Hidden Light Wins Fourth Straight : Santa Anita Oaks Victory Has Her Trainer Running, Too

No lengthy winner’s circle speeches for Charlie Whittingham. The 72-year-old trainer made a right turn after his Hidden Light convincingly won Sunday’s Santa Anita Oaks and did double time toward the paddock, to saddle a horse in the ninth race.

A gaggle of newsmen, most of them 30 to 40 years younger than Whittingham, were all out to keep up. Gad, this trainer moves almost as quickly as his horses do.

At the paddock, Whittingham paused for the first time. “Them’s easy ones,” Whittingham said, meaning Santa Anita’s eighth races. “It’s the ninth that’s been giving me trouble.”

On Saturday, Whittingham won three races at Santa Anita, including the Santa Gertrudes Handicap with Val Danseur, and he also sent Hail Bold King up to Golden Gate Fields to win the San Francisco Mile.

On Sunday, Whittingham failed to win the ninth for the second straight day.

Reserve, who went off at 70-1 odds in the ninth, was off the board--but the Howard Keck family, which owns both Reserve and Hidden Light, still made expenses. Hidden Light’s 1 1/2-length win in the $205,700 Oaks was worth $120,200 and had Whittingham saying that she “could be as good as any filly I’ve ever had.”

This win, before 46,898 fans, was the fourth straight for the daughter of Majestic Light and Tallahto. In the 1 1/16-mile race, she flashed a new capability, being able to go to the lead and hold it.

“There wasn’t much speed in the race, so I told Shoe (jockey Bill Shoemaker) to go with her,” Whittingham said. “She didn’t break very sharp, but once she got settled she was all right. I wasn’t worried about her holding off that other filly.”

At the quarter pole, Hidden Light was challenged by Twilight Ridge, who got within about half a length.

“I knew I had some horse left,” Shoemaker said. “I didn’t know how much he (Chris McCarron, riding Twilight Ridge) had left, but as it turned out, he didn’t have enough.”

Timed in 1:42 2/5, favored Hidden Light paid $3.40, $2.20 and $2.10. All the rest of the mutuels were the minimum $2.10, with Twilight Ridge finishing 2 lengths ahead of An Empress in the six-horse field. Family Style, last year’s 2-year-old filly champion and coupled Sunday with stablemate Twilight Ridge, finished fourth after appearing to threaten on the far turn.

The 54-year-old Shoemaker, who has ridden Hidden Light in all four of her wins, added his 941st career stakes victory, his 216th win in a $100,000 race and his 8,527th win. All totals are records, and Shoemaker won’t pause long enough to allow anybody else to catch up.

Shoemaker has also won Sunday’s stake (known as the Santa Susana before this year) 10 times. Tallahto, Hidden Light’s dam, ran second in the Santa Susana in 1973, possibly because Shoemaker wasn’t there to ride her, but he remembers Tallahto well. He was on her the year before when she won her maiden race at Santa Anita.

Whittingham remembers Tallahto as a more difficult filly to train than her daughter. “The mother was high-strung,” the trainer said. “This one’s got a better disposition. She’ll do everything you’ll want if she stays sound. She comes from a good family. She can run all day, just like her brother (Prince True, a major stakes winner last year).

Hidden Light, who was bred by Howard Keck and races in his wife Libby’s name, didn’t make her first appearance until last November, and a seven-length win against maidens at Santa Anita already had Whittingham excited.

But Hidden Light didn’t run again until late February. Typically, Whittingham goes slowly with his young horses. “She was tall and skinny, so I put her away until the winter,” Whittingham said. “Keck’s not gonna bother me if I don’t run his horses right away.”

After an allowance win for victory No. 2, Hidden Light won the La Habra Stakes on March 5. She hadn’t run on the lead in any of those outings.

McCarron wished Sunday that somebody else’s horse could have challenged Hidden Light in the early going.

“That might have softened the favorite up,” McCarron said. “When the real running started (through the stretch), Shoe just had the better horse. From the three-eighths pole to the wire, those two fillies were really running.

They were both digging in, and the other filly just had too much left.”

Whittingham said Hidden Light would run next in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 2, the day before the Kentucky Derby. The Kecks, Whittingham and Shoemaker might also be represented in the Derby, should their Ferdinand run well in the Santa Anita Derby on April 6.

Historically, Whittingham is not a Kentucky Derby man. He’s only been there twice, running eighth with Gone Fishin’ in 1958 and ninth with Divine Comedy two years later.

“But the Derby’s a wide-open race this year,” he said last week, hinting that this might be an opportune time to return. Hidden Light isn’t eligible to run in the Derby. There are colts from California to New York who ought to be glad of that.

Horse Racing Notes Charlie Whittingham’s four-win day Saturday prompted a question about whether he’s ever won five races in a day. “Maybe,” Whittingham said. “I don’t know. I know there have been a lot of days when I’ve won none.” . . . Yukio Okabe arrived at Santa Anita Sunday. The Japanese jockey will ride Symboli Rudolf, the Japan Cup winner who’ll make his American debut in the $200,000 San Luis Rey Stakes next Saturday. . . . Whittingham has 151 career stakes wins at Santa Anita. . . . Country Light, ridden by Pat Day, won Sunday’s $200,000 Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds by two lengths over Bolshoi Boy. Lightning Touch finished third.