Jack Van Berg

Crown Pleasure took the lead from favored Perfecting on the final turn and drew off for a 3 1/2-length victory in the $35,000 feature race Friday, snapping trainer Jack Van Berg's 0-for-35 drought at Hollywood Park dating back to last fall. Madcuff, a 33-1 shot, was second. Perfecting faded to third, 1 lengths back. Ridden by Chris McCarron and getting a five-pound weight advantage at 114 over top-weighted Perfecting, Crown Pleasure ran the six furlongs on the turf in 1:08 2/5. It was the 3-year-old colt's third victory in five starts and Van Berg's first success of the meeting after 31 setbacks.

Believe, if you will, that Silver Charm is only an easy jog from winning today's Belmont Stakes and racing's Triple Crown. But before reaching for your wallet, pull on your boots. Clomp though the mud and flies of the Hollywood Park stable area. Stop at Barn 60, find a guy in blue jeans carrying a shovel. Tell him you want to see a man about a dog. The man is trainer Jack Van Berg. The dog is a 3-year-old Australian shepherd, crippled by shoulder problems, born with a white eye.

Jack Van Berg won four races Friday night at Hollywood Park, the first trainer to do so at the Inglewood track since Richard Mandella in 1987. After winning the third with Unidas, Van Berg captured three consecutive races, taking the sixth with Frozen River, the seventh with favored Carterized Crane and the eighth with Sal's My Gal, who was making her first start in 11 months. Jockey Corey Nakatani also had four winners.

On Aug. 23, owner Louis Roussel and trainer Jack Van Berg claimed the 4-year-old filly Onceinabluemamoon for $100,000, tying a Del Mar record. On Sunday morning, Van Berg, on the phone to Roussel in New Orleans, had to talk the owner into running Onceinabluemamoon in the afternoon's $132,650 Las Palmas Handicap at Santa Anita. Roussel wanted to wait for an easier spot, the $50,000 Old English Rancho Handicap at Bay Meadows next Sunday.

It was like seven Dempsey-Tunney fights the same night, a whole card of Ali-Fraziers. It was like seeing Notre Dame and USC play nine quarters. Horse racing got jealous of the Super Bowls, Final Fours, Wimbledons, U.S. Opens. To be on the "in," nowadays, to be fashionable, a sporting event needs a Roman numeral. Like Popes, Czars, Rocky movies, Caesar's campaigns and rich kids, you need a whole bunch of X's and V's to make yourself important.

Jack Van Berg must have known something. Wednesday, needing only one win to become the first trainer to reach the 5,000 mark, Van Berg and his far-flung stable had horses starting at Louisiana Downs, Ak-Sar-Ben in Nebraska and Arlington Park in suburban Chicago. One of three horses he entered at Ak-Sar-Ben went off at 3-5 odds. Van Berg's only starter at Louisiana Downs was also a heavy favorite.

Electric Flash caught Mr. Nickerson just before the finish Saturday and won the $87,300 Swift Stakes for 3-year-olds by a half-length at Aqueduct. Eddie Maple took Electric Flash up the middle of the track to overtake Mr. Nickerson, who had led most of the way in what turned out to be a battle of longshots. Mr. Nickerson, ridden by Herb McCauley, finished three-quarters of a length in front of Detonated, ridden by Julie Krone. Texian, the favorite, finished sixth in the eight-horse field.

Ferdinand is the best horse Charlie Whittingham ever trained. The evidence is incontestable. He won the Kentucky Derby. Charlie has had horses who won the Arc de Triomphe, Santa Anita Handicaps, Hollywood Gold Cups, Marlboro Cups, Del Mar Futurities. But only one won the Kentucky Derby. Other horses made him wealthy. Ferdinand made him famous. Jack Van Berg has trained horses almost as long as Charlie Whittingham. He was all but born in a stable.

For a few long hours Monday morning, Del Mar's first match race in 56 years looked as if it might be no match at all. Joe Harper, the thoroughbred track's president, had learned that Cool Air, who was to race against Soviet Problem on Sunday, had been scratched by trainer Gary Jones because of an infection. Greeted in the racing office by trainer Jack Van Berg, Harper replied glumly, "I was doing pretty well this morning until I found out Cool Air was out of our race Sunday."

Father's Day comes officially on Sunday, but it has already been observed by two horsemen who were successful in this year's Triple Crown races. After Alysheba's victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, trainer Jack Van Berg quickly thanked his late father for giving him the background that led to the winner's circle at Churchill Downs and Pimlico.

For a few long hours Monday morning, Del Mar's first match race in 56 years looked as if it might be no match at all. Joe Harper, the thoroughbred track's president, had learned that Cool Air, who was to race against Soviet Problem on Sunday, had been scratched by trainer Gary Jones because of an infection. Greeted in the racing office by trainer Jack Van Berg, Harper replied glumly, "I was doing pretty well this morning until I found out Cool Air was out of our race Sunday."

Jack Van Berg didn't win the training title at Santa Anita with one arm tied behind his back, but he did finish the meeting with his right arm in a sling. Despite undergoing surgery for an infection last week, Van Berg was at Oaklawn Park on Saturday to saddle Blumin Affair for a second-place finish in the Arkansas Derby, then he made a quick return for the final two days of the Santa Anita meet.

Jack Van Berg won four races Friday night at Hollywood Park, the first trainer to do so at the Inglewood track since Richard Mandella in 1987. After winning the third with Unidas, Van Berg captured three consecutive races, taking the sixth with Frozen River, the seventh with favored Carterized Crane and the eighth with Sal's My Gal, who was making her first start in 11 months. Jockey Corey Nakatani also had four winners.

Laurie Gulas looked a little green around the gills. "I hate hospitals," said the Canadian-born jockey as she walked down a corridor at Pomona Valley Medical Center. "I can visit once, but going back again gets to me." Gulas was visiting Sandi Gann, who had suffered two broken bones in her neck in an accident at Fairplex Park the previous day. Gann was in traction and could hardly swallow, but that didn't stop her from talking about the spill.

It is long established that every trainer has a science of his own for getting a horse ready for the Kentucky Derby, which opens for business in 1875, or 50 years before the race comes to be known as the "Run for the Roses." And how does this grandiose sideshow acquire that label? It is so dubbed by Bill Corum, late sports columnist, reflecting the brilliance customarily linked to that line of work.

As he grazes contentedly in the grass around Barn Five at Belmont Park, Sunday Silence prepares to become the 12th member of one of throughbred racing's rather exclusive fraternities. The question is which one. Trainer Charlie Whittingham's jet black colt will either be the 12th horse to sweep the Triple Crown, or the 12th to have that dream shattered by the grueling final race in the series--the demanding 1 1/2 miles of the Belmont Stakes. Distance is the difference.

Mel Stute is probably the most superstitious trainer in California. He has been known to almost fall into manure piles at Santa Anita just to avoid having a black cat cross his path. Stute, however, has at least a match in Jack Van Berg, who seems to have all the hoodoos covered and accounted for as he sends out Kentucky Derby winner Alysheba to run against eight rivals in the 112th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico today.

Believe, if you will, that Silver Charm is only an easy jog from winning today's Belmont Stakes and racing's Triple Crown. But before reaching for your wallet, pull on your boots. Clomp though the mud and flies of the Hollywood Park stable area. Stop at Barn 60, find a guy in blue jeans carrying a shovel. Tell him you want to see a man about a dog. The man is trainer Jack Van Berg. The dog is a 3-year-old Australian shepherd, crippled by shoulder problems, born with a white eye.

Electric Flash caught Mr. Nickerson just before the finish Saturday and won the $87,300 Swift Stakes for 3-year-olds by a half-length at Aqueduct. Eddie Maple took Electric Flash up the middle of the track to overtake Mr. Nickerson, who had led most of the way in what turned out to be a battle of longshots. Mr. Nickerson, ridden by Herb McCauley, finished three-quarters of a length in front of Detonated, ridden by Julie Krone. Texian, the favorite, finished sixth in the eight-horse field.

It was like seven Dempsey-Tunney fights the same night, a whole card of Ali-Fraziers. It was like seeing Notre Dame and USC play nine quarters. Horse racing got jealous of the Super Bowls, Final Fours, Wimbledons, U.S. Opens. To be on the "in," nowadays, to be fashionable, a sporting event needs a Roman numeral. Like Popes, Czars, Rocky movies, Caesar's campaigns and rich kids, you need a whole bunch of X's and V's to make yourself important.