Horse Racing : Saratoga Scene Far More Than Meets the Eye

Saratoga is:

--Jockey Bill Shoemaker, who weighs less than 100 pounds, eating breakfast twice the same morning and still not gaining weight.

--Trainer Charlie Whittingham, 20 minutes after his Temperate Sil ran eighth in the Travers, standing beside a washer and a dryer in the jockeys’ room, waiting for the colt’s muddy silks to be cleaned so he can take them back to California.

--Marshall Cassidy, racing’s most laid-back track announcer, sounding as though he might be in a robe and slippers and smoking a pipe as he makes his calls.

--A charity auction for Greta Garbo’s custom-built 1933 Deusenberg, with a Texas collector calling in the winning bid of $1.4 million.

--Judy McCarron, the jockey’s wife, saying that the damage has already been done when somebody says five hours before the race that the sun still might come out for the Travers. Chris McCarron finished sixth on the mud-hating Alysheba.

--Jockey Angel Cordero interrupting an interviewer minutes after the Travers to ask who he’s riding in the next race. Cordero wanted to look up the horse’s record in the Daily Racing Form.

--Trainer Mack Miller facetiously complaining that he’s got so many good horses that there’s no time to work on his 22 handicap in golf.

--A bronze horse, half the size of the real thing, on sale for $35,000 in a hotel lobby and the sculptor saying that there are only three left.

--Jockey Robbie Davis calling the concierge to order a crib for his infant daughter.

--George Steinbrenner, who’s having a tough year in both baseball and shipping, driving a harness horse to victory at Saratoga Raceway and picking a few winners at the thoroughbred track the next day.

--Enough Jaguars, limousines and other fancy cars to clog the streets of Beverly Hills.

--Earl (Pappy) Bailey, the outdoor shoeshine man near the track’s paddock, watching his 26th Travers.

--”California Al,” king of the West Coast stoopers, on a busman’s holiday. A stooper is someone who looks for discarded winning tickets at a track.

--Singer Ida Hill massaging Gershwin lyrics at a piano bar near the track.

--The boisterous gang at Siro’s huddling under a circus-size tent in the bistro’s back yard, not letting the rain kill the party.

--Fans groaning during the running of the steeplechase races, which all seemed to have frightening spills this year.

--Newsboys on Broadway selling the Saratogian’s pink sheet, which for 50 cents gives the charts and the highlights of the day’s races only hours after they have been run.

--Liz Whitney Tippett, the 81-year-old owner-breeder, roughing it with two Rolls-Royces and a yacht. The yacht got there by sailing along the inland waterway from Florida, and then up the Hudson River.

--The painting of the canoe in the infield lake with the Travers winner’s colors, a tradition that started in 1961. The painters always hope that Tartan Stable--with its plaid silks--doesn’t win the race.

--The hawking of Triple Crown souvenirs, at half price, just outside the track gate.

--Thousands of motorists making the 150-mile trip back to New York City on a Sunday night, sad that the Saratoga experience comes only one month a year.

The appearance of Ferdinand and Super Diamond should make Saturday’s $100,000 Cabrillo Handicap at Del Mar an intimate affair, with only a few other horses expected to start.

Ferdinand, winner of last year’s Kentucky Derby and this year’s Hollywood Gold Cup, will carry 126 pounds. Super Diamond, who won last year’s Gold Cup, has been assigned 124 pounds. He won last year’s Gold Cup and returned from a layoff of about nine months to take the San Diego Handicap Aug. 8.

Sunday’s $150,000 Del Mar Oaks will mark the grass debut of Perchance To Dream, the Hollywood Oaks winner, and also includes some other recent stakes winners in Julie the Flapper, Davie’s Lamb and Future Bright.

Julie Krone, who rode six winners at Monmouth Park on Aug. 19 and who has more than 40 winners there this month, became the third female jockey to hit the 1,000 mark in victories Tuesday.

Patti Barton was the first female to win 1,000 and she retired in 1985 with 1,202 wins. Patti Cooksey, still active, has more than 1,100 winners.

The 24-year-old Krone may be ahead of both of them by next year. She’ll move to the Meadowlands after Monmouth closes Sept. 5.

Horse Racing Notes Lady’s Secret, who must be approved by a track veterinarian before she can run again in New York, is finished at Saratoga and won’t work out again until Belmont Park opens next Wednesday. . . . Last Saturday’s 118th Travers marked the 46th time that the race has been run in the mud. . . . In Chicago, where the Budweiser-Arlington Million will be run Sept. 6, there has been 14 inches of rain this month, four times more than the average. . . . Waquoit, fourth in the Iselin Handicap at Monmouth last Saturday, is headed for the Woodward at Belmont Park on Sept. 5. Lost Code, third in the Iselin, will run at Monmouth the same day, trying grass for the first time.

Trainer Harvey Vanier said that Fortunate Moment’s coughing in the Travers was caused by the mud the colt took in the face. “That was the muddiest slop I’ve ever seen,” Vanier said. . . . There were mixed reviews on Saratoga’s sandier main track. Jockey Angel Cordero likes it, but trainer Shug McGaughey said that other than for Arlington Park, it’s the worst in the country. McGaughey works his horses on the training track at Saratoga. . . . McGaughey said that there’s no Breeders’ Cup in store for Polish Navy, who was third in the Travers. “There’s a big disadvantage for New York horses going to California,” McGaughey said. “It’ll be 30 degrees where we are and could be 90 degrees where we’re sending the horses.” The Breeders’ Cup is at Hollywood Park on Nov. 21.

Sandy Hawley is fourth in the jockey standings at Arlington. . . . Mike Ford, who bought Kauai King for $42,000 and then won the 1966 Kentucky Derby and Preakness with him, has died of cancer at 62. . . . Pat Valenzuela will be away from Del Mar for mounts at Arlington this weekend--on Le Belvedere in the Arlington Handicap Saturday, on Tomorrow’s Child in Sunday’s Arlington-Washington Lassie and aboard Very Subtle in the Chicago-Budweiser Breeders’ Cup on Monday. . . . Trainer Charlie Whittingham will saddle both Le Belvedere and Ifrad in the Arlington Handicap.

LeRoy Jolley, who started Gorky to make sure that Whittingham’s Temperate Sil wouldn’t be able to set an easy pace in the Travers, couldn’t resist needling his training rival after the race. Jolley also started Gulch, who finished fourth, with Temperate Sil and Gorky bringing up the rear. Before the race, Whittingham referred to Gorky, saying: “I’ve never seen a rabbit that could outrun a fox.” After the Travers, Jolley said: “I would have to say that Gorky was a tough rabbit for that sly fox.”