Silver Charm Horse

One of the most popular thoroughbreds to race, Silver Charm, who counted the 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness among his dozen wins, has been retired. The decision was made by trainer Bob Baffert and owners Bob and Beverly Lewis after the 5-year-old gray son of Silver Buck finished a lackluster fourth in the Stephen Foster Handicap on Saturday at Churchill Downs. After winning the San Pasqual Handicap at Santa Anita on Jan.

Bob and Beverly Lewis hold hands as sweetly as two teenagers testing new love. They have come to the Arrowhead Pond on a Tuesday afternoon to share their love--of themselves by example and of horse racing by conversation. Beverly is wearing a black and white checked jacket and a black skirt. Bob has on a blue blazer, khaki pants, a shirt with no tie. Bob and Beverly are tanned and relaxed and seem as if they haven't a care in the world.

In the paddock early in the afternoon, Silver Charm's extended family was enjoying a beautiful Christmas day-after. The atmosphere at Santa Anita was agreeably chilly and smog-free. Hundreds among the 39,480 who came to the track for opening day craned their necks, eager for a better look at the horse that had won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. The colt's owners couldn't have been happier. They love the big fella. (Their season's-greetings card came signed by: "Bob Lewis. Beverly Lewis.

One of the most popular thoroughbreds to race, Silver Charm, who counted the 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness among his dozen wins, has been retired. The decision was made by trainer Bob Baffert and owners Bob and Beverly Lewis after the 5-year-old gray son of Silver Buck finished a lackluster fourth in the Stephen Foster Handicap on Saturday at Churchill Downs. After winning the San Pasqual Handicap at Santa Anita on Jan.

Sweeping the Triple Crown series will be worth an additional $1.6 million to Silver Charm, according to an announcement Wednesday from the races' sponsor, which apparently responded to a contradiction in its bonus guidelines. If Silver Charm wins the Belmont Stakes on June 7, adding to the victories he scored in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, his owners, Bob and Beverly Lewis of Newport Beach, would end up with $6.6 million for the three races.

Forget about today's race. Santa Anita ought to be selling tickets for Silver Charm's workouts. In preparing for the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap, Silver Charm worked a mile against his stablemate and fellow Kentucky Derby winner, Real Quiet; then, five days later, Silver Charm worked five furlongs in a torrid 57 seconds, faster than the track record.

Trainer Bob Baffert blamed himself for the stress that might have contributed to Silver Charm's bleeding as the 5-year-old gray finished a disappointing sixth Sunday in the $5-million Dubai World Cup. "I look back at his schedule and now I can tell that we tried to do too much with him," Baffert said. "We shipped him from Santa Anita to Florida for the Donn Handicap. Then we shipped him back for the Santa Anita Handicap. Then we sent him all the way to Dubai. It was too much.

For the second time this year, Silver Charm has become a late withdrawal from a $1-million race. This time the colt's defection will cost Hollywood Park the chance to showcase the three best older horses in the country in Sunday's Hollywood Gold Cup. Silver Charm has a fever, discovered Wednesday morning at the colt's barn at Santa Anita, and that leaves Hollywood Park with Skip Away, last year's champion older horse, and Gentlemen, the winner of last year's Gold Cup.

Trainer Richard Mandella says Gentlemen is "one in a million." That must make Silver Charm one in another million after the two of them wowed a rain-splattered crowd of 26,369 at Santa Anita on Saturday. About an hour after Gentlemen roared to an easy win in the San Antonio Handicap in 1:47 3/5, Silver Charm chalked up a four-length victory in the $500,000 Strub Stakes, running his 1 1/8 miles in a slightly faster 1:47 1/5.

Trainer Bob Baffert says that if Silver Charm runs the way he has looked this week, his horse will win the Breeders' Cup Classic. "But if he runs the way I feel, then we're in trouble," Baffert said, alluding to how social and professional considerations, along with general pre-race jitters, can overwhelm a trainer in the days before what has become the world's richest race.

Chris Antley, who rode Charismatic to victory in this year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness, is the new rider for Silver Charm, who won the Derby and Preakness while ridden by Gary Stevens in 1997. Antley's first assignment aboard Silver Charm will be in the $750,000 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs on June 12. The mount on Silver Charm opened up after Stevens left Saturday for England, where he will be a contract rider for trainer Michael Stoute this season.

Trainer Bob Baffert blamed himself for the stress that might have contributed to Silver Charm's bleeding as the 5-year-old gray finished a disappointing sixth Sunday in the $5-million Dubai World Cup. "I look back at his schedule and now I can tell that we tried to do too much with him," Baffert said. "We shipped him from Santa Anita to Florida for the Donn Handicap. Then we shipped him back for the Santa Anita Handicap. Then we sent him all the way to Dubai. It was too much.

He was upstaged by his stablemates and three American horses in most pre-race analyses, but Almutawakel was the fastest and grittiest on Sunday, holding off two United States-based challengers in the stretch to win the $5-million Dubai World Cup, the richest race ever run. Malek, who traveled to the Persian Gulf from Santa Anita, and Victory Gallop, who came from Florida, threatened but couldn't pass Almutawakel and jockey Richard Hills in the final strides.

When Blood-Horse magazine recently published a list of the 100 greatest horses of the 20th century, trainer Bob Baffert got hot. Leaping off the page, in 63rd place, was the name of Silver Charm. "What were those guys thinking?" Baffert fumed. "Sixty-third? Come on. Silver Charm deserves to be at least in the top 30."

Forget about today's race. Santa Anita ought to be selling tickets for Silver Charm's workouts. In preparing for the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap, Silver Charm worked a mile against his stablemate and fellow Kentucky Derby winner, Real Quiet; then, five days later, Silver Charm worked five furlongs in a torrid 57 seconds, faster than the track record.

Life isn't fair. Sports shouldn't be either. Michael Jordan didn't have to play with ankle weights, did he? Terrell Davis doesn't have to carry 10 extra pounds under his shoulder pads. Tiger Woods doesn't have to play left-handed. But look what they did to Silver Charm in the Donn Handicap on Saturday at Gulfstream Park. With Skip Away in retirement, Silver Charm entered 1999 as the No. 1 contender for horse of the year. His reward?

Not long after Wednesday's decision had been made, R.D. Hubbard was standing in front of his trainer's barn at Churchill Downs when his cellular phone rang. "We're going in the Classic," the chairman of Hollywood Park said. "Yeah, we've decided to take a shot." After Hubbard put the phone away, he said that he was talking to Johnny Jones, the owner of Walmac International, the Lexington, Ky., farm where Gentlemen will stand at stud next year.

Silver Charm, the 4-5 favorite in today's $500,000 Goodwood Breeders' Cup Handicap at Santa Anita, can become the eighth horse to join the $5-million club, but his trainer, Bob Baffert, is eyeing a bigger goal. Baffert said that with a win against archrival Free House and another win over Skip Away in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 7, Silver Charm can thrust himself into horse-of-the-year contention. "We've got to get by Free House first," Baffert said.

Silver Charm won't be lacking for company when he tries for his second win of 1999 in the $500,000 Donn Handicap on Saturday at Florida's Gulfstream Park. Eleven other horses were entered Wednesday morning to challenge the 5-year-old gray in the Donn, the first race of the "National Thoroughbred Racing Assn. Champions on Fox" series.

Just in time, common sense set in and Eclipse award voters will get the information they deserve when the ballots arrive next week. For a while, it appeared that jockey Gary Stevens, trainer Bob Baffert and owners Bob and Beverly Lewis wouldn't be credited for the money their Silver Charm earned in the $4- million Dubai World Cup in March. The Daily Racing Form and the Equibase Co., which publish racing statistics, differed about whether the Dubai purse should count.