GOLDEN GLIMPSES #123

July 14, 1998

By ED GOLDEN

It�s time for Del Mar, where the turf meets the surf and the tots meet the spots (young horses hit the limelight).

Might be a coincidence that the last two near-Triple Crown winners--Silver Charm and Real Quiet--got their sea legs as 2-year-olds at Del Mar. Might not.

But both those horses are from trainer Bob Baffert�s barn, and if word on the backstretch has any credibility whatever, the white-haired wonder is odds-on to have another Kentucky Derby hopeful make his debut at Del Mar, which presents its annual 43-day summer by the seaside July 22 through Sept. 9.

"Baffert has some pretty nice 2-year-olds that haven�t run yet," said Del Mar racing secretary Tom Knust. "I know he�s really loaded. He nominated about 28 horses to our 2-year-old stakes (the Best Pal and the Del Mar Futurity). Stockwise, Baffert might be as strong as anybody--him and (Wayne) Lukas."

Three well-bred, unraced juveniles Baffert ranks among his best prospects are Boundless (Seattle Slew), Musical Sweep (End Sweep) and Straight Man (Saint Ballado).

"I do believe we�ll be offering a terrific 2-year-old program this summer," Knust said. "We have an excellent stakes program in place and nominations to the ($250,000 Del Mar) Debutante for fillies on Aug. 29 are up from 93 in 1997 to 156 this year. Same for the Futurity on Sept. 9. It�s up from 123 to 200, so we�ll be writing a lot of 2-year-old races. We�ll be especially strong in that division."

Of course, there will be races for older horses, one of which is the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 15. If this one had held up, it could have been the race of a lifetime. But trainer Sonny Hine has already said that leading Horse of the Year candidate Skip Away, due to a myriad of minor ailments, will not run in the Pacific Classic. That still leaves Gentlemen, Silver Charm, Puerto Madera and Free House pointing to the 1 1/4-mile race.

There will be competition from fresh shooters at Del Mar this season.

Trainer Tom Bohannan is bringing in a string from Texas; Bill Mott has doubled his contingent from the east, and Jerry Hollendorfer, the Bay Area�s answer to the Chicago Bulls, has herded up a large band from his Northern California headquarters.

"We�ve got some interesting stock coming in from all over," Knust said. "It makes for good racing."

Bohannan has eight runners from Lone Star Park near Dallas. Among them is an unstarted 2-year-old daughter of Pine Bluff, who won the 1992 Arkansas Derby and Preakness.

Mott, who earlier this year was voted into the Racing Hall of Fame, has 12 horses, primarily for Allen Paulson, who lives in Rancho Santa Fe near Del Mar and spends his summers at the track. Mott and Paulson set the racing world on its collective ear in 1995-96 with Cigar, two-time Horse of the Year and winner of a record-tying 16 straight races.

Hollendorfer has 30 head, ranging from lowly claimers to stakes runners. Joining him from the Bay Area are Brent Sumja (16 horses), and Bob Hess Sr. (eight), the father of Del Mar�s two-time leading trainer, Bob Hess Jr.

"This time of year our horse population is at its highest," Knust said. "We�ll have about 2,200 on the grounds at Del Mar, another 1,500 stabled at Santa Anita (Hollywood and Fairplex stabling areas are closed), and 300 or so at the two training farms (Galway Downs and San Luis Rey)."

THE HOMESTRETCH: Del Mar�s racing surface, much maligned by horsemen before last year when it underwent an upgrade, should continue on the improve. "We have less silt and clay and more finer sand," Knust said. On the possibility of Del Mar installing a new surface, ala Hollywood Park: "Not as of right now. We�re still looking at it and analyzing it. I think it�s too early too tell." Del Mar might be wise to wait. Hollywood�s new surface, installed at a cost of $300,000 after a trial on the training track following the 1997 fall meet, has come under criticism from some trainers. "The first month was OK," says Cliff Sise Jr. "The track was hard, but a lot of horsemen don�t like hard tracks and as soon they started digging it up, that�s when my horses started getting shin problems, especially the 2-year-olds. I�m a believer in dirt race tracks where there�s some cushion. There�s not a lot of cushion at Hollywood. There�s no bounce." Trainer Randy Bradshaw says the jury is still out. "I have horses with shin problems," Bradshaw said, "and little ailments here and there, but I don�t think injuries have been more or less than usual. It�s like anything else. If a trainer has two or three horses hurt in a row, the tendency is to blame it on the track. The new surface is all right, but it still needs work, and they�re trying. It�s a brand new product and they have to find out what can be done with it. You have to give it time, because Hollywood�s always been tough early in the spring. Every year, my horses get problems, tendons, whatever. (But) I�m here all winter long and never get those same problems. But when it gets hot and they race over the track, it changes. To me, I haven�t had any real problems that I haven�t had in the past." Sise on Del Mar�s surface: "If they do what they say, don�t mess with the bottom, have no ripping and tilling, and just work with a 3 1/2-inch cushion and get some spring into it, it could be a very good race track." . . . It couldn�t hurt: jockey Goncalino Almeida, winless at Hollywood Park this meet in 55 rides, has split with agent Michelle Barsotti and is booking his own mounts . . . Trainer George Williams has yielded 67 percent of the operation for owner Joanne Nor, whose Desert Stormer registered a $31 upset as part of the field in the 1995 Breeders� Cup Sprint. Noble Threewitt, 87, will call the shots for Nor�s 10-horse stable at Del Mar and Santa Anita, while Williams, 70, directs the show at Hollywood . . . Countdown on Pincay: Laffit Pincay Jr., the 51-year-old Hall of Fame jockey, has 8,626 wins to trail all-time leader Bill Shoemaker�s 8,833 by 207 . . . Russell Baze, Anthony Black, Frank Gonsalves, Jose Santos and Ray Sibille have been nominated for the 1999 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award to be presented at Santa Anita this winter. Put my money on Russell the Muscle.

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