When it comes to riding the bullrings, Caesar Dominguez says you can keep your Hall of Fame riders.

Give him the kids with the eye of the tiger, who have the passion and determination to ride the 5/8-mile Pomona oval like they know the back of their hands.

"I’m one of those trainers who really enjoys running at Pomona," says the 48-year-old El Paso native, who was the leading trainer at Fairplex Park in 1992.

"Some trainers don’t enjoy it, but my horses always seem to run good. I usually get lucky and pick a jockey who rides good at the bullring."

Caesar’s luck abandoned him in the Barretts Debutante on Sept. 21, when Laffit Pincay Jr., riding 6-5 favorite Balisian Beauty, almost went down on the first turn. The 50-year-old rider, winningest active jockey with 8,554 victories, 279 behind leader Bill Shoemaker’s record 8,833, never gave up in the 6 1/2 furlong race, however.

Some 16 lengths behind at the half-mile pole and 13 behind with a quarter of a mile remaining, Pincay unleashed a furious rally aboard the 2-year-old filly, who missed by a nose. Had the photo finish been any closer, it would have been a dead-heat.

"I told Laffit not to pick this filly’s head up," Dominguez said after the heart-breaking defeat. "If you do, she’s going to blow the turn. Just give this filly her head and turn her loose. She should have won by 10 lengths."

Pincay, usually very accommodating for interviews after a race, had a terse "no comment" for one reporter.

Dominguez was still licking his wounds the next day, but was not malicious or vindictive when he recounted his decision.

"Nine out of 10 times when you get those big power-name riders like Pincay, Solis, Nakatani and Desormeaux, those guys are just not bullring riders at this stage of their careers. They used to be when they were younger. Now, it’s a different era. That’s the way the game goes.

"The riders who ride at Pomona (on a regular basis) are hungrier and know the bullring, because they ride here every day. You bring your Pincays, Desormeauxs and Solises, they come and ride one horse and it’s brand new to them. Twenty years ago, they would ride just as good as the young guys.

"Now, they’re established. They’re not going to take the chances that the young rider takes. And we need to ride those kind of riders."

To Pincay’s credit, he bounced back from the Barretts Debutante, a race in which, by his own admission, he "almost went down on the first turn," and won the next two feature races at Fairplex Park, the Bangles and Beads Stakes on Flying In The Lane, and the next day’s allowance feature, on Exhilaration, for Kentucky Derby-winning owners Bob and Beverly Lewis and trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

THE HOMESTRETCH: Gentlemen, who shockingly ran fifth in the Woodbine Mile, continues to make progress from a throat ulcer on the tip of his epiglottis and remains on the road to the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Hollywood Park on Nov. 8. "We rescoped it two days ago," trainer Richard Mandella said Sunday, "and it was improved considerably. So it gives us the feeling that it’s going to be workable if we can get it taken care of, and we don’t think we’ll lose too much (training) time. Right now, I wouldn’t guess that it would interfere with our Breeders’ Cup plan, but each week will tell us. We’ll scope it again next week and see where we are. If it ever starts on the wrong foot, we’re out, for the Breeders’ Cup. But right now, it’s regressed, and responded to treatment very quickly. It was very acute, just red and inflamed and had a little pus head on an ulceration." Asked why it wasn’t detected before the race, Mandella said: "Usually, they cough with something like that, but he didn’t cough. I wish he had left me a little note under the door and said, ‘Hey, boss, I’ve got a little sore throat today, leave me out,’ but he didn’t do that." . . . Look for Bob Baffert’s barn to continue to sizzle at Oak Tree. The leading trainer at Del Mar with 27 wins should be especially sharp with a barn full of running maidens . . . Charlie Whittingham, who turns 85 next April 13, has given up his barn at Hollywood Park. Seems infirmities are preventing the Hall of Fame trainer from making the lengthy schlep from his home in Sierra Madre to Inglewood, and he’ll maintain his barn solely at Santa Anita, just a furlong from Sierra Madre. Bobby Frankel has moved into Whittingham’s old haunt at Hollywood Park . . . Pincay was named on seven horses at Emerald Downs on Sunday, but said he will be back to ride on a regular basis at Oak Tree. "I rode at Pomona and Emerald Downs to stay in shape," Pincay said. "I feel good and I’m exercising regularly, but it’s important for me to keep active with my riding." . . . Del Mar maintained its status as racing’s perennial leader in daily average attendance during its meet which ended Sept. 10. For the seventh straight year, Del Mar led North American tracks with 30,578. Still, it was 3.2 percent lower than last year’s 31,587. Total handle was a Del Mar record $520,946,023, an increase of 3.7 percent from 1996 . . . Hot jock to follow at Oak Tree: apprentice J.C. (Jose Carlos) Gonzalez. The native of Jalisco, Mexico turns 22 on Oct. 5 but rides with courage and motivation beyond his years. He’s hungry and focused, and bettors will get their money’s worth with this kid

. . . Fairplex Park didn’t come close to its record 1996 handle of $103,298,938, but vice president of racing Neil O’Dwyer saw some positive signs in the 18-day meet. "One of the goals of the California Horse Racing Board is full fields of eight or more runners average per race, and we more than met that," O’Dwyer said. "I feel very good about our handle, even though Santa Anita did not take our (simulcast) signal because of its renovation. We still picked up much of that handle on-track and through Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos. Santa Anita being so close (20 miles from Pomona) had a negative impact on the gross handle, obviously. It’s one of the biggest satellites in the system. But we had a very safe meet, with a minimal number of breakdowns (only one fatal injury), so we’re very happy about that . . . You can’t expect to break a record every year.".