If John Veitch can pull it off, it will be one of the greatest coups in the history of horse racing.
Saturday afternoon, the 43-year-old trainer will try to win two million-dollar races being run in different countries.
Veitch will be at Woodbine in Toronto to saddle his 3-year-old grass-racing specialist, Sunshine Forever, for the eighth running of the
Arlington Million.
Meanwhile, in New York, Brian`s Time will compete in one of the year`s most important dirt races for 3-year-olds, the Travers at Saratoga.
Both the Million and the Travers will be run at the classic distance of 1 1/4 miles.
The Million figures to be the harder race. Sunshine Forever will have 13 opponents, and all except one, Canada`s Regal Classic, are accomplished older horses.
Brian`s Time will have only five fellow 3-year-olds to reckon with. Although Forty Niner and Seeking the Gold are formidable foes, the wear and tear of the Triple Crown campaign has sidelined Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors and sent Preakness and Belmont winner Risen Star into retirement.
On the other hand, Veitch believes Sunshine Forever is better equipped for the more difficult assignment.
”Sunshine Forever is a better horse,” he said Thursday morning before the chocolate colt breezed four furlongs in 49 1/5 on the Woodbine grass.
”Brian`s Time is an ugly duckling, a small unassuming horse who`s a real fighter, all heart.
”Sunshine Forever is a natural. He looks the part and acts the part. He has the scope for anything from 1 1/16 miles to 1 1/2 miles.
”The best horses in North America run on the dirt. There are more major races on the dirt, and it takes a better athlete to excel on the dirt. I think the vast majority of outstanding dirt horses could run on the grass.
”I never had a good grass horse until Sunshine Forever came along. I think he`s an exceptional athlete. I`m very confident about the Arlington Million. He didn`t accomplish much of anything on the dirt last year, but something in the back of our minds told us he could run on the turf. He looked like that good an athlete, and that`s what he has turned out to be.
”He`s a different horse now than as a 2-year-old, and I`m anxious to try him again on the dirt. But the ranks of the turf horses seem to be a little thin this year, and we`re not going to switch him when he keeps winning.”
The running styles of Sunshine Forever and Brian`s Time are a study in contrast.
”Sunshine Forever has the tactical speed to do anything you want with him,” said Veitch. ”And he`s able to stop and start. But for Brian`s Time to win, he`s going to have to make that one last run. With Brian`s Time, you know where he`s going to be at the beginning, and you hope you know where he`s going to be at the end.”
Because Brian`s Time is strictly a stretch runner, Veitch believes he requires a physically powerful jockey.
Consequently, Angel Cordero, who has been Sunshine Forever`s constant companion this year, will stay at Saratoga to ride Brian`s Time, who won the Florida Derby in March and Saratoga`s Whitney Stakes in his last time out.
”Brian`s Time is going to need an exceptionally strong ride,” said Veitch. ”He`ll be chasing two very good horses in Forty Niner and Seeking the Gold, and his move has to be timed to the second if he`s going to get there. You`ve got to take what you think is the safest route. You can`t thread the needle.
”Cordero can ride Brian`s Time the way he has to be ridden. And Cordero doesn`t want to leave Saratoga. He lost the jockey title there last year for the first time in 12 years, and he wants to make sure it doesn`t happen again.”
In Cordero`s place aboard Sunshine Forever, whom he piloted to five wins and two places in seven races this year, will be Jorge Velasquez.
”There`s no better rider than Jorge Velasquez going a mile and a quarter,” said Veitch. ”In 14-horse fields, traffic always is a problem. Jorge has the ability to place him in a favorable spot and use him to his best advantage.”
Another of Velasquez`s assets is his experience in international racing. The 41-year-old native of Panama, who spent last year riding in France, has won Woodbine`s Rothmans International twice and the D.C. International twice. He also holds the season record for stakes victories, 57 in 1985.
But, like Veitch, Velasquez probably is best remembered for three races he lost. In 1978, Alydar, a colt trained by Veitch and ridden by Velasquez, became the only horse ever to run second in all three Triple Crown races, losing to Affirmed in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont.
”My biggest disappointment is getting beaten by a nose in the Belmont with Alydar,” said Velasquez.
”Not winning the Triple Crown with Alydar” also was Veitch`s biggest disappointment. But time has changed his perspective, and the sadness has been replaced by a sense of nostalgia.
”Now, I look back on it as the greatest experience of my life,” said Veitch, who once played halfback at Bradley University and is the son of Hall of Fame trainer Sylvester Veitch.
Ten years ago, Affirmed and Alydar met for the last time in the Travers, and Alydar won on a disqualification.
In his mind`s eye, Veitch can envision the perfect anniversary celebration: going to the Woodbine winner`s circle with Sunshine Forever in the Arlington Million and sitting back and watching a telecast of Brian`s Time winning the Travers.
– Sunshine Forever will carry the fawn brown colors of Darby Dan Farm. John Galbreath, founder of Darby Dan Farm and the only owner to win both the Epsom Derby (with Roberto) and the Kentucky Derby (Proud Clarion), died last month, but his children are perpetuating his racing empire. Son Dan is the owner of Sunshine Forever. His son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. John Phillips, own Brian`s Time.
Both colts are sons of the outstanding European runner and American sire Roberto, who died at 19 shortly after John Galbreath was buried.
– Sunshine Forever got No. 8 at Thursday`s drawing for Million post positions. Because it`s a 1 1/4-mile race, the post positions aren`t expected to have a bearing on the outcome. Regal Classic of Canada will be on the rail, and Something True of France will be on the outside. The probable favorite, Triptych, drew the No. 5 slot.
Although the European representatives-France`s Triptych, Mill Native and Something True, and Great Britain`s Most Welcome and Media Starguest-will have to adapt to the radically different North American style of racing in the Million, Veitch doesn`t think it will be a factor. ”It depends on the athletic ability of the horse,” he said. ”If a horse is handy enough to do it, the adjustment should be very easy.”
