Hollywood Park : McHargue Gets Teeth Into a Stake

Jockey Darrel McHargue needed the win in Saturday’s $115,250 Milady Handicap more than Dontstop Themusic did.

Dontstop Themusic, who finished 2 lengths ahead of Magnificent Lindy before 27,303 at Hollywood Park, was winning her 10th career stake and the seventh in the last 14 months.

But for McHargue, one of only a few jockeys to win more than 400 races in a year and winner of the Eclipse Award as top jockey in 1978, stakes wins--even stakes mounts--have not been piling up at his door recently.

McHargue says he’s never lost his touch, and coming off the track after the Milady Saturday, he showed that he hadn’t lost his sense of humor, either. Asked when he had last won a stake at Hollywood, McHargue quipped: “I think it was when I was about 13.”

The 31-year-old McHargue actually won a stake about a year ago at Hollywood, and he’s had a couple of stakes wins at Santa Anita and Aqueduct this year. But going into Saturday, McHargue had ridden only 111 times at Hollywood this season--about two mounts a day--and Dontstop Themusic was only his eighth win.

McHargue was where he was, in the winner’s circle with Dontstop Themusic, through a series of developments. First, Laffit Pincay, who usually rides the 6-year-old mare, suffered a sprained ankle in a spill Thursday and wasn’t able to ride.

Second, McHargue became available for trainer Randy Winick only because another conditioner, Hoss Inman, excused the jockey from riding Turn and Dance Saturday in the Canterbury Oaks at Canterbury Downs. The only other time McHargue rode Dontstop Themusic, they won the Chula Vista Handicap at Del Mar last August, and when it looked as though Pincay wouldn’t be ready, he wanted another chance.

“Nobody likes to inherit a mount this way,” McHargue said. “If you do, you’re not a professional. I’m just glad Laffit’s injuries aren’t bad and are only minor.”

It was just a few days after McHargue’s win aboard Dontstop Themusic at Del Mar when he was dumped by a mount leaving the gate and suffered back injuries. Two months to the day of that spill, McHargue was injured again at Santa Anita and sidelined for seven weeks.

Even before those injuries, McHargue’s business had deteriorated locally, and in 1982 he went to Ireland and England to ride, staying more than two years.

When he returned to California, not only were Pincay, Chris McCarron, Bill Shoemaker and the other standouts around, but other younger riders had emerged.

“There are a lot of new faces in this (jockeys’) room,” McHargue said Saturday. “But I don’t feel that my skills have dwindled. I’ve tried to take it as it comes, because if you don’t do that in this game, you’ll go nuts. Everybody has their highs and lows, and you just try to ride out the lows and enjoy the highs. Every rider who’s ever rode has hit low points, but only some of them come back.”

McHargue, who won the 1975 Preakness with Master Derby, the 1978 Santa Anita Handicap with Vigors and the 1980 San Juan Capistrano Handicap with John Henry, said he never thought of quitting and hopes to ride at least until he’s 40. He kept going back to the new faces.

“They make it tough,” he said. “If you’re not riding at a certain plateau, there’s a lot of room out here for people (other jockeys) to infiltrate your career.”

There was no infiltrating Dontstop Themusic’s win in the Milady, which was worth $63,500 to her owner, Albert (Cubby) Broccoli. The threats did not come from the next two horses in the wagering, second choice Outstandingly running fourth and Fran’s Valentine finishing fifth.

Dontstop Themusic, sending her career earnings over the $900,000 mark, took the lead away from Affection Affirmed, Outstandingly’s entrymate, halfway through the far turn and coasted home, paying $5, $3.60 and $2.80. Magnificent Lindy, rallying to grab second by a head from Truffles, paid $6.80 and $4.40 and Truffles paid $5.40. The time for 1 1/8 miles was 1:48 4/5.

“This is a little bit different from some of the horses I’ve been riding lately,” McHargue said. “She was doing it all on her own. I’m glad Randy (Winick) showed the confidence in me. If anything else, it’s a boost to my ego.”

What’s likely to happen, though, is that Pincay will regain the mount when Dontstop Themusic makes her next start, in the Vanity Handicap at Hollywood on July 13.

Used to the peaks and valleys, McHargue is prepared for that. “I don’t think a win like this is going to improve my business by leaps and bounds,” he said. “But it can’t hurt.”

Horse Racing Notes

It was erroneously reported in a story and in the racing charts Saturday that Laffit Pincay rode two winners at Hollywood Park Friday. Pincay, recovering from an ankle injury he suffered in a spill on Thursday, did not ride Friday . . . Chris McCarron rode five winners Saturday, including the mount on River Drummer, who captured the Tri Jet Handicap by 2 3/4 lengths over favored Lincoln Park. It was McCarron’s second five-win day this season and his seventh lifetime at Hollywood. McCarron finished second on Magnificent Lindy, who was making only her second start this year, in the Milady . . . Eddie Delahoussaye was ill Saturday and didn’t ride . . . Allen Paulson, who owns Estrapade, said it was trainer Charlie Whittingham’s suggestion that resulted in Bill Shoemaker being replaced by Fernando Toro for today’s $100,000 Beverly Hills Handicap. “I went along,” Paulson said. “She hasn’t been going good with Shoe on her, and sometimes a change of riders can make a difference.” . . . Burnished Bright and Shivering Gal, both owned by Gene Klein and trained by Wayne Lukas, ran 1-3 Saturday in the Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs. Another Lukas-trained 2-year-old filly, Desirous, ran fourth, giving the Lukas barn all but $16,000 of the total $75,000 purse.