THOROUGHBRED RACING / BILL CHRISTINE : 2 1/2 Stars, 2 Tons and Other Lore of the Track

Horse tales:

After his retirement, jockey Sammy Renick became one of the first racing telecasters, and in the late 1950s he came to California to play a small part in a movie.

The movie was called “Wind Across the Everglades,” and besides Renick there could hardly have been a more diverse cast: Burl Ives, Christopher Plummer, Gypsy Rose Lee, Two Ton Tony Galento, Emmett Kelly, MacKinlay Kantor and Peter Falk, making his film debut.

Several days before production started, Budd Schulberg, who wrote and directed the film, happened across Renick in the studio barber shop, about to get his goatee shaved off. Schulberg believed that the short beard fit Renick perfectly, and an argument ensued.

“I left it on,” Renick said. “They paid me an extra $200 a day not to get it shaved off.”

Renick’s big scene was a mud bath fight with Galento, the former heavyweight who outweighed the ex-jockey by more than 2 to 1. At the end of the fight, Galento was supposed to pick up Renick and throw him to the left of the camera. Off camera, a 6-foot-5 weightlifter-type would catch Renick.

When time came, Galento lifted Renick and heaved him to the right by mistake. Renick bounced off of a fence, crumpled to the ground and came up cursing. “You. . . ,” he said to Galento. “Why the hell didn’t you throw me where you were supposed to?”

“Jeez,” Galento stammered. “I never could tell my left from my right.”

“Well you sure knew the difference when you were getting hit by Joe Louis,” Renick said.

Renick is still proud of the picture.

“It wasn’t bad,” he said. “It got three stars.” Two and a half, according to critic Leonard Maltin.

*

Years ago, when Chick Lang was general manager of Pimlico, trainer Bryan Webb and a friend came into his office.

“The woman had one of those big draw-string purses,” Lang said. “She turned it upside down on my desk and money kept falling out.”

Webb asked Lang if he would keep the cash in the track’s safe.

“I can’t trust myself (betting) with all that money,” Webb said. “No matter what, don’t give it to me until the meet’s over.”

Lang was reluctant to be Webb’s private banker, but finally agreed to secure the money. They counted it, about $27,000, mostly in small denominations, and packaged it in envelopes.

“I’ve got this to get me through,” said Webb, pulling a small bankroll from his pants pocket.

A couple of days later, Webb came to Lang, asking for the money in the safe.

“I’m not giving it to you,” Lang said.

“But I need it, Chick,” Webb said.

“I don’t care,” Lang said. “We made a deal, and I’m not giving it to you.”

“Come on, Chick.”

“Nothing doing, Bryan.”

“Chick. . . .”

“No, sir. It stays in the safe.”

And that’s where it stayed until the meet ended. This was years ago. Webb has never used Lang as a banker again.

*

Harry Tendler, the 85-year-old press-box steward at Gulfstream Park, buried his wife earlier this month. Janice Tendler’s ashes were scattered in the track’s winner’s circle.

“She wanted to go out a winner, because that’s what she was,” Tendler said. “She left the instructions in her will. I’ve got the same instructions in my will.”

It’s not that uncommon for horsemen and racing fans to request that their ashes be spread over a racetrack. The ashes of Eric Guerin, the Hall of Fame jockey, were scattered at Calder Race Course, not far from Gulfstream, last year.

At a well-known track in the Midwest, there have been numerous requests for funeral services accompanied by a scattering of the deceased’s ashes. So many requests, in fact, that the track superintendent noticed that some of the ashes were blowing onto the turf course, killing the grass.

“We still do the services, but there’s been one change,” the superintendent said. “We simulate the ashes with regular dirt, so we can protect the turf course.”

Asked where the real ashes go, he said: “We dump them about a mile from here, on the highway.”

Horse Racing Notes

Paseana, two-time Eclipse Award winner and winner of the Santa Margarita Handicap in her last start, has suffered a splint-bone injury in her left foreleg and will be sidelined for a month. The setback will prevent Paseana from trying to become the first three-time winner of the Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park. With Paseana out, local horses Stalcreek and Southern Truce might be headed for the April 22 race. . . . Lakeway has returned to the track after bruising a foot while winning the Santa Anita Oaks. Her owner, Mike Rutherford, and her trainer, Gary Jones, have not closed the door on running in the Kentucky Derby instead of the Kentucky Oaks. To make the filly eligible for the Triple Crown, Rutherford would have to pay $6,000 by April 2.

Aaron Gryder, who rode only seven winners out of 191 mounts at Santa Anita, is returning to the Midwest. Gryder will ride at Oaklawn Park and Keeneland. . . . Gary Stevens, who rode three winners Wednesday to move into a tie with Alex Solis in the standings, starts a five-day suspension today. . . . Eddie Delahoussaye, who rode Argolid to a third-place finish in the Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds, caught flu in New Orleans and took off his mounts Wednesday. . . . Tricky Code, the California shipper who was 9-10 in the Fair Grounds Oaks, ran second, three lengths behind Two Altazano. . . . Princely Foe, the 69-1 shot that Jorge Tejeira rode to victory Wednesday, hadn’t run in nine months and outran only one horse in his only start. Tejeira, 45, rode in the East for several years before recently returning to California, where he won the Santa Anita Derby with Avatar in 1975 and the Santa Anita Handicap with Royal Glint in 1976.