THE BELMONT : Former Outsiders Move In on Center of Racing World

The erstwhile black sheep of one of Kentucky’s most pre- eminent horse-breeding families can make history today with a nearly black 3-year-old colt at Belmont Park.

Arthur Hancock III, the formerly frustrated country-music composer, is a race away from sweeping the Triple Crown with Sunday Silence, who will be asked to add the Belmont Stakes to his Kentucky Derby and Preakness victories.

Only 11 horses have won the Triple Crown--none since Affirmed in 1978--but this year’s title would be easily the richest. Sunday Silence would earn a total of $5 million by winning the Belmont.

Half of that would go to Hancock, the 46-year-old principal owner of Sunday Silence. The other partners, with 25% apiece, are Ernest Gaillard, a retired surgeon from La Jolla, and Charlie Whittingham, who trains Sunday Silence. Whittingham, for his trainer’s commission, would also earn 10% of everything, as would Pat Valenzuela, who has ridden Sunday Silence in all six of his wins and has been aboard for all but one of the Halo-Wishing Well colt’s eight starts.

Hancock says he has written a song about Sunday Silence, applicable only if he wins the Belmont. Hancock does not plan to sing it on national television in the winner’s circle, which is what co-owner Ronnie Lamarque did last year after Risen Star, a colt that Hancock’s farm had bred, won the Belmont.

Hancock has considerably more experience singing in public than Lamarque, even though Lamarque was known to hit some sour notes during unannounced efforts at restaurants all over the Triple Crown circuit last year. One night in Baltimore, where Risen Star won the Preakness, Lamarque was reportedly bombarded with dinner rolls in the middle of one of his songs.

“What was worse was that they were buttered rolls,” said Joe Hirsch of the Daily Racing Form.

Hancock’s connections with the country-music milieu in Nashville, Tenn., are so good that a star such as Waylon Jennings might even sing the Sunday Silence song. Hancock and Jennings did a duet from Nashville over a cable television show this week on “Good-Hearted Woman,” a country standard.

“Going back to Nashville is like visiting an old girlfriend,” said Hancock, the father of six children, who has published such songs as, “What of Tomorrow,” “The Life of the Party is the Death of Her Home,” and an album of songs called, “The Horse of a Different Color.”

Sunday Silence’s name was suggested by a suburban Baltimore family. Hancock liked the name because it reminded him of a song by Kris Kristofferson called “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down.”

Sunday Silence, twice near death because of a stomach ailment and a shipping accident, and unwanted by buyers at auctions both as a yearling and as a 2-year-old, fits nicely into the life of Hancock, who has always had a penchant for doing things the hard way.

A party-going gadabout as a younger man, Hancock infuriated his father with his undisciplined ways and apparent lack of interest in horses. Arthur Hancock II--always called Bull--was a second-generation breeder who brought international fame to Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky. Bold Ruler, one of racing’s great sires, belonged to Claiborne, and that stallion alone would have been enough to ensure Claiborne’s reputation.

Arthur Hancock III--Bull’s oldest son--put down his guitar long enough in Nashville to graduate from Vanderbilt University. The next year, his father decided to force-feed him in the business by sending him to Eddie Neloy in New York to work as a $68-a-week groom. Neloy trained for Ogden Phipps, who owns Easy Goer, Sunday Silence’s main rival in the Belmont.

Bull Hancock died in 1972, and his will established a three-man committee of horsemen that would decide whether Arthur or his younger brother, Seth, would assume responsibility for Claiborne. One of the three was Phipps, whose family had raced Bold Ruler, and they chose Seth Hancock. Arthur cried when he learned of the decision, and to erase the remorse he started Stone Farm, not far from Claiborne.

In partnership with the late Leone Peters of New York, Arthur Hancock first reached the winner’s circle at the Kentucky Derby in 1982 with the longshot, Gato Del Sol. Bull and Seth Hancock have never raced a Derby winner.

To some, Hancock came off as a poor sport after Sunday Silence’s Preakness victory when he derided the media for ignoring his colt while pouring adulation on Easy Goer. What was actually seen in Baltimore, however, was another occasional eruption by a proud man, a man who usually smiles at his detractors.

For example, Hancock quietly accepted the post-Derby denigration of Gato Del Sol, a horse who won only one other race in his 2 1/2 years on the track after the victory in Louisville. Hancock tried everything to make a winner out of Gato again, including the switch from his Derby trainer, Eddie Gregson, to Whittingham.

One day, Hancock said to a Los Angeles reporter by telephone: “I don’t know why we keep getting knocked for that horse. We did the right thing, we kept him on the track until he was a 6-year-old, which is unheard of for a Derby winner. We never raced him on medication, and yet he was sound for all of his career.”

Earlier this year, Hancock needled the same reporter. “Gato’s babies are coming now,” he said. “Would you like to hear about them?”

Sunday Silence is a son of Halo, the stallion who accounted for 1983 Derby winner Sunny’s Halo and who stands at Hancock’s farm under a lease arrangement.

Before he was consigned to a 2-year-old sale at Hollywood Park last year, Sunday Silence was stabled at Albert Yank’s farm near Palm Springs. Yank, who sometimes plays backgammon with Hancock, also was the consignor of Risen Star, when he was sold by Hancock for $300,000 as an unraced 2-year-old.

“Arthur is so dedicated,” Yank said. “The soil on his farm is very fresh and good for the horses. He raises a great horse.”

Bull Hancock would be happy to hear that, happy to know that his prodigal son has belatedly followed his father’s footsteps.

Horse Racing Notes

It rained throughout Friday’s racing program at Belmont Park and the showers were expected to continue into the night. Joe King, Belmont’s track superintendent, said that if the rain stops eight hours before post time today, the track will be either good or fast. . . . Friday’s advance betting on the Belmont reflected Sunday Silence’s ability as a mudder. He was listed as 1-2, with the second choice--the entry of Easy Goer and Awe Inspiring--at 9-2. Other odds: Imbibe, 6-1; Hawkster, 12-1; Triple Buck, 18-1; Rock Point, 20-1; Irish Actor, 35-1, and Le Voyageur and Fire Maker, both 45-1.

Forever Silver, ridden by Jacinto Vasquez, splashed to a four-length victory Friday in the $118,000 Nassau County Handicap at Belmont. Baltic Fox ran second, three lengths ahead of Brian’s Time, followed by Cefis, Lay Down, Creme Fraiche and Its Academic. Forever Silver paid $19.40 and ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:46 4/5. . . . Open Mind will be opposed by four 3-year-old fillies--Gorgeous, Darlin Lindy, Nite of Fun and Moonlight Martini--in Sunday’s $200,000 Mother Goose at Belmont.

Alex Harthill, the veterinarian who treated Sunday Silence for the colt’s foot problem before the Preakness, has been unable to work with the horse at Belmont Park because he is not licensed in New York. In the past, however, Harthill has been able to work on special assignments in New York. He operated on the filly Ruffian before she died after running in the match race against Foolish Pleasure in 1975 and also treated Spectacular Bid before he was beaten in the Belmont in 1979. Charlie Whittingham, Sunday Silence’s trainer, appeared mildly upset about the absence of Harthill, but added that William Reed, a local veterinarian, usually treats his horses when they are in New York, anyway. Whittingham said that he might not run Sunday Silence in the Travers at Saratoga in August if Harthill is not allowed on the grounds. Sunday Silence has had no problems with the sore hoof since before the Preakness.