Spend a Buck. Dennis Diaz, who was also new to racing, had bought the colt for $12,500 in a bankruptcy sale. Diaz had met Gambolati at a horse sale in Florida, and once Diaz sent the unraced 2-year-old to the unproven trainer in June of 1984, their lives weren’t the same for the next 15 months.

In 1984, Spend a Buck gave Gambolati his first stakes win, ran third at Hollywood Park in the first Breeders’ Cup and earned almost $700,000.

The next year, after knee surgery, Spend a Buck ran the third-fastest Kentucky Derby, earned $2.6 million in one day by winning the Jersey Derby and was voted horse of the year.

Is there life for Cam Gambolati after the abrupt retirement of Spend a Buck in September of his clarion year? Yes, but the livin’ isn’t exactly easy.

When seen last week, the 39-year-old Gambolati was saddling a 6-year-old mare--a $45,000 claimer--for the last race at Gulfstream Park.

“I’m an old 39,” a smiling Gambolati said later.

The year after Spend a Buck was retired, Gambolati went back to Calder, the suburban Miami track that had always been his base, and waited for offers that never came.

“What I was looking at was the same bunch of rats (cheap horses) that I had left,” Gambolati said. “I went from being normal to being in the limelight to being normal again.”

Gambolati is not bitter, just disappointed.

“I think I proved that I can train,” he said. “But I still didn’t get the kind of horses that Wayne (Lukas) and Woody (Stephens) get.”

Worse still for Gambolati, Diaz, frustrated at not being able to develop another champion, virtually left racing. They separated early in 1986.

In 1987, Gambolati’s horses won 10 races and earned $132,000, which is just slightly more than what Spend a Buck got for running third in the Breeders’ Cup.

Last year, Gambolati won about 25 races and this year he says he’s got the best crop of 2-year-olds he has ever had. He has won three small stakes in the three years since Spend a Buck.

At least Spend a Buck’s timing was right. Shortly after he went to stud, the Kentucky stallion market bottomed out. Diaz gave Gambolati one lifetime share in Spend a Buck and the trainer has done nicely by selling the breeding right to the horse the last three years.

“We did two things with Spend a Buck,” Gambolati said. “We beat one of the most difficult Kentucky Derby fields there ever was, and we got racing to set up the $5-million Triple Crown bonus that they have now.”

The quality of most Derby fields is open to conjecture, but retrospectively Gambolati can make a point. Stephan’s Odyssey, a distant second, by 5 1/4 lengths, in the Derby, finished second to his stablemate, Creme Fraiche, in the Belmont and continued winning stakes. Chief’s Crown, third in the Derby, was second in the Preakness, third in the Belmont and won the Travers and the Marlboro Cup.

Tank’s Prospect, seventh in the Derby, won the Preakness. And Proud Truth and Skywalker, also-rans in the Derby, both went on to win the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic.

After winning the Derby, Diaz skipped the Preakness, the next Triple Crown race, because by winning the Jersey Derby at Garden State Park the horse could earn $600,000 of a $1-million purse and also win a $2-million bonus. Spend a Buck was only the second Kentucky Derby winner in 26 years to skip the Preakness.

“The races that we chose for the horse fell into place automatically,” Gambolati said. “I wasn’t even in favor of running in the Kentucky Derby, but after he ran the fastest Derby prep ever (a two-turn 1 1/8 miles in 1:45 4/5), we had to go.”

The Spend a Buck crew arrived at Churchill Downs thinking that the horse would earn a $1-million Garden State bonus by winning the Kentucky Derby.

“We thought the two wins we had at Garden State and the Kentucky Derby would be worth a million, and there’d be a million more if we won the Jersey Derby,” Gambolati said. “But just before the Kentucky Derby, we found out that we had to win the Jersey Derby for a million and all four races for the two million. So after winning the Kentucky Derby, we had to take a shot at the Jersey Derby for all the money, and the Preakness was too close to that race for us to run in both.

“Right after that, the Triple Crown tracks organized and put up a bonus of their own, to make sure that the Kentucky Derby winner wouldn’t skip the other races.”

Horse Racing Notes

Robbie Davis, on his fifth mount since returning to riding, won Friday’s second race by a head at Santa Anita on Restless Galaxy, an 8-1 shot. Mike Venezia was kicked and killed by Davis’ horse in a race at Belmont Park last October and Davis didn’t ride again until last Wednesday. “You don’t know how good this feels,” Davis said of Friday’s win. “I had a sigh of relief, because sometimes it can take 20 or 30 races before you win one after coming back from a layoff.”

Seven horses, headed by Kool Arrival, are entered in Sunday’s $200,000 Santa Anita Oaks, a 1 1/16-mile stake for 3-year-old fillies. Here’s the lineup, in post-position order, with jockeys: Lady Lister, Corey Black; Imaginary Lady, Gary Stevens; My Glamorous One, Chris McCarron; Kool Arrival, Laffit Pincay; General Charge, Pat Valenzuela; Bright Asset, Ray Sibille; and Some Romance, Eddie Delahoussaye. All will carry 117 pounds and Imaginary Lady and Some Romance will be coupled in the betting.