Banner Bob Hasn’t Had Banner Year but Wins at Santa Anita

It has been a long year for Banner Bob, a year that started in Florida and has brought the 3-year-old grandson of Bold Ruler to California for an 80-degree Christmas. If Banner Bob traveled with a steamer trunk, there wouldn’t be room for all of the stickers.

After Florida, Kentucky, Chicago, New Jersey and Kentucky again, California might be the best locale of all for Banner Bob. In his first race under his West Coast trainer, Charlie Whittingham, Banner Bob finished second behind Turkoman in the Affirmed Handicap at Hollywood Park on Dec. 14, and on Thursday, before an opening-day crowd of 49,475 at Santa Anita, he won the $116,600 Malibu Stakes by three lengths.

Among the horses Banner Bob beat on Thursday was Pancho Villa, a top sprinter who went off as the 9-10 favorite and was never in contention in finishing fifth, more than five lengths behind the winner.

It was Encolure, another colt new to California after running in Louisiana most of the year, who was closest to Banner Bob at the wire. Encolure saved second by a neck over Carload, who ran just behind pace-setting Banner Bob for most of the seven-furlong race. Another Reef, who appeared to be a factor after having beaten Pancho Villa in the Vosburgh Stakes at Aqueduct in his last start, was scratched from the Malibu after running a temperature.

Banner Bob earned $71,600 for his owners, William and Sharon Walsh of suburban Chicago, and increased his career total to more than $650,000. His time of 1:21 was a second slower than the track record that was set by Spectacular Bid in winning the 1980 Malibu.

Banner Bob, second choice in the betting, paid $7.60, $4.60 and $3.80. Encolure paid $9 and $4.80 and Carload’s show price was $4.60.

Banner Bob, bought at auction by the Walshes as a 2-year-old for $25,000 after he went through the ring as a yearling for $10,000, has always had speed.

One morning at Gulfstream Park last January, he worked five-eighths of a mile in an astounding :56 3/5. Clockers wanted to throw away their stopwatches. Bud Sarner, who was then training the colt, wanted to throw away his jockey, Keith Allen, for working the horse too fast.

Three weeks later, however, Banner Bob won the Hutcheson Stakes under Allen, beating Creme Fraiche, who would later win the Belmont Stakes. Some oddsmakers listed Banner Bob at 6-1 on the early line to win the Kentucky Derby. A tiring third in the Blue Grass Stakes kept Banner Bob out of the Derby, but he later won stakes in Kentucky, Chicago and New Jersey. Going into the Malibu, he had a lifetime record of finishing in the money 18 times in 21 starts.

“He’s had no bad races,” said Whittingham, who took over the horse about a month ago. “He seems to be getting better with age.”

The Malibu is the first of the three-race Strub series, which also includes the 1 1/8-mile San Fernando Stakes on Jan. 19 and the 1- mile Charles H. Strub Stakes on Feb. 2. Only five horses have swept the three, the most recent Precisionist last season.

Banner Bob has never won beyond 1 1/16 miles, but Whittingham will try.

“There’s only guy who can do it, and I’ve got him,” William Walsh said of his trainer. “He gets his hair cut in a funny place (Whittingham is bald), but he’s capable of doing it.”

Gary Baze, who’s been the leading jockey at Longacres outside Seattle, began riding in California in mid-October and scored his first stakes win locally. Baze and Whittingham were both concerned about Banner Bob breaking from the inside post in the nine-horse field.

“My instructions were to get him out and get good position,” Baze said. “He broke good and got to running right away. There wasn’t a lot of early speed in the race, just a lot of horses that like to lay second, third and fourth, and I didn’t want to get shuffled back.”

Front-runners frequently win at Santa Anita, and Thursday was no exception. Also, Banner Bob was the fifth winner of the day from the No. 1 post.

“Speed and the rail, that’s tough to beat,” Baze said. “He was nervous in the post parade, just like he was the other day at Hollywood Park, but he got serious after he got in the gate. Off his form, I think he should be able to go longer, especially if I can get him to totally relax before the race.”

Instead of giving trainer Wayne Lukas his 70th stakes win of the year, Pancho Villa ran a dull race, which he’s done before. “I only wish I could have been on the outside,” said the colt’s jockey, Laffit Pincay. “But in the stretch, he had plenty of room to go and didn’t finish like he usually does. He didn’t seem to fire.”

A horse who did fire, Banner Bob is the kind that might keep Baze in California. The jockey’s brother-in-law, Gary Stevens, came here temporarily a year ago and bought a house in Arcadia when the wins started coming in bunches.

Baze won the fourth race with Aloma’s Tobin, a 2-year-old maiden who paid $71.

“My situation’s still up in the air,” Baze said. “But if it keeps going like this, why not stay?”

Area real-estate dealers know where to find him.

Horse Racing Notes

The crowd was Santa Anita’s smallest for an opener since 1979, but the largest ever for a start on a Thursday. . . . The $7.3 million handle was the fifth highest out of 49 openers. . . . Chris McCarron, defending riding champion, won three races and finished second aboard Encolure in the Malibu. . . . Today’s La Brea Stakes is for a relatively small purse of $60,000, but it’s drawn Lady’s Secret, winner of almost $1 million this year, plus Savannah Slew, who’s on a two-race streak, and Folk Art and Rascal Lass, who were prominent 3-year-old fillies earlier in the year. . . . The $100,000 California Breeders’ Champion Stakes, 2-year-old filly division, has drawn a 12-horse field Saturday. Lady Maxine D. and Silent Arrival carry 121 pounds apiece, the rest shouldering 114.