This Week In History: A World Record At…Turf Paradise?

In recent years, the future of Turf Paradise near Phoenix, Ariz., has become a question mark. Arizona owners, trainers, and breeders have hankered for the days when racing in the state was robust and Turf Paradise really was a sort of paradise. In that time when the future seemed more certain, the racetrack was the site of a world record set by a horse who would be called by his owners “the poor man’s John Henry.”

On this week in 1987, a 6-year-old gelding named Zany Tactics set the record for six furlongs, winning the Grade 3 Phoenix Gold Cup in 1:06 4/5, two ticks faster than the previous record – which had also been set at Turf Paradise five years earlier.

It was no coincidence Turf was the venue for another record, according to coverage from the Los Angeles Times. Turfwriter Bill Christine pointed out that the track in those days was known to be a rock-hard drag strip and that earlier on the same card a different horse had come close to setting the season’s record.

Still, Christine conceded that Zany Tactics’ race had been impressive, as he accomplished the feat carrying 126 pounds, higher than the previous record holder and higher than the early pacesetter Faro, who had 115 pounds aboard as he opened the first four furlongs in 43 seconds.

The closing effort by Zany Tactics was all the more impressive considering how the horse began. Trainer Blake Heap had taken over the training task from his father, and must have felt it a dubious favor to be handed such a challenge. The 4-year-old California-bred, who had a decidedly unglamorous pedigree (by the T.V. Lark stallion Zanthe), also had soundness problems on and off and was whatever you’d call the opposite of a morning glory (an evening primrose, perhaps?) – he seemed bored and slow during morning work.

Vera and Don Burnette bought Zany Tactics for $6,000 when he was two, and the LA Times reported they couldn’t find a buyer for him at $5,000 after spending a year’s upkeep on him with no race record to show. Heap recalled that they sent the horse to Utah and turned him out nearly a year as everyone tried to figure out what he needed. A gelding surgery didn’t seem to do the trick. Heap’s father ended up with the horse after his vacation and also struggled to figure out what would motivate him. (The younger Heap said he isn’t sure if that’s where “Zany” got his name from, though it would make sense to him.) Zany worked with the slowest filly in the barn for several weeks until he figured out how to beat her. Then, Heap remembers, his father put the difficult gelding with one horse and then another as he started gaining confidence.

Zany didn’t find his way to the starting gates until the younger Heap picked him up for his 4-year-old season, but once he did, it was clear afternoon work was his happy place. By the time he came to Turf for the 1987 Phoenix Gold Cup, he already had a win in the G2 San Carlos among his 11 victories with earnings over $400,000.

Speaking to The Blood-Horse of the horse’s early career struggles, Heap reflected in August 1987 “that may have been lucky, because he’s so fast he would have torn himself up.”

Heap said he knew his horse was fast, though he can’t pretend he went to the races that day expecting to become a world record-holder. He recalled watching the post parade with the Burnettes in the directors’ room at Turf Paradise and the group of connections began speculating on what the final time might be.

“Everybody put $20 I think in a pot and picked a time,” he said. “I think I put 1:07 1/5. The lady who owned him, Vera, asked what the fastest time was somebody had put. I think her husband put 1:07 flat. She said, well I want 1:06 4/5 then.”

Vera was dead on.

The Phoenix was actually Zany Tactics’ second record. His first was an American record for six furlongs at Hollywood Park, which he completed on the turf in 1:07 2/5 in the Hollywood Turf Express Handicap in December 1986. Zany had incredible versatility, switching easily between dirt and turf, hard surfaces and sloppy without care. That versatility served him well. After his world record, Zany Tactics went on to win the G3 Bing Crosby and the then-ungraded Pat O’Brien at Del Mar. Unfortunately a risk by the Burnettes to pay a pricey late nomination to that year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint did not pay off, as he finished a disappointing ninth.

Heap said Zany’s name was less fitting when it came to his demeanor around the barn. The gelding was so quiet that Heap, who ponied and did plenty of work on the ground with him, would often toss the shank over the horse’s neck and walk casually hands-free beside him around the shedrow, sometimes to the owners’ chagrin. As they crisscrossed the country going to Turf, Thistledown, Belmont, Golden Gate, Canterbury, and back to Southern California, it was usually just Heap and Zany in his truck and small trailer.

Looking back, Heap says they were each taking each other for a once-in-a-lifetime ride.

“With him I got to meet everybody,” said Heap. “I was walking him around one day and saw Charlie Whittingham. And Charlie had a horse called Bolder Than Bold that Shoemaker rode. He run in the Bing Crosby and come flying and almost beat me. I beat him a nose, or maybe a head. Then we come back in the Pat O’Brien and I beat him pretty good that day, I beat him by two, because we were pretty fit.

“I was walking him around on the pony and Charlie hollered at me and said ‘Hey, bring that horse over here. I’d like to see his face. I’m tired of looking at his ***.’”

Earlier in his campaign, Zany was stabled next to Allen Jerkens’ barn in New York. When Jerkens learned Heap had played college football, he insisted they play touch football in the mornings, a tradition at the Jerkens barn.

Going into Zany’s 1988 season, Heap was optimistic. He lost the G2 San Carlos in January, but Heap was happy with the way he was coming along and was planning on another trip to Phoenix for a return in the Gold Cup. Zany Tactics was wrapping up an easy five-furlong workout one morning in late February with regular rider Alan Patterson aboard and Heap alongside the pony when the LA Times reported the horse faltered during his jog, stopped in his tracks and fell. The connections would later learn he’d ruptured a blood vessel.

“He had a big heart,” Heap told writer Bill Christine at the time. “The horse got off easy. I’m the one that’s got to live with his loss.”

Even now, Heap says, it’s hard to believe the way the ride ended. He remembers going home with Patterson that day and splitting a bottle of bourbon, watching replays and trading stories about their four-legged friend.

“Honestly, it’s still shocking. It seemed like a dream,” said Heap. “He [Zany] introduced me to everybody. It’s a story of a horse taking a guy. I would’ve never gotten places without him. I got to meet friends from the East Coast to the West Coast and everywhere in between.

“He was a special horse, for sure.”

Heap continued training, and most recently saddled runners in 2023. He took some time off to assist colleague Wesley Ward, and is spending time with family, including his 98-year-old mother. He expects that like any racetracker, he’ll be back when the time is right.