King Glorious Continues Reign : Undefeated 2-Year-Old Wins Hollywood Futurity

When Ted Aroney bought Glorious Natalie, a 6-year-old broodmare, for $6,700 in 1986, it didn’t matter that she was in foal to Naevus, a young stallion prospect.

Aroney, a shopping-center developer from Carlsbad, was a major investor in the thoroughbred business and he was gathering mares to breed to his stallions.

But first, Glorious Natalie delivered her foal--King Glorious, who won Sunday’s $1-million Hollywood Futurity--2 weeks after Aroney bought the dam.

Although Aroney didn’t realize it at the time, his young horse would be something to behold. While still a yearling and before he had yet to run a race, the colt was sent through a sales ring at a Bay Meadows auction.

“I had about 125 horses then, and I was just trying to reduce my stock,” Aroney said.

A reserve of $8,000--the minimum Aroney would accept for the horse--was placed on King Glorious, and the bidding didn’t even come close. Aroney bought his horse back for $6,500.

Two months later, King Glorious was in the barn of Jerry Hollendorfer, a Bay Area trainer who handled some of Aroney’s horses.

“You’ve got a good horse here,” Hollendorfer once told Aroney. “Boy, are you lucky he wasn’t sold.”

Aroney refers to the scenario--buying the mare for the wrong reason and being unable to sell Glorious Natalie’s son--as a “grand accident.” But since King Glorious has been racing, luck has not been a factor and nothing has come to him by accident.

King Glorious has simply been the best horse in every race he has run, and Sunday, in the biggest test of a 5-race career, Aroney’s undefeated 2-year-old gained a 2 3/4-length victory in the futurity at Hollywood Park.

“This horse was good this summer,” said trainer Neil Drysdale, who tried to beat King Glorious with Stephen’s Sooner and finished fourth. “And this race just confirms that.”

In the futurity, King Glorious was stretched out to a mile for the first time. It was his first start on something besides a fast track and he was facing 5 other stakes winners in the 10-horse field.

Breaking on top from his No. 8 post position, King Glorious was never seriously challenged and ran the mile in an excellent 1:35 3/5 on a sloppy track.

Music Merci, who couldn’t beat King Glorious the last time they met, in the Hollywood Juvenile in July, finished second, 3/4 length ahead of Hawkster, who was 4 lengths better than Stephen’s Sooner.

Gary Stevens, Music Merci’s jockey, and the gelding’s trainer, Craig Lewis, both claimed foul against King Glorious and Chris McCarron for drifting out at the top of the stretch, but the appeal was dismissed by the stewards.

“King Glorious is a great horse and we probably wouldn’t have beaten him, anyway,” Lewis said. “But for this much money, you’ve got to take a shot.”

Aroney and his 25% partner, Alan Magerman of Philadelphia, paid a supplementary fee of $50,000 to get King Glorious into the futurity and the winner’s share of the purse was $495,000, giving the colt a career total of $646,100.

Aroney said after the race that King Glorious deserves consideration for the Eclipse Award for best 2-year-old colt, but the votes will likely go to Easy Goer, the star from East who seemed to lose little prestige by running second to Is It True on a muddy track at Churchill Downs in the Breeders’ Cup last month.

Favored for the fifth straight race in the crowd of 20,281, King Glorious paid $4.20, $3.40 and $3.40. Music Merci paid $3.40 and $2.80 and Hawkster, another $50,000 supplemental, paid $6.20.

McCarron, who is trying to win the Eclipse Award that goes to the year’s No. 1 jockey, won his 17th major race for 1988 and the fifth worth $1 million or more, but this was the most difficult time he has had in the 3 rides aboard King Glorious. The winner was trying to lug out after he made his turn for home.

“He just took off when I smacked him on the right shoulder at the eighth pole,” McCarron said. “But I don’t know what made him lug out like that. He was always trying to get outside some, but that was the worst he’s ever tried it.”

This is the first important horse for Hollendorfer, the 39-year-old trainer who was an assistant to Jerry Dutton and Jerry Fanning in Southern California before going on to the state fair circuit and now becoming the leading conditioner in the Bay Area.

Hollendorfer’s horses have won more than 170 races this year, which ranks him among the top five trainers in the country.

“I was aware of the way the track has been playing,” Hollendorfer said, “but this is a speed horse and we had to use him (early). He got away easy and handled the track fine.

“It was a fast time, considering the conditions. And it’s good to know that he can handle the slop, because that could be a big difference when we consider races down the line.”

The next race being considered is the $300,000 El Camino Real Derby, at 1 1/16 miles, at Bay Meadows Jan. 15. King Glorious won his first 2 races at Golden Gate Fields and has been training at Bay Meadows, but he has never run a race at the San Mateo track.

“This is a horse that comes along only once in a lifetime,” Alan Magerman said.

In 1970, Magerman owned George Lewis, a colt who was given a slight chance to win the Kentucky Derby, but he finished 14th after running second for the first mile.

King Glorious has already shown he can handle that first mile. He has 4 months--the time between now and the Derby--to show whether he has another quarter-mile in him.

Horse Racing Notes

Chris McCarron is the first jockey to win five $1-million races in one year. His others this year were with Alysheba in the Santa Anita Handicap and the Breeders’ Cup Classic, with Forty Niner in the Travers and with Pay the Butler in the Japan Cup. . . . Laffit Pincay, who rode Hawkster to a third-place finish in the Hollywood Futurity, has a career total of nine $1-million victories, one more than McCarron. . . . This was McCarron’s second Futurity victory. He won the first running of the race--when it was worth $500,000--with Stalwart in 1981.

Hawkster, the winner of the Norfolk at Santa Anita in October, was ridden by Pincay for the first time. . . . Glorious Natalie, King Glorious’ dam, has produced a filly by Shankite and is in foal to that Ted Aroney stallion again. Aroney said that Glorious Natalie probably would be bred to Mr. Prospector next year. . . . Naevus, King Glorious’ sire, started his stud career in Kentucky but now stands at Brereton Jones’ farm in Midway, Ky. Jones, the lieutenant governor of Kentucky, also stands Silver Hawk, the sire of Hawkster. “The stud fees are $15,000 for Naevus and $10,000 for Silver Hawk, and they won’t change for next year,” Jones said. “Now we’ll just try to line up as many good mares as possible to send to them.”

Aroney said that he would like to run King Glorious once a month. “(Trainer) Ron McAnally suggested that, because he said that was what worked for John Henry,” Aroney said. . . . In the show pool, more money was bet on Music Merci and Caro Lover than on King Glorious. . . . King Glorious follows Tejano, Snow Chief, Fali Time and Roving Boy as supplementary winners of the futurity and he joins Snow Chief and Fali Time as California-breds who have won the race. . . . Music Merci was bred in Canada, which meant that the only two non-Kentucky-breds in the futurity finished 1-2 in the race.