Free House Given Free Rein in Win

Who’s your daddy?

You might recall that as the chant that inspired Bobby Knight’s latest temper tantrum a couple of a weeks ago, and if horse racing fans who bet against the No. 3 horse in Saturday’s Santa Anita Handicap were as ill behaved as today’s college basketball fans, they probably would have used it to see if they could distract him.

They couldn’t have, of course. Free House has too much swagger to lose his cool just because someone questions his breeding. When he entered the starting gate Saturday, one of his owners, Trudy McCaffery, swears she saw him turn his head to his left and glare at Silver Charm, like a fighter glares at his opponent during the referee’s instructions.

Free House didn’t care if Silver Charm’s grandfather was Buckpasser. Or that Puerto Madero’s grandfather was Nijinsky II. Or even that Event Of The Year’s father was Seattle Slew. With Free House’s attitude, you would have thought he was sired by Northern Dancer.

So who is Free House’s daddy?

Smokester. If you haven’t heard of him, you’re not alone. Most people within the sport of horse racing hadn’t either, until Free House emerged as one of the best 3-year-olds a couple of years ago.

All anyone can say for Smokester’s racing career is that he could have been a contender. He won twice in four starts and earned $35,600 before suffering a career-ending injury. He then was retired to stud and waited for the phone to ring. And waited. And waited. A Robert Redford he wasn’t.

McCaffery and her partner, John Toffan, said they were so desperate to land a date for Smokester during his first year as a stud that they charged nothing for his services on a couple of occasions.

“I don’t blame anyone,” Toffan said. “I wouldn’t have been interested in breeding to Smokester, either.”

But he did. It turned out to be the best move he has made since quitting the oil business in Canada when the wells went dry in the mid-’80s, turning to mining and striking gold.

To earn his keep, Smokester was set up with a mare from the McCaffery-Toffan stable. Her name was Fountain Lake, whose sire, Vigors, won the 1978 Santa Anita Handicap and was known as the “White Tornado.”

So those in horse racing who swear by lineage had at least one horse in Free House’s family tree to point to when he came from nowhere, breaking his maiden at Pomona’s Fairplex Park, to win the Santa Anita Derby in 1997.

He ran a terrific Triple Crown campaign too, with third-place finishes in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes and a second--by a nose--in the Preakness.

He didn’t get as much respect as he deserved, though, because he kept finishing behind Silver Charm, who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness and finished second in the Belmont. Free House beat Silver Charm two of the first three times they met, then finished behind him in four consecutive races.

Free House became known as the other horse, like Alydar was to Affirmed.

“Silver Charm is a very, very good horse,” Toffan said.

But it’s more fun to win.

Free House did that Saturday, by half a length over second-place Event Of The Year and a length over third-place Silver Charm in a field that was short in quantity--six started--but extremely deep in quality.

While it is much too early to proclaim Free House as the horse of the year, his victory does establish him as the horse of the moment.

It also raises questions about Silver Charm. With Skip Away’s retirement, the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn.’s new 11-race series to determine the champion older horse was expected to be a coronation for the 5-year-old Silver Charm. But after the first two races, the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park in January and the Santa Anita Handicap, all Silver Charm has to show is two show finishes.

“This adds some drama to the plot and some real competition,” NTRA Commissioner Tim Smith said of the series, which has had two different winners. Puerto Madero, who won the Donn, was a disappointing fifth here.

More than a plot, however, horse racing needs a star.

Silver Charm, the third-leading money earner of all time behind Cigar and Skip Away, has the credits, but he might not be the horse to carry the sport on his back.

He had enough trouble Saturday with 124 pounds. His trainer, Bob Baffert, said Silver Charm lost his momentum early when he couldn’t get around Dr Fong. But when Silver Charm did have a clear path down the stretch, he didn’t have enough to overtake Event Of The Year or Free House.

“It was just a great run by Free House and a great ride by Chris McCarron,” said Silver Charm’s jockey, Gary Stevens.

Smokester must have been proud, unless he couldn’t watch the race because he was otherwise occupied.

In his first four years as a stud, he produced only 25 foals because of his lack of action. But the offspring he did produce have had outstanding racing careers. Besides Free House, he also sired Bagshot, last year’s Santa Anita Handicap runner-up.

Now the phone is ringing off the hook.

Toffan feels as if he struck gold again. He said Saturday that Smokester will be bred to 85 mares this year. The price per date is $10,000.

Who’s your daddy, indeed.

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Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected].