Crane says he knows that Nero was grabbed through the outside window and injected just below his jaw. "It looked like a wasp sting," he explains. 'They had to get him from outside because the groom slept in front of his stall and had his meals brought to him. The horse was never left alone. Nero spent a precarious afternoon and evening that fateful Fox Stake day as he was walked with three coolers on him to absorb the fluid he was losing. Crane estimates that the colt could have shed between 50-75 pounds in one day. So you can readily see why Jim Crane is bothered by his memories of the Fox Stake. Not only did he lose out on the race he wanted to win so badly, but he almost lost the colt he loved even more. Now let's return to the fall of 1983 when Crane and his patron Allen Skolnick decided to invest some of the money they had reaped with the syndication of Royce a year earlier. Crane went to Lexington first to scout the available pacing investments and the Skolnicks
were to join him later. So Allen Skolnick was a surprised man when he got off the plane at Lexington's Bluegrass Field and saw Jim Crane waiting for him. I wondered how he knew which flight I was on," laughs Allen. "But he'd called my office and
found out. Jim was gushing with enthusiasm over some yearlings. He told me that he had two colts that I just had to see. I'd flown in from New York and wanted to get to the Marriott, but Jim didn't even let me go to my hotel until we'd stopped at
Tattersalls and he'd shown me these two colts." In addition to Radiant Ruler, Crane was attracted to Cosmic King out of Kwacky Barmin. "I think the Cosmic King colt will bring more money because he has a better pedigree," Crane counseled his patron, "but I think Radiant Ruler is a better horse. We probably won't get both of them, but I'd sure like to get one." Mr. Skolnick laughs when he remembers that Crane dragged him back to look at these two colts "probably 15 times" before the sale. "They might as well not have even had a door on the stall," admits Allen. "Every time Jim would go back there and see a big-name trainer looking at them, his heart would sink Cosmic King sold first and brought a $120,000
bid and Crane snared him. "I told Jim that if he felt that strong about those two colts, we should try to buy both of them."
remembered Allen. "We had to go considerably beyond our limits to get them, though." Radiant Ruler brought $110,000 and Norman Woolworth was the under-bidder. Crane shipped his purchases to his winter base at Aiken, South Carolina.
He puts flat shoes on his yearlings when first getting them going and keeps them there until just about time to take them to the races. Last year Radiant Ruler raced in full swedges all around. (His front feet are 3 5/8 inches set at 49 degrees while behind his feet are 3 1/2 inches set at 54 degrees.) "I guess about the only thing I do differently," says Crane, "is that I keep tendon boots on my colts until they're around 2:10 and just about set to start racing. I just want that protection in case they'd happen to strike a tendon." Another practice of Crane's which is some what out of the norm is the fact that he refuses to push his juveniles in the early stages of training. I'm ultra conservative and just can't bring myself to get young horses ready as early as other trainers," he confesses, if such a statement can be termed a confession. "I only train a few horses, a small stable by most standards, and I've got to make every horse count. I don't have a stable where I can go through ten colts to get one great one." Crane pauses for emphasis. "And I don't want a stable like that, either." "A lot of these babies just ruin themselves when
asked to do so much," he continues. "Radiant Ruler was a growthy colt and in his early training he was clumsy. When he got going faster, he smoothed out and got good gaited." Radiant Ruler didn't get started until June 25 at Brandywine when other youngsters were busting the two minute barrier at The Meadowlands. Even that was a rushed schedule for Crane "I knew I had a good colt before that first start because I'd trained him in 2:04 to a jog cart at Brandywine," says Crane, "I could tell by the way he responded at the end of the mile that he was special." Radiant Ruler fared well in his early starts, but in the eliminations for the Woodrow Wilson, he got stuck in one of the sloppy divisions and wound up second to Troublemaker and was ruled out from the final because of the slow time of the race. In the $200,000 consolation, he was just ripped
at the wire by Panorama in 1:56. "I know that this may sound preposterous," concedes Crane, "but I think if I had six or eight
starts in him prior to the Wilson instead of four, he would have been very close in that race." Of course, everything which transpired after the Wilson consolation bears out Crane's statement. He won his next start at The Meadowlands and shipped west to hunt for the Fox. Allen Skolnick had never been to Indiana before, but he and his wife went out a day early to watch the Grand Circuit action. After observing the style of racing, he told his wife, "It seems to me that you have to be in the first four horses when they turn for home or you don't have a chance." In the opening round of the Fox, Radiant Ruler dawdled well off the pace set by Panorama and was, in fact, about ninth in the pack as the field spun into the stretch. Up to that point, the Skolnicks had watched the race closely, but their colt seemed to have no chance. Allen turned to Connie and said, "Well,
I guess we didn't do it today." Mr. Skolnick then admits that the race was practically over for him and he failed to follow it.
What he missed was an explosive surge by Radiant Ruler which carried him to and almost past Panorama. Crane has watched the videotape of that race many times (as have I) and he calculates that since the final quarter was officially paced in :28.2, Radiant Ruler must have paced his final quarter under 27 seconds. In the final heat, catch-driver John Campbell avoided traffic and trouble, staying to the outside around the final turn, then sprinted past Panorama while Walton Hanover sought racing room at the rail. Radiant Ruler took the heat in 1:54.4 and the coveted trophy. Again, Crane figures his
final quarter had to be well under 27 seconds. Despite the fact that the Fox Stake is no longer the most lucrative event for young pacers, it still unfolds each year as a Standardbred classic. For several years, I have had the pleasure of providing color commentary for an hour-long live television broadcast of the Fox, a program, incidentally, which reaches much of the Midwest via cable. Dedicated Don Henry and his many assistants such as Phil Trimble, Vic Losure and the others, work furiously and unselfishly to keep the Fox Stake on a classic level. And it's a race which means a lot to Jim Crane and Barry Epstein. Crane admits that he was "overjoyed" at the victory, a win which served as sweet revenge for a bitter episode ten years ago. For breeder Epstein, he said that seeing Radiant Ruler win the Fox Stake was his sweetest moment since the colt's
sire paced that meteoric and memorable mile in The Meadowlands Pace. After the Fox, Radiant Ruler shipped to DuQuoin and walloped Walton Hanover and Electric Guitar, pacing a pair of miles in 1:55.2, fast enough to establish a new track record. It was then to Detroit where he coasted past the field in 1:58 at Wolverine. Next came a start in the American-National which marked the denouement of his season. "In retrospect, we think he might have had a hairline fracture going into the American-National in Chicago," admits Crane. "John (Campbell) warmed him up and said. This colt isn't hitting
the ground quite right' " Crane reminded Campbell that Radiant Ruler was awkward when going slow and John thought
there might be more to it than that but they raced him anyway. He made breaks and came out of the event with a hairline fracture on his right hind cannon bone. The colt stayed at Sportsman's Park and remained under stall rest even through part of the thoroughbred meet. He was then taken to Dr. Benefiel's veterinary hospital and took advantage of the facility's indoor swimming pool for five or six weeks. He was then trucked to South Carolina where he was first hand-walked in a paddock. His first jogging session lasted only a half-mile. Crane would not let him go further. Soon, the colt was being legged up by jogging six miles a day. He went his first training mile on Feb. 22. Crane is reluctant to single out any foe this season, knowing that the toughest foe might be the specter of lameness. He makes the obvious choices?Walton Hanover, Trutone Lobell, Electric Guitar, Troublemaker, and Carls Bird?but says that "I have counted up 12 evenly-matched colts in this group."
Before concluding this narrative, let me make one simple observation on Radiant Ruler's pedigree. I find it most interesting that he carries a close cross to Bret Hanover in that his sire is out of a mare by Bret while his dam is a granddaughter of Castleton's premier sire. Thus Radiant Ruler carries a 3x3 cross to Bret Hanover. In this respect, he is a shining exponent
of the old theory "Return to the sire the best blood of his dam." Since the best blood of Sonsam's dam is the blood of Bret Hanover, Epstein returned this Bret Hanover blood to Sonsam in the form of a mare, Full Catch, by a son of Bret
Hanover, Strike Out It is well known that Sonsam possesses an abundance of Hal Dale blood. He is 4x4x4x5
to Hal Dale, an unusual amount of crosses even by contemporary standards. That Hal Dale blood from Sonsam mixed with even more Hal Dale blood through Full Catch who is from the Hal Dale mare line. However, most of Radiant Ruler's maternal line consists of sires who are somewhat alien to contemporary racing fans. Chart it out and you will find such names as McKinney Scott, Guy Abbey, and Belwin in addition to the more familiar Volomite and Billy Direct. It is difficult, if not impossible, to accurately predict the success of three-year-olds based upon their performance as two year-olds. It's a real crap shoot. Many great juveniles simply never regain their form in the following season. With the added burden of a hairline fracture, the odds will truly be against Radiant Ruler this season. But he flashed such arresting ability at times that his season will surely be monitored closely by horsemen.

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