A PRIZE `FISH' : REAL QUIET IS FAVORED IN BIG RACE.Byline: Frank C. Girardot Frank C. Girardot (1961 in Detroit, Michigan) worked during the 1980s and 1990s as a copyboy, reporter and sportswriter for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, The San Gabriel Valley Tribune, The Pasadena Star-News and The Los Angeles Daily News. Staff Writer Trainer Bob Baffert Bob Baffert (born January 13, 1953 in Nogales, Arizona) is an American horse owner and trainer. He graduated from the University of Arizona's Racetrack Management Program with a Bachelor of Science degree. remembers a time when Real Quiet looked more like a tropical fish tropical fish Any of various small fishes of tropical origin often kept in aquariums. They are interesting for their behaviour or showiness or both. Popular varieties include the angelfish, guppy, kissing gourami, sea horse, Siamese fighting fish, and tetra. than a racehorse racehorse refers usually to thoroughbred but may also include standardbred, trotter. . Owner Mike Pegram expected to pay $30,000 for the bay colt in 1996 and expressed surprise when he found out that Baffert was able to get him for $17,000. He asked Baffert, ``What's he got? Cancer?'' Baffert remembers telling him not to worry. The yearling yearling an animal in its second year of age, e.g. yearling cattle, yearling filly, yearling colt. yearling disease rinderpest in wildebeeste in the Serengheti. looked great, perhaps perfect from the side, even if the front perspective was so funky it brought the price down. ``From the front he looked really narrow, you know how it is with a tropical fish?'' Baffert asked. ``They can look real nice from the side but when they swim away they're real skinny like nothing's there.'' ``He was just real narrow from the front,'' Baffert recalled. ``So I called him `Fish.' '' Within a year, the little guy filled out and began to look like a racehorse. Then last year, any doubts about his abilities were erased when Real Quiet came within a nose of the Triple Crown and established himself as one of the premier racehorses in the country. On Sunday Real Quiet and three other horses will compete in the $1 million Grade I Hollywood Gold Cup The Hollywood Gold Cup is a Grade I stakes race for thoroughbred horses inaugurated in 1938 at Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, California. It was run as a handicap race until 1997 when it was switched to weight-for-age conditions. . A win would boost the colt's career earnings to well over the $3 million mark and put the $17,000 horse in some pretty elite company. The past year has been a little more rough, though. After losing the Belmont by a nose to Victory Gallop, Real Quiet took some time off. He came back in March and finished second in the Grade III New Orleans Handicap The New Orleans Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. Open to horses four years old and up, the race is run at a distance of one and one-eighth miles on the dirt. It currently offers a purse of $500,000. . In April he finished second in the Grade III Texas Mile. In early May he seemed to have his racing legs back and outdueled Free House down the stretch for a win in the Grade I Pimlico Special Handicap. But three weeks later Real Quiet weakened in the stretch and finished third in the Grade II Massachusetts Handicap. It was his worst finish since a dull effort in the Jan. 1998 Golden Gate Derby The Golden Gate Derby is a race for thoroughbred horses run each year at Golden Gate Fields at a distance of one and one sixteenth of a mile and open to three-year-olds. A Grade III event, also known as the California Derby, it offers a purse of $100,000. earned Real Quiet an eighth-place finish. Despite that, Hollywood Park on Thursday installed Real Quiet as the 7-5 morning-line favorite in the Gold Cup. But that favorite status was conferred largely by default after Old Trieste was stricken by a fever earlier in the week and subsequently withdrawn. On the positive side, Real Quiet's works this year have been impressive - just about all bullets. In the most recent, on Tuesday, he was clocked at a sizzling siz·zle intr.v. siz·zled, siz·zling, siz·zles 1. To make the hissing sound characteristic of frying fat. 2. To seethe with anger or indignation. 3. :58 1/5 over five furlongs. That day the bullet went to stablemate Noun 1. stablemate - a horse stabled with another or one of several horses owned by the same person stable companion Equus caballus, horse - solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times General Challenge, preparing for today's Affirmed Handicap. Baffert is confident about Real Quiet's chances Sunday. ``He's ready,'' Baffert said. ``He's worked like he's supposed to work.'' As for the 1999 campaign, Baffert isn't making many excuses. ``If he shows up he can win it,'' Baffert said. ``He doesn't have a lot of wins because of his style. But here - in this field - if he gets into that long lope he can pour it on.'' Because Gary Stevens, Real Quiet's regular rider, has left for England, Jerry Bailey will get the mount Sunday. Other horses entered include Malek and Puerto Madero, both trained by Richard Mandella; and Budroyale, trained by Ted West Jr. No matter what, Sunday's race should be competitive, Baffert said. ``Nobody's going to run away with it,'' he said. Real Quiet's appearance in the Gold Cup marks the first time a Kentucky Derby winner has competed in the event since 1990, when Sunday Silence finished second to Criminal Type. ``Just to have a Derby winner in this is a big deal,'' Baffert said. ``It's like one of those deals where you just know you can do well.'' HOLLYWOOD GOLD CUP Sunday, 2 p.m., Ch. 11 |
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