A Look at Houston’s Old Maryland Home

With a little luck when he eventually meets Easy Goer and with a good race Saturday, Houston could become the toast of American racing in a little more than four weeks.

That would be May 6, Kentucky Derby Day, and Houston is no worse than second in the polls for the Derby. With many, he’s No. 1.

Houston, unbeaten in three races, cames from Ross Valley Farm, about 12 miles north of Baltimore. He’s a Maryland-bred, foaled in Maryland. His sire is in Kentucky, where the best stand at showplace farms.

Maryland’s newest showplace is the residence of Ben and Eleanor Sparenberg.

They sent Houston, then unnamed, through the Keeneland Selected Sale in 1987. He was sold for $2.9 million as a yearling. His sister was sold for $775,000 a year earlier.

If Houston should win the $500,000 Santa Anita Derby Saturday, it would be sensational advertising for Ross Valley and especially for the offspring of its great broodmare, Smart Angle.

Smart Angle and two other well-known broodmares -- Heavenly Cause and Quixotic Lady -- became the property of Eleanor Sparenberg through settlement of a divorce from Jim Ryan.

They had raced the fillies and many other good horses with trainer Woody Stephens in New York. Eleanor and Ben Sparenberg married and built Ross Valley, which immediately became one of the highest-quality breeding farms in America.

Smart Angle was the 1979 juvenile filly champion, and Heavenly Cause was the 2-year-old champion in 1980. It is the dream of every thoroughbred breeder to have a 2-year-old filly champion and breed her to a champion sire.

Two such dreams are coming true at Ross Valley. Both broodmares have begun to produce quality offspring commensurate with their racing abilities.

Also residing there is Quixotic Lady, who got Ross Valley in the news last month as producer of the 3-year-old colt Oregon Ridge, who was sold for $540,000.

He displayed great ability in Florida during the winter, but Oregon Ridge bled through the nostrils in succeeding races and will be sidelined for a while.

Houston remains the hottest graduate of Ross Valley, which has no stallions. He won his first start by 12 1/2 lengths last summer at Belmont Park in New York, then didn’t race again until late December, when he barely won an allowance race at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif. He crashed the stakes winners’ list at Aqueduct in New York by winning the Bay Shore by 12 1/2 again.

He’s by Seattle Slew, 1977 Triple Crown winner and the nation’s leading sire in 1984. Seattle Slew sired a Kentucky Derby winner, Swale, in 1984, and trainer Wayne Lukas said Houston is capable of winning a second for Seattle Slew and Lukas.

Winning Colors won the Derby under Lukas’ tutelage last year.

“The last time we talked to Wayne, he said Houston could beat Easy Goer (1988 juvenile colt champion who won his only start of 1989),” Ben Sparenberg said.

Houston has a shin splint in his right front leg, but Lukas, leading money-winning trainer in the nation the past six years, assures the Sparenbergs that the colt is fine.

Lukas, perhaps as much as the Sparenbergs, loves the bloodlines of Seattle Slew and Smart Angle. He was the buyer of the filly Special Gift, a sister to Houston. That one cost $775,000 at Keeneland. She earned $45,520 with two career victories. She was sold as a broodmare prospect for $300,000 and is owned by Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm.

“We bred to Seattle Slew twice on a foal-sharing deal,” Eleanor Sparenberg said, referring to the system whereby owners of top stallions and leading broodmares sign a contract to breed the best to the best. One owner gets the first foal and the other gets the second.

“Our deal was with Spendthrift Farm, where Seattle Slew was at stud,” she said. “Spendthrift got the first foal. It was Special Gift. We got the second one. That was Houston.”

Smart Angle has a 2-year-old by Devil’s Bag, owned by the Sparenbergs, and a yearling foal by Green Dancer. She’s due to drop a foal by Saratoga Six next week and will be bred back to Seattle Slew.

It’s a “nick,” a combination of bloodlines, that deserves to be tried again.

No story of Houston would be complete without an explanation of how Lukas picks yearlings. He looks at the conformation of each horse in the sale and marks the names of ones he approves in a complicated grading system. Then he studies the bloodlines to determine which he wants to buy.

Tops in Lukas’ system is a nine. There are no 10s. He gave nines to Landaluce, an unbeaten filly who died of an internal ailment, and to Saratoga Six, whose brilliant career was ended by injury.

Houston also received a nine. He races for a partnership that includes Lukas, Bob French and Barry Beal.