IT'S ALL IN FAMILY FOR STUTES FATHERS, SONS HAVE MADE THEIR MARK ON HORSE RACING.

Byline: ART WILSON Staff Writer

ARCADIA - Spend a morning with the Stutes, any amount of time really, and you can't help but walk away with a huge smile and some stories that will live forever. It's just their nature. They can't help but have fun and laugh about their adventures in horse racing over the years.

From 85-year-old Warren Stute's recollections of his younger, feistier days when he'd fire owners on the spot, to 50-year-old Gary Stute's tales about missing school so he could be at the track, a few hours with these rascals at Santa Anita's Clocker's Corner is akin to watching episodes of the Bowery Boys on a plasma TV.

First of all, you can't tell the Stutes without a program.

There are the brothers, Warren and 79-year-old Mel, and their two sons, Glen and Gary. Glen, Warren's 44-year-old son, is more like his uncle Mel. Gary, known to have his own short fuse on occasions, is nothing like his dad Mel and more like his uncle Warren.

All four are in the thoroughbred training game, and together they are ready to write some new chapters in their remarkable story beginning today, when Santa Anita opens the gates on its 70th season.

Stories? You want stories? How about the time Warren and Mel, accompanied by their old buddy and fellow trainer Henry Moreno, entered horses in the same stakes race at Golden Gate Fields and hit the wire almost simultaneously.

Mel looked at Warren, and Warren looked at Mel as the photo-finish sign went up.

``Warren says to me, `Gee, I sure hope you win it.''' Mel recalled. ``Anyway, they put up his number and he says, `Oh, I feel so bad about it.' Just about then, they put up the inquiry sign. They disqualify him, give me the race and he hits the (steel) box seat with his binoculars and scared poor Henry half to death.

``He didn't mean what he was saying when he wanted me to beat him.''

The story, like most of their other adventures, is accompanied by joys of laughter from all four. Most of the tales involve Warren and Mel, the graybeards of the family who apparently have had more fun during their careers than 100 barrels of monkeys.

But sometimes, one of the sons will sneak in on the frivolity.

Seems one time Gary played a pick-six ticket at Hollywood Park and failed to include his dad's horse in the final race. The outcome? Well, sometimes the stories are funnier now than when they happened.

``Gary was a jockey's agent at the time and he comes to me and he says, `Dad, I got a pick-six ticket made out. You want in?''' Mel said. ``Now, one of the horses had already won and paid like fifty dollars so I said, `Sure I want in.' So the races go on and we win, win, win, win, and it comes down to the last race in the pick six and I win it. I said, `God, we got the pick six, I'm sure.' But he had bet on Warren's horse and left me out.''

The punch line is that Gary's unwavering confidence in uncle Warren cost father and son about $70,000. But what's 70 grand when you're having the time of your lives?

Gary has just about done it all in this business. He has worked on the backstretch for his uncle, booked mounts for jockeys and also helped his dad in addition to operating his own stable. He'd sometimes take over for his dad and run things when Mel would take off for a week or two.

``(But) I was kind of like Warren,'' Gary said. ``I'd tell 'em (owners), `If you don't like it, you can leave.' And a few of them left. They weren't mine to run off, but thank God it was none of his good ones.''

But it's Warren who had the biggest reputation with owners. After a few strokes, he is pretty mellow and good-natured these days, but you didn't want to cross him in his younger years. We're talking about a man who, up until a stroke in April 2002, galloped many of his own horses at age 80.

``I was with Warren when he was young, and the stories they tell about him, most of them are true,'' Mel said. ``I would have to go out to find grooms. I mean, he would fire 'em if every little thing wasn't done exactly the way he wanted it done. They were gone.

``He fired an owner one time. He told him, `I'm gonna turn your horses loose if you're not here by 4 (a.m.).' I was living with him at the time and the guy called about 3:30 and said, `Please, I can't get a hold of this other trainer till 5.' He had the reputation. The guy thought he might turn them loose.''

And Warren called the shots. Always.

``He never, ever would allow an owner to have two trainers like nowadays,'' Mel said. ``Never. I mean, you were out of the barn if you even had one horse with another trainer.''

The admiration that Warren and Mel share for one another is perhaps eclipsed only by the love they share. For instance, Warren is apalled by the fact that Mel has been bypassed for induction into the sport's Hall of Fame numerous times.

``Someone told me, `Melvin is not only great, but he's as good as he is in spite of you helping him,''' Warren said with a chuckle.

Said Mel: ``There's no chance I'd be where I am today if it wasn't for him. He fought for me. He did everything for me.''

The quietest and most reserved of the quartet is Glen, the most educated of the four who returned to the sport a few years ago to help Warren after his dad began having health problems. A self-proclaimed baseball nut, Glen was training horses in the 1990s when he received some fatherly advice.

``He won a few races and then his owner died,'' Warren said. ``And I told him, I said, `Glen, this is too tough a business and it's not that great.' So he went to college for four years and then he came back to the race track. And it was a wasted fouryears. He could have been here, getting ahead.''

Said Glen: ``I went to probably every college you can think of. I just kept changing my major. I'm here now, hopefully to stay. I'm looking forward to next year. We're getting more horses now, so the odds are better.''

Glen has a 2-year-old colt, Can This Be True, whom he believes could be the best horse he ever has trained. The son of Yes It's True was bet down to 5-1 in his debut at Hollywood Park on Dec. 9 but finished off the board after flashing early speed.

Despite the fact both Warren and Mel tried to steer their sons away from the track, they both profess a deep affection for a sport that has been more than kind to both.

For instance, all four were asked to name interests away from the races. Mel likes to golf, Glen used to love skiing before he injured himself, and Gary enjoys watching soap operas.

Warren? He likes the race track, plain and simple. The race track, along with wife Trudy and his three children, has been his life.

``Warren says golf ruins more trainers than alcohol,'' Gary said.

And they all laugh, with Gary's booming cackle probably the loudest of all.

And they all have their memories, the horses they cherish the most and the victories that will always be replayed in their minds over, and over and over again.

Mel's most talented horse was Snow Chief, who won the 1986 Santa Anita Derby and then followed up a disappointing run in the Kentucky Derby with a victory in the Preakness Stakes twoweeks later. Still, the one horse who sticks in his mind is a cheap claimer named Scully Square.

``He was the most important horse in my life,'' Mel said. ``When the kids were growing up, anytime I had a house payment to make, I'd run him. I ran him 52 times one year. He'd finish fourth, third, second ... he was usually in the money. In those days, house payments were 80 or 100 bucks. Same with a car payment.''

Collectively, 2006 has been their best year. Gary has the most wins (26) and Mel has the highest win percentage (16.0). Warren is down to about six to eight horses, but he ran second in the Illinois Derby in April with Old Trieste. Glen's win percentage has hovered around double digits much of the year.

Warren, Mel and Gary finished 3-4-5 in the eighth race at Hollywood Park on Dec. 6, and a few years ago at there they won three-quarters of the late pick four.

``Mel won, Gary won and then the pressure was on me,'' Warren said.

``Yeah, but you guys were like 7-to-2,'' Gary countered. ``I was 15- to-1.''

Ah, the stories. The endless stories that most times only fathers and sons can share. And the admiration. There is nothing quite like a son's admiration for his father.

``My long-term goal, I've always said, is to be one-eighth of my father,'' Glen said. ``Because if I can ever be one-eighth of him, I'd be a monster.''

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(color) From left, Glen Stute, his father Warren, Warren's brother Mel and his son Gary, have been among the most influential trainers in horse racing.

Walt Mancini/Staff Photographer

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