Hovdey: Walter, Nerud both knew their X’s and Y’s

As far as I know, Barbara Walter and John Nerud – who died this week at the age of 102 – never met and were never pen pals, although nothing about Walter would surprise me. (Or Nerud, for that matter.)

Walter knew Imelda Marcos, she was hit on by Marlon Brando, and at one point in her exceptional life she traveled to Soviet Russia with a group of politically sophisticated young women long before the Iron Curtain turned to lace.

She also shared with Nerud an abiding fascination with the challenge of breeding a fast Thoroughbred, one who could stand the gaff of stiff training and look other fast Thoroughbreds in the eye without giving a blink.

Like Nerud – who was initially backed in the application of his breeding philosophy by William McKnight – Walter had the bucks to put her ideas to the test. She and her husband, the cattleman and land developer Robert Walter, turned their Vine Hill Ranch in Northern California into a Petri dish for the breeding and raising of horses who outran their pedigrees.

“I love to see the pedigrees come to life,” she said.

And they did. Charmonnier upset future Hall of Famer Best Pal in an edition of the California Cup Classic. Batroyale won everything in sight one summer at Del Mar for 2-year-old fillies. Tout Charmant brushed close to a national championship. Lazy Slusan won the Santa Margarita. Ringaskiddy won the San Juan Capistrano.

The jewel in the Walters’ crown was Cavonnier, the winner of the 1996 Santa Anita Derby who went on to lose the Kentucky Derby by the narrowest margin in the history of the race. Still, he was their pride and joy and represented the epitome of a breeding program that Nerud could admire.

Initially, the Nerud style was to find a sturdy mare who could run, damn the pedigree, and send her to the best possible stallions. Later on, when the blood of the Tartan Farm broodmare band was established, Nerud was a bit more forgiving if the mare brought a serious family to the party.

And so it was that he bred, in his words, “a big mare with a foot you couldn’t handle” by the name of Magic to Northern Dancer in 1974, figuring this was what the game was all about. After all, Magic was a half-sister to Dr. Fager, by Buckpasser. We’ll pause while those names roll sweetly around in the brain.

Sad to say, the Northern Dancer-Magic foal was a bust, at least as a racehorse. Named Mazurka, she never saw the starting gate, although her pedigree got her to stallions like Exclusive Native, Raise a Native, Affirmed, and Ack Ack as a broodmare. And while none of her foals made headlines, most of them got to the races and lasted 20 starts or more.

It was into such a family that Barbara Walter delved when Direwarning, a daughter of Mazurka by Belmont Stakes winner Caveat, wandered to the West Coast and ended up running for a tag. For a song, she could tap into one of Nerud’s finest families, which was catnip to Walter, a female-family snob of the highest order. So, in 1992, the Walters bred Direwarning to their His Majesty stallion Battonier and got Cavonnier.

Cavonnier was a gelding – because Robert Walter thought there should be more geldings – and for years after his racetrack retirement, the old horse enjoyed life in a field of yearling proteges. Robert died in 2003, and Barbara followed in 2010, but through the years in between she would hike down the ranch road each day like clockwork to feed Cavonnier his carrots over the pasture fence. In gratitude, or play, he would tickle her with the nose that could not quite get there in the Derby.

All of this loops back to the fact that on Sunday at the extended Santa Rosa meet in Northern California, just a few miles from where Cavonnier was born and raised, the Cavonnier Juvenile Stakes will be renewed once again. Cathy Vicini, Robert Walter’s daughter and the proprietor of the family’s Trecini Winery in Santa Rosa, will be on hand once again to represent the legacy of Cavonnier and present the trophy.

“Since Vine Hill Ranch was sold, Cavonnier has been cared for on a place not far from there,” Vicini said this week. “I really wish they would bring him out for the race like they used to, but it is a different atmosphere without the fair going on during the races. He really made it a special day.”

There’s more? Of course there is. In the spring of 1975, with Mazurka at her side, Magic was sent to In Reality, a stallion steeped in Nerud’s influence through his sire, Intentionally. The following spring, Magic foaled another filly – she was named Charedi – who, according to Nerud, was of better size but “couldn’t quite run three-quarters of a mile.”

She had the blood, though, and one thing led to another. Charedi produced Gana Facil to a cover of Le Fabuleux. Gana Facil produced Unbridled to a cover of Fappiano, and eventually Unbridled sired Empire Maker, who sired Pioneerof the Nile, who sired American Pharoah, who thus shares a special corner of the gene pool with Cavonnier.

Also, Bob Baffert trained them both.