BackTrack: Natashka Adds to Family Tradition in Alabama

On Wednesday night, freight shipping magnate Tom Eazor bid $75,000 on a Ridan filly at the Saratoga sale and finished second to Joseph M. Bryan Jr., whose father is associated with Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company, Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company, banks, hotels, and other things in North Carolina.

On Thursday night, Eazor bid $176,000 on the Sailor—Levee filly and finished second to Charles W. Engelhard, head of various precious metals companies in Newark, Toronto, Quebec, London, Paris, Rome, Johannesburg, Durban, Australia, and Colombia, who is generally described as the platinum king of the world.

"So what's a poor little trucker from Pittsburgh supposed to do against that kind of money?" Eazor asked.

On Saturday afternoon, Eazor's good filly Lady Pitt was favored for the Alabama Stakes, and, although she finished first by a neck, she was disqualified and placed second to Natashka, owned by George F. Getty II, whose father is an author of several books, a writer for Playboy, and also an oilman generally regarded as the wealthiest man in the world.

It would seem that Eazor, a man of no little means, had been going up against the big money all week and losing. No attempt will be made here to unravel Emerson's pronouncement that money is the prose of life and beautiful as roses; it is submitted, however, that money alone does not ensure success in racing, and that a considerable number of other factors were embodied in the decision of the 86th Alabama Stakes.

Things like a fractured sesamoid, a lucky suit, a stewards' inquiry, paddock schooling at 11 a.m., Vagrancy's family, and such made up this year's Alabama.

There were those who, on the eve of the Alabama, firmly believed A.B. Hancock Jr.'s Moccasin was the logical choice. The big chestnut filly had proven to the satisfaction of TRA racing secretaries and writers who voted in the Turf and Sport Digest poll last year that she was, at 2, the best race horse in America. She had won all eight of her starts, including the Spinaway, Matron, Alcibiades, Selima, and Gardenia Stakes without serious challenge.

At 3 Moccasin was something else again. In her first start at Keeneland she was in the midst of a good run when she was abruptly taken to the outside to avoid running over some horses and suffered her first defeat by less than two lengths. When she was returned to the barn, Dr. Alex Harthill mentioned casually that she did not seem to be putting a foot down right, but Hancock and trainer Harry Trotsek, who studied her walk until nightfall and again the following morning, could discern nothing untoward. The following week she ran well below expectation in the Ashland Stakes, and, although she suffered some minor cuts, these were not sufficient to account for her performance.

In New York a month later, Braulio Baeza rode her to victory against colts in an allowance race, then she finished third in the Acorn, fifth in the CCA Oaks. Something definitely was wrong, but X-ray pictures did not reveal it; she would break out in spots. Dr. Harthill was called in and it was found she had suffered a muscle strain, probably when she made the abrupt right turn in her first start. The muscle strain was treated and, six weeks after the CCA Oaks, she came back to win a division of the nine-furlong Test Stakes with Baeza up.

She seemed right at last, but there was some apprehension lest she not be ready for 10 furlongs. On Tuesday she was worked nine furlongs in 1:54 2/5; on Friday she was sent a half in :48 on a sloppy track; on Saturday morning she had a filled right rear ankle. X-ray film revealed two fractures of a sesamoid bone. Hancock immediately declared her from the Alabama and announced that she would be sent to Claiborne Farm at the end of the Saratoga meeting to be bred next spring, probably to Round Table. Moccasin had 14 starts, 10 wins, $348,308, and ability she never really had an opportunity to exercise fully.

With Moccasin out, favoritism settled on Lady Pitt, winner of the Mother Goose, CCA Oaks, and Delaware Oaks, the last-named in the easiest sort of fashion by five lengths. Natashka was installed second favorite, having won the Miss Woodford and having beaten Lady Pitt in the Monmouth Oaks; she had finished ninth in the Delaware Oaks, however, her first bad race after five wins and a second in six starts.

"She lost that race before she ever stepped on the track," trainer Bill Peterson said of Natashka. "She was all washed out in the paddock, not in the afternoon, but about 11 o'clock, when there are just a few people around. Takes too much out of her to school her in the afternoon.

"Before the Alabama, I took her over to a tree on the far side and there were hardly any people around; got her saddled before she could get excited."

Peterson observed that a trainer could "get goofy if you don't watch out. Owner here, and he's never seen her win a stakes before, figure everything is going to go wrong, and you begin doing silly things. I'm wearing the same suit—win seven filly stakes this year with this suit (four with Mike Silver's Spearfish, three with Natashka),"

Darby Dan Farm's Wake Robin broke fastest of all in the Alabama, closely followed by Natashka while Lady Pitt and Prides Profile brought up the rear. Lady Pitt began to move up on the backstretch with Prides Profile going with her. On the last turn, Lady Pitt, Natashka, and Wake Robin were three abreast with Prides Profile trying to get between them as they entered the top of the stretch.

At that point Lady Pitt bore in, knocking Natashka off stride and causing Bill Shoemaker to check his filly, pulling her out of the squeeze and around Lady Pitt, which had taken the lead as Wake Robin faded. Natashka dug in again and was getting to the leader, failing by a diminishing neck at the wire. Prides Profile finished third, six lengths back.

Stewards posted an inquiry moments after the field crossed the finish, and, 14 minutes later, Lady Pitt's number came down; Natashka was declared the winner. Jockey Walter Blum was suspended 10 days for his handling of Lady Pitt.

"You know," Peterson said, "she is the fourth Alabama winner from her family." Natashka's second dam, Vagrancy, won the Alabama in 1942; Vagrancy's full sister produced Vienna, winner in 1944; Vagrancy's half-sister, Hypnotic, won the Alabama in 1946.

"I guess the next thing for her will be the Gazelle Handicap and then we'll put her away until Santa Anita."