Sentimental Journey

By BOB MIESZERSKI

June 1, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

With Charismatic trying to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978 and the 12th in history, countless television sets around the country will be tuned to the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.

In South Carolina, especially in Columbia and tiny Elloree, ABC’s ratings will soar because many there have a connection with one of the race’s main players--Charismatic jockey Chris Antley.

Essentially away from racing since the fall of 1997, Antley’s up-and-down career had reached a low point by the end of last summer. He had ballooned to nearly 150 pounds and, questioning whether he even wanted to continue riding, returned to South Carolina, where he had grown up and first got involved in racing.

Determined to lose weight, Antley eventually began a strenuous training regimen. He ran, ran and ran some more, so much that the people in Columbia who saw him daily started calling him Forrest Gump.

When he wasn’t running, other than during one stretch when he needed to give his knees a break, he was working out at a local fitness center.

“He would run, lift, run, walk, walk, walk, run, run and run,” said Coley Brown Jr., owner of the Columbia Athletic Club, where one of the members is Antley’s sister Lesley. “He would always be wearing a stocking cap and two sweatsuits.

“You wouldn’t believe how unassuming he was. He never said anything about how he had won the Kentucky Derby before [with Strike The Gold in 1991]. He just said he was a jockey and that he was trying to get back into it.

“It was unbelievable when he won the Derby. After the interview [on ABC], my phone started ringing off the hook and people from the club were saying, ‘I’ve seen that guy,’ or ‘That’s the guy.’ He met a lot of people and everyone thinks he’s a nice guy.

“We’re going to have a little get-together at the club on Saturday so everyone can watch the Belmont.”

Others admired Antley’s dedication and have followed his storybook run through Louisville and Baltimore, hoping it ends happily in Elmont, N.Y.

“He’d run by every day and he’d stop in and talk with us,” said Jay Livingston, co-owner of Mender Bender, an auto shop where Antley had some work done on a Mustang and Chevelle he bought during his stay in South Carolina.

“We’d talk about his cars and how he was taking a break from racing, but that he was working to get back. We’ve watched the Derby and the Preakness, and there’s no way we’re going to miss the Belmont. If I have to, I’ll shut down the business on Saturday.”

Antley, who said he once ran 28 miles in a day, also was a frequent visitor to the Hazelwood Market, a convenience store in Columbia.

“He would stop by every day when he was running,” said one employee, Connie Trakas. “He was in and out of the store all the time. He would get a Snickers and some water and he was always friendly.

“I don’t really follow racing closely, but we’re all pulling hard for him.”

Others verified Antley’s daily desire for chocolate.

“One older man in town heard somebody talking on the radio after Chris won the Derby that all Chris ate when he was trying to lose weight was boiled rice and water,” said Antley’s stepmother, Annie. “He said I know that it isn’t true because I’ve been at Hazelwood and seen him eating candy bars.”

It took Antley, 33, some time to figure out whether he wanted to ride again. His career had been interrupted before, twice after testing positive for drugs. And after returning to his father’s home last summer, Antley said he felt like a failure after an aborted comeback attempt at Del Mar.

“I told my dad [Les] that I’m home, I quit, I can’t do it and I’m retired,” said Antley, who, at 19 in 1985, was the nation’s leading jockey with 469 victories. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. Maybe open a restaurant or go back to school. I wasn’t sure. I was just going down there to kind of search.

“Everybody was very supportive, but my dad could see how depressed I was. For about the first two months, all I did was sit on the couch and watch television. I don’t know if I can describe how low I was.

“Each day, my father would try to cheer me up and tell me about all the special talents I had and that I could do other things.

“Right around October, some races came on TV, and although I didn’t want to, I couldn’t help but watch, and that just triggered something in me.

“When my dad came home that night, I told him I had a job again and I knew what I was going to do. I was going back to racing, and I was going to work every day to get back until I died. I said that even if I got old and didn’t get there, I still knew what my job is supposed to be.”

So, Antley’s training program began, and Les Antley, who had the best of intentions when he suggested his son look to do something else with his life, offered nothing but support.

“We were all concerned about his depression, and we just wanted him to be happy,” he said. “Chris and I are very close, and he’s matured, grown into a man. He’s found himself and inside, he’s a happy person again.”

Antley’s feelings about his family and the area where he spent a good portion of his life were evident in his emotional comments after Charismatic’s 31-1 shocker in the 125th Kentucky Derby.

“His words made everybody feel good,” said his father. “A lot of people called me afterward and said they cried. Chris remembers where he came from, and he’s an appreciative person. The whole [Triple Crown] has been unbelievable. It’s something that you read in a book or see in a movie and it’s hard to realize that it is actually happening.

“Even if he doesn’t win the Belmont, it’s been a great run, and we’re all very happy for Chris and proud of him. I think being around his family helped him a lot.”

Les Antley heard all he needed to hear from his son after Charismatic moved a step closer to history in the Preakness.

“We were walking across the parking lot by ourselves after the races were over and Chris just looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Thank you, dad,’ ” he recalled. “That’s all that was said, and that was enough.”

While Les and Annie Antley will head to New York on Friday, another family member who is extremely close to the jockey--grandmother Eugenia Antley--will remain home in Elloree. Located about 50 miles from Columbia, Elloree’s population is, depending on who you talk to, either 900 or 1,000.

Eugenia, 81, turned down her grandson’s offer to fly her in for the Belmont. Instead, she’ll stay home and watch on TV, just as she did the Derby and the Preakness.

“I’ll get down on my knees in front of the television and follow [Charismatic] with my finger,” she said.

“Chris called me on Easter and said how glad he was to be back riding, and I said to him your grandmama’s prayers have been answered. He called me after the Derby, and I told him what he said on television just warmed my heart.”

Antley, who lived with his grandmother for two years as a teenager, did something special for her before he returned to California this winter to resume his career.

“Chris and [his brother] Brian came one Sunday in January with a white stretch limousine, with a chauffeur and everything, to take me to church,” said Eugenia Antley. “The limousine was quite a big deal in Elloree. Chris gave a beautiful testimonial in church, which he got a lot of compliments for, about how he was trying to turn his life around and then we went out to lunch and to the Elloree training center where Chris got started in racing.

“I’m so proud of Chris, not because he won the Derby and the Preakness, but because of how he’s turned his life around.”

If, on Saturday, Antley joins Johnny Longden, Ron Turcotte, Steve Cauthen and the other riders who have ridden horses that have won a Triple Crown, he won’t forget those who were there for him in South Carolina.

“Should we win, the first thing I’ll say will be something to them,” he said. “They saw all the pain, and that’s why all this has had more sentimental value than anything I’ve done in my career.”

Chasing the TRIPLE CROWN

Charismatic is trying to become only the 12th horse to win the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes

BELMONT STAKES

WHEN: Saturday

WHERE: Belmont Race Course, Elmont, N.Y.

TV: Channel 7, 1:30 p.m.

****

Probable Starters

HORSE: JOCKEY

Adonis: Jorge Chavez

Best Of Luck: Jean-Luc Samyn

Charismatic: Chris Antley