November 2000

James and Frances Beckett
by DEBRA GINSBURG


Frances and James Beckett (front row, first and second from left) in the winner's circle with their Merial Stakes winner, Guiding Force

James and Frances Beckett are practically permanent fixtures on the CTBA's membership roster. Members since 1965, they have been breeding and racing Thoroughbreds for nearly 40 years.

"My wife and her family were actually involved a lot longer than I've been," Jim said. "I got hooked the first time they dragged me to Santa Anita."

The Becketts went from playing the ponies to claiming them. Twenty years later, they bought a farm and started breeding their own horses. Built in 1988, Beckett Ranch is located about an hour east of Santa Anita in Colton, Calif. The 40-acre spread is devoted to breeding, mare and foal care, and lay-ups. All the training is done off the ranch at Rex Ellsworth's old place, Milestone, located about a mile away. There, the young horses are brought up to the breezing stage, and lay-ups are conditioned for a return to the track.

Joining an impressive roster of stallions at Beckett next breeding season will be Cold n Calculating, who will be entering stud in 2001. He is a stakes-winning half-brother to Favorite Trick, who became the first 2-year-old since Secretariat to earn Horse of the Year honors following an undefeated juvenile campaign in 1997. Sired by the influential It's Freezing, Cold n Calculating may not be as famous, but he proved himself an extremely durable racehorse. He retired sound after 59 races and earnings of $464,805, including a win in the 1995 Bolsa Chica Stakes at Santa Anita.

Other stallions standing at Beckett are Order, Russian Courage, Olympic Native, Encino and Raise a Champion. Order is the sire of Ready to Order, a multiple stakes winner of $335,290 who defeated Cavonnier in the 1995 California Breeders' Champion Stakes. Russian Courage is a Nijinsky II half-brother to Skywalker, and Encino is also by Nijinsky and hails from a potent female family that has produced Terlingua, Pancho Villa, Royal Academy and Storm Cat. Beckett Ranch wasn't even built when a durable old campaigner named P. Vik entered their lives. By champion Brown Bess' sire, Petrone, out of a Viking Spirit mare, P. Vik campaigned over six seasons and won the 1983 C. B. Afflerbaugh Stakes at Pomona in the Becketts' silks when he was seven years old. Three years earlier, he had also won an allowance race at Hollywood Park, beating none other than Pirate's Bounty. The gallant old warrior placed in three other added-money events all over the state and compiled earnings of $230,950 during an era when purses where not as high as they are today.

P. Vik entered stud in 1984 and stood at various farms in Southern California until his new home was made ready for him. From limited crops, he has sired a high percentage of winners, including several homebreds for the Becketts. A half-sister, Proud N'passionate, has also proved quite fruitful in the breeding shed as the dam of the Northern California stakes winner Today a Star.

"P. Vik's still here at the ranch," said Jim Beckett of his first stakes winner and stallion. "He's 24 years old now and semi-retired from the breeding shed, but he still thinks he's the king."

Navel Academy, the couple's best known runner of late, was produced from a mare that Jim and Frances claimed at Santa Anita long before they built the ranch. Summertime Silver could not win a race in five starts, but she more than paid her own way in the breeding shed. Bred her first two years to P. Vik, she gave birth to $50,000-earner Wayward Angel and minor stakes winner Devilinherheart. She was also the dam of Beckett-bred Navy Hostess, winner of the 1998 Les Mademoiselle Stakes at Ferndale, but died shortly after giving birth to Navel Academy.

A son of Slewpy, Navel Academy races for the couple and their daughter, Judy Little. After running second in the 1998 Pomona Derby, he scored his first stakes victory in the restricted Reb's Policy Handicap during Santa Anita's 1999 meet. This fall, he came back from a fractured cannon bone to win the Aprisa Handicap at Fairplex Park. A gutsy and consistent runner, Navel Academy has now won six of his 18 starts and placed in seven others for earnings of $274,318.

While Navel Academy was recuperating on the sidelines, the Becketts took the opportunity last spring to unveil Guiding Force. The 3-year-old homebred by Hollywood Brat-Eddies Angel, by Mo Bay, captured the Merial Stakes for Cal-bred maidens at the first California Gold Rush Day at Hollywood Park in April. The concept of stakes races for maidens is popular in Europe, but unheard of in this country. Guiding Force picked up a check worth $36,000 for his first win in two starts.

He also came out of the race with a bone chip, but has recently resumed training and will be ready for the winter meet at Santa Anita. Time will tell if Guiding Force will also be able to make a successful comeback.

"Jim and Frances are great clients who are very aware of the crazy ups and downs in this business," said John Sadler, who has trained horses for them for nearly eight years. "We always have fun when we're at the races together.

SIDEBAR:
THE COMEBACK KID

Fifteen months had passed since Navel Academy went lame in a workout at Hollywood Park and then made his triumphant return in the Aprisa Handicap at Fairplex Park on September 18. During that time, the horse's owners held guarded hope that he could successfully return to the track.

A hard-knocking and honest son of Slewpy, Navel Academy won the 1999 Reb's Policy Handicap against Cal-breds at Santa Anita and placed in four other stakes for respectable earnings of $246,818. However, following a July 15 workout over a tattered turf course at Hollywood Park, he was lame by the time he reached his barn. X-rays revealed a displayed condylar fracture of the cannon bone that extended into the horse's ankle.

Dr. Greg Ferraro inserted two screws to hold the leg together, but his prognosis for Navel Academy's racing future was bleak. "As far as condylar fractures go, his was pretty severe," he told Daily Racing Form.

Navel Academy's chances of a full recovery was pretty much left up to the horse himself. He had overcome adversity before. His mother had died a few days after he was born and left him an orphan to fend for himself. Through four months of stall rest from the first surgery-and a second operation to remove the screws-he proved himself a model patient. He then had to wait some more for the holes to fill in and the bone to grow strong before he was allowed to go on the track for even a simple jog. Yet, his competitive spirit never wagged for a second.

"When they break that low, down into the joint. . .well, most people didn't think he could come back and run again," said trainer John Sadler. "We just hoped his fighting spirit would work in his favor."

Finally, Navel Academy entered the starting gate at Fairplex Park for the $50,000 Aprisa Handicap at six furlongs. For the 5-year-old horse to make it even that far was a reason to celebrate. What happened next was even more incredible.

Under jockey David Flores, Navel Academy shot out of the gate like a bolt of lightning and posted quick early fractions of :21 2/5. Making every call a winning one, he held fellow Cal-bred The Morris Monroe at bay in the stretch drive to record a half-length victory in 1:10. The time was just 4/5 of a second off Fairplex's track record for the distance. 

"We always had hope that he'd come back," Jim Beckett said, "but then you never know. We let the horse recuperate at his own pace. We didn't rush him at all. To come back and win at the level he had been competing at before he got hurt, that shows he has a lot of heart."

-Debra Ginsburg

Copyright © 1998-2001 California Thoroughbred Breeders Association