BALTIMORE – Unlike the real Hugh Hefner, the horse that bears his name will need more than Viagra to score in the Preakness.
But that hasn’t stopped his owner/breeder, Eddie Nahem, from bringing the colt here to challenge
seven others tomorrow in the second leg of the Triple Crown many have already conceded to Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus.
They arrived here Wednesday, which if nothing else, put an end to a daily, and perhaps inadvertent, joke at the bottom of the daily barn notes, which all week have read: “HUGH HEFNER – To come.”
For Hugh Hefner the horse, like Hugh Hefner the man, it’s all about being the stud.
Nahem, a Brooklyn native who chased a starlet to Hollywood 30 years ago and never came back, sees the Preakness as a way not only to pocket the $600,000 winner’s share, but to double the value of his sire, Bertrando.
“He’s a good stud and right now, he’s worth about $10 million,” Nahem said. “All that’s missing from his resume is a world-class offspring. If we win this, we’re world-class just like that, Bertrando’s stud fee will double.”
Twice as much is twice as good, which is also pretty much the philosophy at the Playboy Mansion, one of Nahem’s haunts when he is back home in Los Angeles.
Nahem, 57, is as far removed from the typical Preakness owner as Hefner is from the Pope. He is no Bob Lewis, the bespectacled, perfectly coiffed, impeccably mannered gazillionaire owner of High Yield. Nor is he an overgrown frat boy like Mike Pegram, or a shadowy character like the pony-tailed, filthy rich Fusao Sekiguchi.
Nahem is just a guy looking for a good time, and most of the time, he’s found it.
He lived with Jim Morrison – yeah, Mr. Mojo himself – for eight months in Malibu. He dated Sissy Spacek, among others you may have heard of, and although he has been married “several” times, he is happy to inform you that those days are well in the past.
He first dropped by the house with his buddy Tony Curtis, the actor, who introduced him to Hef. After awhile, Nahem started dropping in without Tony. After all, at the Mansion, it is never too hard to find companionship.
“I look around and there’s like 300 girls, each of them more beautiful than the next,” Nahem said. “If you like girls, it’s like Christmas. I would try to narrow it down to about five or so, and then make my move. I would always leave with three or four telephone numbers.”
Of course, after a party at the Mansion, Hef sends you home with telephone numbers the way other hosts send their guests home with bagels and coffee.
Nahem and Hef became friends, or at least close enough for Nahem to dispel one popular canard. “Hef doesn’t spend his whole life in pajamas,” Nahem said. “Just a good part of it.”
Some would say the best part. It proved to be a seductive lifestyle for a kid who went to Lafayette High School and frequented the Marlboro movie theater, affectionately known to locals as The Itch.
“I went out to L.A. because I heard the girls were a little prettier and the weather was a little warmer,” Nahem said.
He heard right. He went into the art and antiques business, buying low and selling high, and with whatever money he had left after gambling and supplementing his expensive, if unique wardrobe – yesterday he wore salmon-pink slacks and a baggy white silk shirt to the Alibi Breakfast – began breeding thoroughbreds.
“I always went to Belmont and Aqueduct as a kid, always loved playing the horses,” Nahem said. “But I found it was better to breed and own them yourself.”
To this point, Bertrando had been the best he had, but Hugh Hefner, one of nine horses in Nahem’s Hollywood Park barn, looked to be developing into something special until he was trounced last November in the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile, finishing 13th in a 14-horse field, more than 34 lengths behind winner Anees.
Nahem and trainer Marty Jones couldn’t get Hef back in the saddle until April, when he ran second in the La Puente at Santa Anita. He followed that with another second in the 11/8-mile Snow Chief at Hollywood Park on April 30 after leading by three at the head of the stretch.
And although Anees had his head handed to him at Churchill – he finished 13th, beaten 20 lengths, and is not here – Nahem says he believes Hugh Hefner has a shot at derailing the Fusaichi Express.
Hef drew the rail at Wednesday’s post-position draw, a liability at Churchill but an edge in a short (eight-horse) field going around a narrow track with comparatively tight turns.
“When you’re a speed horse and you got the rail, maybe they’ll leave you alone,” Nahem said. “The only other speed [Hal’s Hope] is in the 8-slot and he’s been stopping pretty quick. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
If so, the horse’s namesake will not be here to see it.
“He’s not a real big horse race fan, but I did call him to let him know the race is on Saturday,” Nahem said. “He’s having a party Friday night, so hopefully, he’ll be up in time to see it. He might just make it.”
No matter how wild the party, Hugh Hefner the man probably has a much better chance of making it than Hugh Hefner the horse.
