Santa Anita Oaks : Imaginary Lady Gives Stevens Third in a Row

In the walking ring before Sunday’s $215,400 Santa Anita Oaks, Imaginary Lady, not belying her name, was a 3-year-old filly threatening to jump out of her skin.

The apple falls close to the tree, because Imaginary Lady’s sire is Marfa, a rogue of the first order when he was a 3-year-old in 1983. A stock Daily Racing Form comment after many of Marfa’s races was, “Bore in.”

Just like Marfa, however, Imaginary Lady can run fast, if not always straight. Marfa won the Santa Anita Derby. Imaginary Lady won the female equivalent on Sunday, surviving a late rush by stablemate Some Romance to take the Oaks by a head before 40,473 fans.

Some Romance finished five lengths ahead of Kool Arrival, who at 8-5 was the second betting choice after winning three stakes at the meeting. The coupling of Imaginary Lady and Some Romance went off the favorite in the seven-horse field and paid $4.40, $4.40 and $2.80. Kool Arrival paid $3.

Wayne Lukas is part-owner, with Bob French, of Imaginary Lady and trains her and Some Romance, who is winless in five races since taking the Frizette at Belmont Park last October. Lukas has won four of the last eight Santa Anita Oaks, sending out Winning Colors, the eventual Kentucky Derby winner, to win the race last year.

Imaginary Lady is no Derby contender, and might even have trouble negotiating the 1 1/8 miles of the Kentucky Oaks, which is run the day before the Derby at Churchill Downs. She ran very fast fractions of 44 4/5 seconds for a half-mile and 1:09 1/5 for six furlongs Sunday, and in another jump would have switched places with Some Romance. Imaginary Lady’s time for the 1 1/16 miles was a so-so 1:43 2/5.

Lukas, who owned Marfa in a partnership with French and Barry Beal, bought the unraced Imaginary Lady last year for $100,000 at the Hollywood Park auction, which is being held again this week. She went through the sales ring as a yearling at Keeneland for only $10,000.

“Some guy named Clyde Taylor pinhooked her (buying and quickly re-selling a horse),” Lukas said. “It was a good turnover for him and even a better one for me.”

Lukas bought two other horses at the sale, and they’ve all won. “I do what I usually do, I pulled the shoes off of all three of them and turned them out at the farm for a while,” Lukas said.

Imaginary Lady made her first start on Jan. 22 and finished second against maidens. She won a maiden race a month later and then moved up to allowance company on March 4, winning by 11 lengths at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Before the Santa Anita Oaks, Lukas told jockey Gary Stevens to ride Imaginary Lady like Winning Colors, whom Stevens sent to the lead for their Kentucky Derby victory.

Stevens’ most difficult assignment Sunday was just getting Imaginary Lady out of the paddock. “She’s an ornery son of a gun,” Stevens said. “She kicked three people going to the gate.”

This was the 50th Oaks, and Stevens became the first jockey to win the stake three straight years. He won with Timely Assertion in 1987 before repeating with Winning Colors last year.

It was the first time Stevens rode Imaginary Lady. “Wayne said she had the same style as Winning Colors and to ride her the same way,” Stevens said. “Running 0:44 early felt like 0:47 and change and 1:09 felt like 1:12 and change. He said she’d get tired at the end, and to move at the three-eighths pole.

“If she didn’t have a different color, I might have thought it was Winning Colors (the Derby winner is a roan and Imaginary Lady is a bay). Winning Colors was a little more seasoned at this time last year, but she has the same style. The less hold you take of her, the more she relaxes.”

Imaginary Lady was confused about changing leads in the stretch, only momentarily shifting her body weight to the left side with the lead foot.

“This filly’s got a mind of her own,” Lukas said. “But maybe that’s a good thing in a horse. It didn’t hurt Marfa, and it doesn’t seem to be hurting her.”

Some Romance, second to Kool Arrival in the Las Virgenes three weeks ago, was ridden by Eddie Delahoussaye. They were fifth Sunday, six lengths behind Imaginary Lady, after three-quarters of a mile.

“I was hoping I would get there in the stretch,” Delahoussaye said. “My filly was coming steady. I knew the other filly was stopping, but I wasn’t sure if she was stopping fast enough. My filly doesn’t have a real kick, she just comes steady.”

Laffit Pincay thought he’d be in second place early with Kool Arrival, but instead they were fourth, behind Imaginary Lady, Lady Lister and My Glamorous One.

“She came out of the gate, but didn’t leave like she usually does,” Pincay said. “I just sat for a while. She made a nice move, and I thought I was going to win, but she came up empty in the last part.”

Right now, because Houston and Is It True, his top 3-year-olds colts, have been idle, it would appear that Lukas has a better chance to win another Kentucky Oaks rather than another Kentucky Derby. But he’ll be there both days to run something.

Horse Racing Notes

Form has seldom taken a worse beating than Sunday. Codex’s Bride won the second race for a $2 win payoff of $115.80, but there was an even bigger upset when Jungle Ridge won the sixth and paid $143.80. Jungle Ridge dumped his rider, Rafael Meza, in the post parade and ran off, causing his odds to jump from 50-1 to 70-1.

Wayne Lukas said that he and Bob French own 22 of the 40 annual breeding shares in Marfa. “He stands for a stud fee of $5,000 now, but that’s going to change right away,” Lukas said. Imaginary Lady is from Marfa’s first crop and is the first offspring of that stallion that Lukas has trained.

Len Foote, secretary of the California Horse Racing Board, said that there was no connection between the recent arrest of a Santa Anita groom and the rash of horses that have tested positive for cocaine. The groom, Jorge Pulido Malfavon, did not have a valid state license when he was caught with what appeared to be cocaine, drug paraphernalia and an unloaded handgun in the stable area. Malfavon was booked by the Arcadia police.