Nearing 80, fire still burning

"It's costing me money," he says, "but I just couldn't do that. These people have been loyal for so long."

He must compete with the 150-plus-horse stables of the likes of Bob Baffert, John Sadler, Doug O'Neill and Mike Mitchell, not to mention the even larger Eastern operations of Steve Asmussen and Todd Pletcher.

But McAnally holds on to one theory of success, and it doesn't always stem merely from quantity.

"Just give me the horse," he says.

That's what an owner named Sam Rubin, a man McAnally never had met, did in 1979. McAnally remembers that John Henry wasn't much to look at, nor a warm and friendly animal. But Rubin had given him the horse, and there was quickly no question he could run.

When McAnally and John Henry were done, the durable gelding had amassed $6,597,547 in winnings and McAnally had received universal praise for his handling of this temperamental horse. McAnally's success continued to grow after John Henry retired in 1984.

That success included four victories in Breeders' Cup races, one of them a bittersweet moment that few in racing ever will forget.

In the 1990 Distaff at Belmont Park, McAnally's Bayakoa was involved in a classic stretch duel with another special filly named Go For Wand. Near the finish line, Go For Wand broke down and the horror of the moment for all those watching in person or on network TV remains vivid.

Jim McKay

Still, after all this, in a training career that has spanned eight decades, McAnally is looking for more. And now, he may have the horses.

His Charm the Maker won the Nov. 13 Sharp Cat Stakes, a $100,000 race at Hollywood Park, and has, according to McAnally, a chance to be special. He will enter her next in the Dec. 10 Hollywood Starlet, a Grade I race worth $250,000. And with success there, the sky's the limit.

"Yes, maybe something like the Kentucky Oaks," he says. "That's possible. She's that good."

"I could not have done it without my wife, Deborah," he says. They have been married 39 years, and she is closely involved in his daily operation.

"When I met her, I had nothing," McAnally says. "I had a feed bill for $30,000 that I couldn't pay and nothing else. I still have the letter they sent me, demanding the money. And I'm still using the same feed company."

In addition to Deborah, three daughters and five grandchildren, McAnally has five homes, all paid for, and a training career that seems about to be jump-started again.

He can't wait to keep going, to get up at 4 a.m., to get to the gym five days a week for work on the treadmill and the weights, to squeeze in his daily nap before getting back to the track to saddle his racers.

His motto is the same at 79 as it was at 30.

"Just give me the horse."

bdwyre@tribune.com