Horse Racing / Bill Christine : Temperate Sil Could End Injury Hex of Owners

The two garbage collectors from El Cerrito are due to have a good horse who survives his first season.

Lew Figone and Richard Granzella, who run separate but noncompetitive refuse businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area, just might have that horse in Temperate Sil, winner of last Sunday’s $1-million Hollywood Futurity.

Figone and Granzella, who campaign under the name of the Frankfort Stable, have had good horses before, but keeping them sound has been the problem.

Figone bought his first horse, a filly named Frau, in Kentucky in 1976, paying $7,500. Frau was the start of enough bad luck to last Figone and his partner a lifetime. She won her first race and was placed in a stake, but then she was injured and never raced beyond her 2-year-old season.

Three years later, a woman who worked for Figone’s father became terminally ill, and Figone bought her three horses for $15,000. One of them, Me and Virginia, won only 3 of 18 starts; another, named Billy Martin after the baseball manager and his longtime friend, never started a race, after his trainer said that he was the fastest he ever had. Figone changed Billy Martin’s name to Rupert--”I didn’t want a horse like that going around with (the real) Billy’s name,” he said--and sold him as a jumper.

The third horse in that package was Rukann, whose sire, Ruken, won the Santa Anita Derby for owner-breeder Lou Rowan in 1967. Rukann also was the dam of Me and Virginia.

Rukann’s first foal for Figone and Granzella, through a mating with Shady Fellow, was Billy Ball, who was also named after Martin. Billy Ball, whose gray coat was similar to Temperate Sil’s, won three stakes, finished third in the California Derby and was voted the best California-bred 3-year-old colt in 1983. But he was still an embodiment of the whammy on Frankfort Stable, dying in January 1984 after suffering a leg infection.

Figone was never satisfied with the reason for Billy Ball’s death. “I spent $12,000 trying to find out, and we never did,” he said.

In 1983, Figone wanted to breed Rukann to Secretariat, but he was turned down. He then sent the broodmare to Temperence Hill, winner of the 1980 Belmont Stakes. The stud fee reportedly was $40,000, and the result was Temperate Sil.

Figone and Charlie Whittingham, his trainer and recently a 25% investor in Temperate Sil, can only hope that Temperate Sil stays sounder than many of those in his family. Rukann herself ran only twice--winning both times--before suffering a bowed tendon. Me and Virginia, Rukann’s first foal, had leg problems similar to Billy Ball’s, and Billy Martin/Rupert also had a problem tendon.

Temperate Sil looks as healthy as a beauty queen in a bikini and may prove to be an exception to this frail family history. Had the sire been Secretariat, Figone probably would have named the colt Yankee One--again after Billy Martin, who wore uniform No. 1 for the Yankees. But because of Temperence Hill, racing now has Temperate Sil, who may give Figone and Granzella something they’ve never had--a horse to cherish for longer than just a few races.

Not much more could happen to a horse than happened to Delicate Vine in the Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita in October, but an effort will be made to bring the 2-year-old filly back to the races next year.

Delicate Vine, after winning her first four starts, was the 7-10 favorite in the Oak Leaf but ran third, and a post-race examination provided ample explanation for that.

Delicate Vine came out of the race with a cracked bone in her left foreleg, two bone chips in the knee and a tendon injury that didn’t turn out to be as serious as was originally thought.

Delicate Vine has undergone surgery, and trainer Bobby Frankel says that the estimated recuperation time is five months.

Another of Frankel’s stars this year, Garthorn, has gone to stud at Happy Valley Farm near Ocala, Fla.

Garthorn, winner of the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park, was taken out of New York because Frankel was unhappy with his weight assignment for the Suburban Handicap. Garthorn became seriously ill on the flight from New York to California and ran only once more, finishing second to Precisionist in the Yankee Valor Handicap at Santa Anita, his only loss of the year.

“The horse is 6 years old, it’s time to retire him,” Frankel said.

Garthorn earned $727,191, most of it for Los Angeles record executive Jerry Moss. Frankel had the chance to buy Garthorn for Moss when he was a younger horse in Europe but thought the $300,000 asking price was too high. They eventually got him, as a 5-year-old, for $90,000.

Horse Racing Notes The last three stakes of the Hollywood Park season are on grass, and some trainers may be reluctant to run because the hard turf course has been unkind to horses recently. Coraze Nay, a French-bred stakes winner, broke down during a turf workout Wednesday and was destroyed. In grass races last weekend, two horses were destroyed after breaking down. . . . Alex Solis, injured in a riding accident at Hollywood Sunday, will have surgery for a broken left thumb today. Solis also broke his lower left leg and will be sidelined for about six weeks. . . . When Gary Stevens won the fourth race Wednesday, it was his 56th victory of the season, breaking the record for Hollywood’s fall meet that Chris McCarron set in 1983. . . . Melair, one of the best 3-year-old fillies in the country this year, has been sent to the farm for a three- or four-month rest. Undefeated in all five lifetime starts, Melair has been bothered by a cough and a virus, which have also contributed to a bleeding condition.

Cliff Goodrich, 43, who has been the chief spokesman for the track in recent months, has been promoted from assistant general manager to general manager at Santa Anita. Goodrich is the fifth general manager in track history, following Charles Strub, Gwynn Wilson, Fred Ryan and Ray Rogers. Rogers, who has been at Santa Anita since 1955, will continue with the track as executive vice president. In another change, Alex Ingle was made a vice president. He will continue as secretary and treasurer. . . . Al Davis--a horse, not the Raiders’ head man--is involved in a court case in New York. Ted Sabarese, who owned Al Davis the thoroughbred, is suing the New York tracks because the horse was claimed for $45,000 at Saratoga in August and the claim was disallowed. Al Davis was injured in the race and had to be destroyed. Saratoga officials voided the claim because Al Davis had been listed as a colt instead of a gelding in the program. Sabarese contends that there was no attempt to hide the horse’s neutering and that the track should be responsible for the error.

Regarding Gene Klein’s announcement that he would turn over to heart research the $5 million award the jury gave him in his suit against the Raiders’ Al Davis, trainer Wayne Lukas jokingly said: “That’s a nice gesture, but I wish Gene would consider another charity--the July yearling sales at Keeneland.” Klein has been one of Lukas’ biggest horse-buying clients at Keeneland.