THOROUGHBREDS / BILL CHRISTINE : Patience Pays Off for Headley Clan in Victory Circle

When Bertrando won the Del Mar Futurity in 1991, trainer Bruce Headley wasn’t there. Among his representatives in the winner’s circle that September day was his daughter, Karen, then a 21-year-old exercise rider.

Last Saturday, in the winner’s circle at Santa Anita, Bruce and Karen were part of a Headley crew that seemed large enough to fill an entire section at the track. Softshoe Sure Shot had called them there, by virtue of the 9-year-old gelding’s half-length victory over Ferrara, a mere 4-year-old, in the San Carlos Handicap.

Another of the horses Softshoe Sure Shot beat was Bertrando, who hasn’t been trained by Bruce Headley for more than two years. If the Headleys weren’t going to gloat now, they never were.

“Sure, this win was something special,” Headley said Thursday, the glow of victory still bright. “Bertrando had been a special part of my life. It was nice to beat him with a horse that used to beat him by seven lengths when they used to work together in the mornings. It was nice to beat a horse at the height of his career with one who’s in the twilight of his. And it was nice to beat real good horses like Cardmania and Ferrara, too.”

Headley has been training for 35 years. Before Bertrando, he was a stay-at-home, California trainer who won hundreds of races while working far from the spotlight.

Then Bertrando took him to Churchill Downs for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, a $1-million race that resulted in a second-place finish against the breathtaking Arazi in November 1991.

Bertrando continued winning as a 3-year-old and ran a strong second in the Santa Anita Derby to A.P. Indy, the eventual horse of the year. And Bertrando was on the way to taking Headley back to Churchill Downs when a respiratory ailment knocked him out of the Kentucky Derby.

“It was glamorous, and then it ended,” Headley said Thursday.

It ended with Bertrando’s owners, Eddie Nahem and Marshall Naify, taking the colt away from Headley in the fall of 1993. It was the classic example of a good horse wrecking a beautiful partnership.

Bertrando prospered under trainer Bobby Frankel, winning an Eclipse Award in 1993, but after another trainer switch and a mixture of breeding and racing, the 6-year-old has been sixth, 10th, sixth and sixth in his last four tries.

Softshoe Sure Shot hasn’t earned $3.1 million, as Bertrando has, but he has made $581,000, winning 16 of 46 starts while re-establishing a theory Bruce Headley has long embraced.

“A horse that runs this long is a sign that you’ve been careful with him,” Headley said. “It’s a sign that he’s been raised right. Some of the oldest horses that I’ve raced have been raised by Old English Rancho (in Ontario, Calif.), and this is another one. You hear people blaming the track (surfaces) when something happens to a horse, but I still think it all goes back to how a horse is raised.”

Headley can’t recall ever winning a stakes race with a 9-year-old. It has happened only four times overall at Santa Anita. Before Softshoe Sure Shot, there were Olhaverry in the 1948 San Pasqual Handicap, Desert Chief III in the 1965 San Marcos Handicap and Super Diamond in the 1989 San Antonio Handicap.

Softshoe Sure Shot was 18-1 in the San Carlos, coming in off a second-place finish in the On Trust Handicap at Hollywood Park and a sixth in the California Cup Sprint Handicap at Santa Anita. His only victory last year was against $62,500 claiming company at Del Mar.

Softshoe Sure Shot has done some of his best running at Santa Anita--he’s earned almost half of his purse money there--and Headley has nominated the veteran sprinter for a six-furlong race, the $150,000 Palos Verdes Handicap, to be run Jan. 28.

Meanwhile, Old English Rancho’s Bud Johnston, who races Softshoe Sure Shot in a partnership, can do some gloating of his own. Minutes after his horse had won the seven-furlong San Carlos in 1:21 2/5, Johnston heard the announcement that the condition of the Santa Anita track was being upgraded from good to fast.

“My horse just made it fast,” Johnston said, beaming. “A good horse will make a slow track look fast.”

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Horse Racing Notes

Rain and an off track might reduce the field, but eight older horses are entered in Sunday’s $200,000 San Pasqual Handicap at 1 1/16 miles. The high weight at 122 pounds is Best Pal, the 7-year-old gelding who was second to Hill Pass in last year’s San Pasqual. Slew Of Damascus, assigned 120 pounds, is winless since his victory in the Hollywood Gold Cup in July and was fourth in the slop in the Kyne Handicap at Bay Meadows on Dec. 31. Nancys French Fry won the Kyne and will run Sunday with 115 pounds. Another horse carrying 120 pounds is Romarin, a Brazilian import whose three consecutive victories in California have come on grass. Others entered are College Town, Del Mar Dennis, Pollock’s Luck and Tossofthecoin.

Sunday’s first race will be at 12:20 p.m., with Santa Anita offering betting on the $100,000 Olympic Handicap from Gulfstream Park. The Olympic, which will be shown at Santa Anita between the third and fourth races, marks the first 1995 start for Holy Bull, who is expected to be named horse of the year Friday. The Gulfstream line maker has made Holy Bull a 3-5 favorite for the colt’s first start since Sept. 17. Holy Bull, to be ridden by Mike Smith, will carry 126 pounds, seven more than Birdonthewire and 11 more than Patton and Dusty Screen. Others running are Hudson Bay, 111 pounds, and Linn’s Notebook, 110.

Bill Shoemaker’s attorney, Neil Papiano, said Friday that the trainer will appeal the $500 fine he received in a ruling from California stewards last Saturday. A Shoemaker horse that ran fourth at Santa Anita in April tested positive for scopolamine, a prohibited drug. Papiano said that he will file his appeal with the California Horse Racing Board.

Soviet Problem didn’t win the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, finishing second, and she also finished second to Cherokee Run in the voting for an Eclipse Award, but the filly has been voted the California-bred horse of the year for 1994. Soviet Problem also won three other Cal-bred awards, for best sprinter, grass horse and older female. College Town was voted best 3-year-old male and Best Pal won older-male honors.