A NEW FIELD : Tanner, Now Out of Baseball, Is a Horse Owner
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It looks as though Chuck Tanner will be out of baseball for the first time in 42 years, but the former player and manager is feeling no withdrawal pains.
Through 1991, Tanner will remain on the payroll of the Atlanta Braves, who fired him last May, and he also owns a well-bred, fast-running 2-year-old colt, and the horse’s trainer is talking about next spring’s Kentucky Derby.
Tanner, 59, has always had more than a casual interest in horses. Years ago, he and pitcher Jim Kaat owned some cheap claimers that ran under the banner of the Southpaw Stable. And through the years, baseball reporters have been known to leave Tanner’s stadium offices complaining, “All the guy wants to talk about is horses.”
Now Tanner can talk racing and not be accused of putting the horse before the club. Tanner heads a small partnership that is campaigning Majesty’s Imp, a colt who has hit the finish line first in his only 2 races. One of the victories was taken away by the Detroit Race Course stewards because of a bumping incident in the stretch, and after Tanner had already left the winner’s circle with the trophy in hand.
Whether Majesty’s Imp can run as far as the 1 1/4-mile Derby distance won’t be known until he tries it, but he has established that he can handle mud. Both of his Detroit races, at 6 furlongs and then a mile and 70 yards in a small stake, have been over off tracks.
Majesty’s Imp, who is trained by Sturgis (Duke) Ducoing, a former minor league pitcher in the Boston Red Sox system, has been shipped from Detroit to the Fair Grounds at New Orleans, where he’s scheduled to run later this month. Ducoing is planning a Fair Grounds campaign for Majesty’s Imp as a 3-year-old, with the Louisiana Derby and later the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park expected to be the colt’s serious preps for the Kentucky Derby.
“I know that right now, all this is speculation,” said Tanner, who lives in New Castle, Pa., not far from Pittsburgh. “But this colt has all the ingredients. He’s well-bred, he’s aggressive and feisty and he’s got a lot of heart. We think we have a good plan, staying away from the top horses in Florida early next year and not meeting them until we have to.
“Now all we need is some luck. I know a lot can go wrong when you start dreaming about the Kentucky Derby.”
Tanner has always been his own press agent, and if Majesty’s Imp should somehow get to Churchill Downs, the horse’s principal owner is capable of out-talking even Wayne Lukas, the trainer of last year’s Derby winner, the filly Winning Colors, and unofficial holder of Derby records for verbiage.
Said Tanner: “What I’d like to become is the first guy to manage a World Series winner and also win the Kentucky Derby.”
The first half of that parlay was accomplished in 1979, when Tanner’s Pittsburgh Pirates overcame the Baltimore Orioles. When Tanner joined the Pirates, they were owned by the late John Galbreath, who is the only man to have a World Series winner and victories in the Kentucky and English derbies.
Through Galbreath and his son, Dan, who has continued the Darby Dan Stable since his father’s death this year, Tanner was able to buy a one-time breeding right to His Majesty for $73,500. The mating was made with D. J.’s Imp, a stakes-winning mare who was also trained by Ducoing, and the result was Majesty’s Imp.
His Majesty has already bred one Kentucky Derby winner, Pleasant Colony in 1981, and strains of the 1966 Derby winner, Kauai King, and the inimitable Native Dancer also run through Majesty Imp’s pedigree. “The way Majesty’s Imp runs, he reminds me a lot of Proud Truth,” Tanner said.
Proud Truth won the Breeders’ Cup Classic for the Galbreaths at Aqueduct in 1985.
Tanner has never seen a Derby because the Triple Crown race is run in May, early in the baseball season. But he did get to Churchill Downs for last month’s Breeders’ Cup.
Tanner’s racing group also includes Rick Rhoden, a New York Yankees pitcher, and Bob Skinner, the former big league player and manager who will be managing Tucson in the Pacific Coast League next season. With a 30% share, Tanner is the largest investor.
The combine has two other horses, a 3-year-old daughter of Little Current named Quick Currency, and a Graustark filly who becomes a 2-year-old on Jan. 1. Quick Currency has been something of a disappointment and Ducoing will see if she can improve by running on grass.
Instead of attending the winter baseball meetings at Atlanta shopping for a job, Tanner was home at New Castle the other night.
“That would be a put-down, going there looking,” Tanner said. “People in baseball should know about my ability by now. And if anybody’s interested, they know where to find me.”
In 1980, the year after the Pirates had won the World Series, Tanner managed the National League to a 4-2 victory in the All-Star game at Dodger Stadium. Tanner and his coaches rushed to the airport after the game to board a red-eye flight to New York so they could attend the next day’s races at Belmont Park. The Pirates were scheduled to resume the season against the Mets at Shea Stadium the following night.
At Belmont, Tanner met Lou Rondinello, who was then the Galbreaths’ trainer, in the paddock before the feature race.
“I wouldn’t bet on my horse,” Rondinello said. “He’s a little short (of training) for this race.”
Minutes later, the Rondinello runner romped home an easy winner, and Tanner hadn’t bet on him. After the race, Rondinello arrived at Tanner’s table in the dining room, showing no remorse or even a recollection of his bad advice.
“Uh, Chuck, you won’t forget those 6 tickets you were going to leave for the game tomorrow night, will you?” Rondinello said.
“Well, it’s like this, Lou,” Tanner deadpanned. “I might be a little short.”
After the races, there were refreshments at Esposito’s, a widely known turf hangout across the street from Belmont. Tanner’s peevishness with Rondinello was forgotten, and now he was blaming himself for not hitting the last-race triple--picking in order the first three horses across the wire--which paid handsomely.
“Geez, Chuck, I don’t see how anybody could have picked those three,” somebody said.
“Easy,” Tanner said. “The numbers were 7, 4 and 2. Seven is my uniform number and 4-2 was the score of the All-Star game.”
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