Trainer of the Year

Nothing riles California Horse Trainer Charles Whittingham more than the old clubhouse canard that West Coast thoroughbreds are not worth their oats until they have proved themselves on Eastern tracks. With Ack Ack, winner of seven straight stakes races in California, Whittingham felt that he had the horse to show up the haughty Easterners once and for all. Before he could be entered in the $113,000 Woodward Stakes at New York's Belmont Park last October, however, Ack Ack was sidelined with a case of colic. In his stead, Whittingham went with Cougar II, a horse that Ack Ack had beaten with ease earlier in the season. Cougar II breezed home five lengths ahead of the best field the East could muster. Though Cougar II was dropped to third place for cutting off one of his rivals on the rail, Whittingham was confident that "I proved my point."

Indeed he had. At year's end Ack Ack was named Horse of the Year, the first time that a thoroughbred has won the honor without competing in the East. And last week, after finishing as the top money-winning trainer for the second year in a row (total 1971 earnings: $1,730,170), Whittingham was voted Trainer of the Year.

Ack Ack is a prime example of Whittingham's thesis that the best way to get a horse to run fast is to train him slowly. When the late Publisher Harry Guggenheim entrusted the big bay colt to Whittingham in 1969, the veteran trainer knew he had something special. "Nothing's going to catch Ack Ack at short distances," he said. "The only question is how far he can go."

As a four-year-old Ack Ack was fully developed enough to attempt the longer distances, but Whittingham refused to push him. Gradually building the horse's stamina, he ran him in only five races in 1970. All were short distances, and though Ack Ack won four of his five starts, his winnings for the year totaled a meager $59,775. Aware of Ack Ack's money-winning potential, Whittingham's fellow trainers were perplexed at his patience. Said one: "Why the hell is Charlie sitting on that horse? If I had him, I'd race him twice a month."

Charlie offered his answer in 1971. After Ack Ack finished second in a six-furlong sprint at Santa Anita, he ran longer and stronger with each succeeding race. He won the Santa Anita Derby by 1 1/2 lengths, the Hollywood Express by three, the American Handicap by four. All told, Ack Ack won seven of eight starts and a total of $393,000 in the year. Explaining that "he didn't have anything more to prove," Whittingham and Ack Ack's new owners, Oilman E.E. ("Buddy") Fogelson and his wife, Actress Greer Garson, decided to retire their prize to Kentucky, where his value as a stud is an estimated $5,000,000.

Cerebral Clicks. A trainer for 39 of his 58 years, Whittingham was raised on a ranch in Otay, Calif., where as a boy he delivered newspapers on horseback. Serving variously as stable hand, exercise boy and horse trader, he came into prominence as a trainer in the mid-1950s, when one of his horses. Porterhouse, defeated the great Swaps, and another, Mr. Gus, upset Nashua.

While most successful trainers work for privately owned stables. Whittingham runs a public operation catering to such diverse horse owners as Florsheim Shoe Heiress Mary Jones and Composer Burt Bacharach. Says Bacharach: "When I got into this game I learned one thing in a hurry: Charlie knows how to wait. He's patient while others push too hard." Known as a man who "trains the owners," Whittingham says: "Owners have a lot of money invested in these horses, so you can expect them to want to have a say in what goes on. But I'm the one who has to make the decisions. I'm the trainer." He is also a master at selecting the right horse for the right race. Says the Daily Racing Form: "Charlie Whittingham enters horses like a bridge player laying down trump cards--a few cerebral clicks, and usually he pulls the right card."

A grade-school dropout who earned more than $173,000 last year, Whittingham figures to have another banner year in 1972. He still has Cougar II, one of the top money winners last year ($416,022), as well as such top-rated horses as Daryl's Joy and Turkish Trousers. Though his horses have won more than $12 million over the years, Whittingham says: "I haven't got any special tricks. I just know my horses and treat them as individuals."

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