The Running Horse (http://www.isd1.com)WARREN STUTE OUTDOES HIS COLLEAGUES IN STAKES-VICTORY STREAK
For five decades, trainer Warren Stute has been doing something at Del Mar that none of his compatriots have been able to do - win stakes races at the seaside track.
That's right, he's even outdone the legendary Charlie Whittingham. In fact, by the time Whittingham won his first stakes race at Del Mar in 1961, Stute already had five stakes wins and one decade behind him.
Since winning the 1950 Del Mar Derby with Great Circle, Stute has won at least two stakes races in each of the succeeding decades. Over that stretch, Stute, who will be 75 on September 30, has won 18 stakes at Del Mar and that puts him in a tie with Eddie Gregson for 10th place on the track's all-time stakes-winning list.
Stute was born on a dairy farm in Fort Wayne, Ind., in 1921, and came to California with his family in 1933, when he was 12 and younger brother Mel, also a long-time trainer, was 6. The family operated a dairy in Baldwin Park, in the Los Angeles area. "I worked until I was 14 on the dairy," Stute says. "I didn't like the dairy that much. I always had a horse - a pony when I was 6 and a riding horse when I was 10. When we came out here, I got a horse the first thing.
"He was a retired quarter horse, which I didn't know anything about. We had some match races around, and I won them all, because my horse was a professional compared to those ponies, you know. So I decided I wanted to be a jockey."
However, that wasn't in the cards, because he was always a bit too big for that. Even so, he learned to gallop horses, which he did at Santa Anita for a while, before buying his first horse, Rough Crossing, who was a winner right away in 1939. At that point, he was too young to be a licensed trainer, but he got his first license in 1940 when he raced Rough Crossing at Caliente in Tijuana.
While at Caliente, he claimed River Worth and took him and Rough Crossing to Longacres in Seattle, bringing brother Mel along as a hotwalker. All the while, Warren continued to gallop horses to help make ends meet. Later he claimed Ray's Agent and won four races with him. That's when jockey Ralph Neves, who rode the horse for Stute, suggested that he take up training full time.
So he did. Neves was a big help later, also, when he encouraged Yolo Stable to let Stute train the stable's horses. It was Yolo Stable's Great Circle that gave Stute his first stakes win at Del Mar in the 1950 Derby. Stute came back the next year to win the inaugural Del Mar Debutante in 1951 with Yolo Stable's Tonga.
Over the year's Stute's stakes winners, besides his first two, include Figonero, who won the Del Mar Handicap in 1969 (in world-record time of 1:46 1/5 for nine furlongs) and the San Diego Handicap in 1972; June Darling, who won the Sorrento Stakes and the Del Mar Futurity, both in 1970; My Favorite Moment, winner of the 1985 Bing Crosby Handicap; Rapaillan, who won the Del Mar Handicap in 1986; and Magical Maiden, who won the Fantastic Girl Handicap and the Chula Vista Handicap, both in 1993.
Stute has been training for Clement L. Hirsch, who is vice president of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, since 1951. Among his other owners were Harry James and Betty Grable, and Travis Kerr's Kerr Stable. He laughingly talks about taking on the Kerr Stable the year after the great runner Round Table retired.
Stute is especially proud of having trained for a pair of second-generation horse owners - Pat and Jim Thompson's Ridgely Farm and James Kerr Jr. and his brother, William. Stute trained for Pat Thompson's father, Neil Curry, and he trained, also, for the Kerrs' father, James Sr.
Stute and his wife, Trudy, have been married 40 years and have two sons, Steven and Glen, both of whom are trainers, and a daughter, Laura.
Stute has won two races in two tries this meeting, and says, "I'm afraid to run the next one." But, he will. Classy Lass is set to start in a 3-year-old maiden race Thursday.
RETIRED TINNER'S WAY AT FRANKEL'S BARN AWAITING STUD DUTY
Juddmonte Farms' Tinner's Way, who was pulled up on the turn for home in Saturday's $1,000,000 Pacific Classic at Del Mar, is resting comfortably at the Robert Frankel barn at Hollywood Park following his retirement from racing.
Tinner's Way, whose $1,849,392 in lifetime earnings made him the leading male purse earner for sire Secretariat, and second behind Lady's Secret among all of the 1973 Triple Crown winner's progeny, will stand at stud next year at Vinery in Midway, KY.
The 6-year-old chestnut was pulled up by jockey Eddie Delahoussaye when he bobbled on the turn and Delahoussaye was worried that he might have injured himself. At first, nothing serious was found. Frankel was angry with himself when he thought a special shoe he had had put on the horse had caused him problems, but Frankel said this morning it appeared that he had pulled a ligament behind a knee and that created the problem.
Frankel said Tinner's Way would be shipped to Vinery in the near future.
DEL MAR'S JOCKEYS WILL BE MEN ON THE MOVE DURING THIS WEEKEND
Several regular seashore riders will be out of town at times this weekend to ride locally based horses in races elsewhere.
On Saturday, Chris McCarron will be at Saratoga to ride Listening in the Alabama Stakes, Rene Douglas will be at Monmouth Park to ride This Nearly Was Mine in the Sapling Stakes, and Dennis Carr will be at Emerald Downs, the new track near Seattle, to ride Barley Talk in the Seattle Slew Handicap.
Carr will be at Emerald Downs on Sunday, also, to ride Cleante in the Longacres Mile and Sunlit Silence in the Emerald Breeders' Cup Distaff. Joining Carr on Sunday will be David Flores, who will ride Isitingood in the Longacres Mile and Wende in the Emerald Breeders' Cup Distaff; Pat Valenzuela will ride Gold and Steel in the Longacres Mile; and G.F. Almeida will ride Score Quick, in the Longacres Mile.
Laffit Pincay, Jr. will ride Chaposa Springs in the Ballerina Stakes at Saratoga on Sunday.
DEL MAR'S WEEKEND STAKES CONTINUE TO SHAPE UP WELL
Even though the presence of Lit de Justice has the trainers of at least four horses debating the wisdom of running against him, Saturday's Grade III, $100,000- added Pat O'Brien Handicap appears as if it will be a competitive race at 7 furlongs over Del Mar's main track.
Set to test Evergreen Farm's swift gray, who won the Pat O'Brien last year and was named the sprinter of the meet, are Ridder Thoroughbred Stable's Alphabet Soup, Prince Faud Salman's Gold Land and Conejo Ranch and Pendleton's Bold Capital. On the fence are Mike Pegram's Argolid, Budget Stable's Boundless Moment, Lima Family Trust's First Intent and Ernest Auerbach's Tres Paraiso.
Sunday's Del Mar Oaks, a Grade I, $250,000 event, could have a field of 10 3- year-old fillies going 1 1/8 miles on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. Considered solid for the race are Antespend, who will be ridden by Chris Antley; Chile Chatte, with Alex Solis; Gastronomical, with Eddie Delahoussaye; Hilary, Chris McCarron; Lasha, Rene Douglas; True Flare, Corey Nakatani; Paranomelody, Kent Desormeaux; Moody's Cat, no rider named; and Boncozy, no rider. On the "possible" list is Heptathlon.
An overnight stakes race - the Vieille Vigne - will get the weekend rolling Friday, with a field of six, including a Juddmonte Farms' entry, entered. Carrying high weight in the race, which will be worth $70,900, with $42,900 going to the winner, if all six start, will be Cat's Cradle. She'll pack 120 pounds, including jockey Chris Antley. The Juddmonte entry will be Sleep Easy, who will carry 118, including Eddie Delahoussaye, and Call Account, 113, with Corey Nakatani.
Challenging that trio will be Thirst for Peace, 114, with Alex Solis; Lady Sorolla, 113, Kent Desormeaux; and Ashtabula, 112, David Flores.
SHORE LINES: Figures for Del Mar's first 18 days of racing put the average daily mutuel handle at $10,894,460, which is a 9 percent increase over the same period last year, when the total was $9,976,142; and the average daily attendance at 32,413, a decrease of 4 percent from the 33,780 figure for the same time last year .... Jockey Jerry Bailey signed autographs for an hour on Pacific Classic Day, Saturday, and netted $1,149 to be distributed to the Jockeys Guild's Disabled Riders' Fund. Bailey, who is president of the Jockeys Guild, autographed at $2 each, with all proceeds going to the riders' fund .... The Don MacBeth Foundation has been the beneficiary through the first 18 days of the meet of $2,750 thanks to 10 days when a jockey won at least four races. Corey Nakatani has had four multiple-win days, including a four-bagger on August 8. Alex Solis has chalked up three triple-win days, Chris McCarron two and Eddie Delahoussaye one.
The Running Horse (http://www.isd1.com)