Sunset Partner Collapses and Dies After Race : Santa Anita: Mare had finished fourth behind Appealing Missy in the second division of the Buena Vista Handicap.

Appealing Missy’s half-length victory over favored Exchange in the second division of the Buena Vista Handicap had barely been made official Sunday when Sunset Partner, the second betting choice and fourth-place finisher in the stake, collapsed and died as she was being led back to her barn.

Sunset Partner, a 5-year-old mare owned by Patrick Burns, an Irish breeder, had just run her second race in the United States. She went to trainer Michael Whittingham last November after winning six of 16 starts in Ireland, and in her American debut on Jan. 23 she won an allowance race at 16-1.

Sunset Partner, ridden by Gary Stevens, went off at 5-2 Sunday and finished about 3 1/2 lengths behind Appealing Missy, missing third place by a head.

After the race, Sunset Partner tried to run off and Stevens wasn’t able to pull her up until they reached the backstretch. Sunset Partner was being led along the outside fence, opposite the eighth pole, when she collapsed.

“It was a shocker,” Whittingham said. “At first I thought she just fainted. I don’t think it was the heat that caused it. They’ll do an autopsy, but my guess is that it was a heart attack or a massive hemorrhage. She had the potential to be a top-class horse.”

Sunset Partner was running for the first time with Lasix, a diuretic that’s used to treat horses with pulmonary bleeding problems.

Ron McAnally, who trains Appealing Missy for her New York owner, Jerry Brody, was in the winner’s circle, giving an interview after the stake, when he looked up the stretch and noticed that Sunset Partner had gone down.

McAnally had won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff with Bayakoa at Belmont Park in 1990 when Go For Wand broke down during a stretch duel and had to be destroyed on the track.

“Until something like this happens,” McAnally said after that race, “we don’t realize just how much these horses give for our enjoyment.”

Exchange’s five-race winning streak ended before an on-track crowd of 25,442 when she was unable to catch Appealing Missy and jockey Chris McCarron in the stretch. Re Toss finished third, two lengths behind Exchange.

Exchange’s last two victories had come on dirt, and although she went into Sunday’s mile turf race with four victories in six starts on grass, both trainer Bill Spawr and jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. said after the race that her best surface is dirt.

“I couldn’t get her going in the first part,” Pincay said. “She was struggling.”

Exchange, carrying 120 pounds, three more than Appealing Missy, has been invited to run in next Sunday’s Santa Margarita Handicap. But because her owners, Sid and Jenny Craig, also have Paseana as one of the favorites in that stake, they told Spawr to run Exchange on Sunday. Ironically, Paseana is trained by McAnally, who said after Sunday’s race: “I’m sorry I had to beat my other owners.”

The first division of the Buena Vista was won by Gold Fleece, who returned $11.20. Appealing Missy paid $29.40.

Gold Fleece, ridden by Alex Solis and owned by Joe Alvarez and Lise Ham, carried 120 pounds, six less than top-weighted Crystal Gazing. It was her fifth victory in 12 starts and first in a stake.

“Her record is deceptive,” trainer John Sadler said. “She’s been second to Flawlessly and Exchange, who are some pretty good horses.”

McCarron could have won both ends of the Buena Vista if Elegance had been able to complete her stretch rally.

“I thought I was going to win,” he said of Elegance. “But Alex’s filly kept running. She got the last eighth (of a mile) pretty quick. It’s hard to catch them when they’re running that fast. Appealing Missy was double sharp. I blew her out Saturday. I only worked her a quarter-mile, but she almost ran off with me after the work. She felt like she was at the top of her game.”

Horse Racing Notes

At Gulfstream Park, trainer Ron McAnally’s Brought To Mind was sixth in the $200,000 Rampart Handicap, a race won by favored Fit For A Queen. . . . Answer Do, winner of the San Carlos Handicap at Santa Anita in January, won the Phoenix Gold Cup for the second consecutive time, scoring a five-length win over favored Letthebighossroll. Russell Baze rode Answer Do. . . . A.P. Indy, the Hollywood Futurity winner who will make his first start as a 3-year-old in the San Rafael Stakes Saturday, worked six furlongs Sunday in 1:13 1/5. . . . Trainer Wayne Lukas said that Chris McCarron would ride Hickman Creek in the San Rafael. Gary Stevens was aboard when Hickman Creek won the Los Feliz Stakes on Jan. 10. . . . Lukas said he has not given a call to a jockey for the assignment on undefeated Mineral Wells in the San Felipe Stakes on March 15. Pat Valenzuela, who rode Mineral Wells to victory in the San Vicente Breeders’ Cup on Feb. 9, has a contract to ride all of owner Allen Paulson’s horses this year. “We’re on a race-to-race basis with our jockeys,” Lukas said.

Star of the Crop, beaten by a nose by Mineral Wells in the San Vicente, has drawn the inside post in a field of 10 for Wednesday’s six-furlong Bolsa Chica. Others entered are Real West, Salt Lake, Fabulous Champ, The Name’s Jimmy, Egocentric, Three Peat, Ocean Native and Gold Desert.