SANTA ANITA : Rivals Hoping Off Track, Distance Will Slow Best Pal in Strub Sunday

Two of the biggest upsets in the formful 44-year history of the Charles H. Strub Stakes have come on off tracks, and some trainers are hoping that the combination of mud and the 1 1/4-mile distance will gum up Best Pal’s victory chances on Sunday.

The $500,000 Strub, for 4-year-olds, is bringing back six of the nine horses that ran in the 1 1/8-mile San Fernando, including the winner, Best Pal, and the four who finished immediately behind him. Best Pal made a mockery of the opposition in the Jan. 18 race, winning by 3 1/2 lengths over Olympio, with Dinard third, nine lengths behind Best Pal. Charmonnier was fourth and Reign Road fifth.

Nine horses are entered for the Strub, with Best Pal drawing the No. 5 post. Bucking Bird drew the rail and will be ridden by Frank Alvarado. In order after him come Dinard and Pat Valenzuela; Olympio, Eddie Delahoussaye; Charmonnier, Corey Nakatani; Best Pal, Kent Desormeaux; Reign Road, Gary Stevens; Another Review, Laffit Pincay; Quintana, Chris McCarron; and Ev For Shir, Alex Solis.

Quintana, eighth in the San Fernando, is another holdover. Best Pal will carry 124 pounds, two more than Olympio and Charmonnier. Dinard is at 120 pounds, and the others will carry 118.

About three inches of rain has fallen on Santa Anita this week, and another storm is on the way, scheduled to hit either Sunday or Monday. Either way, the track is expected to be off for the third time in the last four runnings of the Strub.

Since the stake began in 1948, half of the winners have paid less than 3-1 and eight times the winner has been odds-on. Over a muddy track in 1983, however, Swing Till Dawn, whose color matched the grayness of the day, went to the front and was never headed, winning by two lengths for Valenzuela and trainer Chuck Marikian and paying $78.80 to win. Prince Spellbound, the mild favorite, was second and Bates Motel, who never ran another bad race, finished last before going on to win the year’s Eclipse Award for older horses.

Swing Till Dawn was a short-term wonder. The next month, he won the Widener at Hialeah, but when retired at the end of the year his record showed no other stakes victories and only five victories overall.

In 1957, when the Strub was called the Santa Anita Maturity, Spinney and jockey Bill Harmatz took advantage of another muddy track to score a 24-1 upset for the late Lou Rowan. Spinney’s dam, Mrs. Rabbit, was a mare who had been given to Rowan. Spinney’s trainer, Reggie Cornell, had two future stars in his company then--a 2-year-old called Silky Sullivan and a 24-year-old named Ron McAnally. McAnally, Cornell’s nephew, recently won his second Eclipse for best trainer, partly because of his work with Olympio last year. In 1981, McAnally won his first Eclipse with John Henry and the Strub with Super Moment.

Jay Robbins, the trainer of Reign Road, is going for the off-track hat trick in the Strub. Twice Robbins has saddled winners of the stake in the mud, reaching the winner’s circle in 1986 with Nostalgia’s Star and with Flying Continental in 1990. Reign Road will be a longer price than either of those. Jack Kent Cooke’s colt seemed to have a bright future when he was a late-moving third in the 1990 Hollywood Futurity, the race won by Best Pal, but soundness has been Reign Road’s enemy since then and he goes into the Strub with no stakes wins and only two victories in 12 starts.

Nostalgia’s Star was raced by John and Betty Mabee, the breeders and owners of Best Pal. Their trainer, Gary Jones, is circumspect about Sunday. “Because of the track, I have no idea how he’ll run,” Jones said. “I’d prefer that it was dry, of course. But either way, we’ll run.”

Best Pal, with earnings of $2.2 million, used the San Fernando to move ahead of Nostalgia’s Star and into second place on the money list of California-breds. Snow Chief, winner of the 1987 Strub, is No. 1 with $3.3 million.

Best Pal has run 19 times, only once on an off track. The Santa Anita strip was labeled good for the San Rafael Stakes a year ago, a day when Dinard was best and Best Pal ran third, beaten by a half-length.

“I just don’t know what he’ll do in the mud,” Jones said. “I haven’t even had the chance to work him very much in the stuff.”

Best Pal’s final work for the Strub came Tuesday before the rain, with Desormeaux aboard for a 1:13 six furlongs at Hollywood Park, where Jones trains his horses. Because of the rain, Best Pal has remained at Hollywood and won’t be vanned over to Santa Anita until today. “With Hollywood not running, you know their track is going to be open, no matter what,” Jones said. “I didn’t want to miss any days galloping him because of the weather.”

McAnally said the Strub distance might enable his Olympio to turn the tables on Best Pal. Olympio won the American Derby at 1 1/4 miles at Arlington International last year, and twice ran second at that distance, one of them on the grass.

“I don’t see where we’re at a disadvantage at a mile and a quarter,” Jones said. “The best win he’s had was in the Pacific Classic, and that super final eighth of a mile was what won for him that day.”

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Bob Baffert, who will be trying to win the Strub with Charmonnier, will begin a 15-day suspension Wednesday. His Gee Marcus tested positive for an illegal medication after winning at Santa Anita Oct. 17. The test showed that the horse ran with Robinul, considered a performance-enhancing drug that can increase a horse’s heart rate. Half of Baffert’s 30-day suspension was stayed because of his good record and he was also fined $1,000. . . . Vincent Baker, a veterinarian who treated Gee Marcus, was fined $1,000 and suspended for five days. . . . The same day that Gee Marcus ran, Cassy Lass, a third-place finisher at Fresno, also tested positive for Robinul. Her trainer, Paul Walker, received the same penalties as Baffert. . . . California racing officials say these are the first post-race reports of this drug in the state since chemists began testing for it last year. There have been reports of horses testing positive for Robinul in Canada. Robinul, which can help a horse with respiratory problems, supposedly is safe to use when given to a horse at least 48 hours before a race day.

An field of eight 3-year-olds, headed by Mineral Wells and Prince Wild, will run Sunday in the $100,000 San Vicente Breeders’ Cup Stakes. Also entered in the seven-furlong race are Gurantor, Star of the Crop, Sharp Bandit, Richard Of England, Cape Royale and Fax News. Mineral Wells and Richard Of England will run as an entry and will be saddled by Jeff Lukas in the absence of his father, Wayne, who suffered three broken ribs when he was thrown by his pony during workouts Tuesday morning. . . . Excavate, a $1.1- million yearling who was considered a Kentucky Derby candidate for trainer Charlie Whittingham last year before suffering a knee injury, returns to action in an allowance race Sunday.