Barn Turner

The win by Tiznow in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic might have padded trainer Jay Robbins’ pocketbook, but it did little to expand the modest stable that he oversees at Barn 27 at Santa Anita.

There was no stampede of new owners and, in fact, Robbins reported earlier this year that his operation had been static, which is to say that he has about 10 horses in a slow month and maybe 12 when business is really booming.

Racing outsiders were puzzled that he would have been so roundly ignored in the wake of such accomplishment, but the game has actually been fickle this way for a long time. A modest trainer who can’t or won’t sell himself is frequently a trainer with a small stable.

Look at a couple of the successful trainers in the Kentucky Derby:

* David Cross, the 1983 winner with Sunny’s Halo, returned to Churchill Downs with a decent 3-year-old only once. He’s out of racing altogether, and in his last racing job in California, he operated the backstretch kitchen at Santa Anita.

* Cam Gambolati, winner in 1985 with Spend A Buck, pretty much went back to running a claiming stable at Calder, his career virtually unchanged by that one dramatic blip on his record. Gambolati won 12 races in Florida last year.

But maybe Robbins, at 55, is ready to crack the mold. He’s now won the Breeders’ Cup Classic twice in succession with the same horse. It’s a signal achievement, and this year in particular getting Tiznow to the winner’s circle after the big dance was no mean task.

At mid-year, the colt’s back problems all but spelled retirement. Then, after Robbins had finally nursed him back into condition, Tiznow emerged with a full-blown Garbo complex. It was only when everybody around the barn left him alone that the horse was willing to train the way he needed to.

In Las Vegas, Stan Fulton has been paying attention. The new owner of Sunland Park in New Mexico and former chairman of Anchor Gaming, the Nevada-based Fulton is mounting a large-scale racing stable, and Robbins figures to be one of the major beneficiaries.

“The way it looks, Jay might wind up with about 30 of my horses,” Fulton said this week.

They have yet to meet face to face, which is interesting because over the phone Robbins can come across as a whisperer. A long history of cigarette smoking will do that to a naturally soft-spoken man.

Nevertheless, Fulton and Robbins, who were brought together by horsemen who recommended the trainer, seem to communicate just fine. A few days ago, Fulton, the leading buyer at Del Mar’s August yearling sale, called to ask Robbins about a horse he was about to buy. The asking price was high, and once purchased, the horse would have been sent to Robbins’ barn.

“He’s a sprinter,” Robbins pointed out to Fulton. “When you lay out money like that, it takes a long time for a sprinter to earn it back. I don’t think he’s worth what they’re asking.”

Fulton passed on the horse.

“I appreciated Jay’s honesty,” Fulton said. “What he was doing was turning down a $750,000 horse. I don’t think many trainers in the same position would have done that. I’d like to have enough confidence in my trainer that I can trust what he tells me.

“It’s my business, but I need advice. I don’t go to my dentist and tell him how to fill my teeth, and I’m not going to go to my trainer and tell him what to do, either. Jay’s a professional, and a very successful one.”

By earning $3.4 million in 2000--92% of what all the horses in the stable earned--Tiznow gave Robbins his first million-dollar year since 1992. That was a year when he won 27 races, 16 more than this year.

Fulton and Robbins broke in together with Lil’ Awesome Annie, fourth-place finisher at Santa Anita in the Anoakia Stakes a week before the Breeders’ Cup. Lil’ Awesome Annie might be headed for the Hollywood Starlet on Dec. 16.

Since the early 1990s, the laid-back Robbins has never run in more than 84 races a year. When the Fulton horses start rolling in and the trainer applies for more stall space, the racing department might suspect a hoax.

Robbins himself will have to adjust.

“It’s going to get a lot more like work,” he said. “It could mean a lot more headaches too.”