SANTA ANITA : Tongue-Tied Jovial Lets Victory in San Pasqual Speak for Him

To get Jovial to run up to his ability has required nearly every possible adjustment. There have been changes in jockeys, equipment, running surfaces--even owners.

Only the trainer has stayed the same, and Bruce Jackson, who always believed Jovial was the best horse in his barn, even when the handicap star In Excess was around, has spent many a restless hour trying to determine what makes Jovial tick.

“After that race at Hollywood Park, I wanted to shoot him,” Jackson said.

He was talking about a grass race last Nov. 19, when Jovial ran last in a six-horse field. Jovial finally ended a 2 1/2-year, eight-race losing streak when he won a one-mile allowance race on dirt at Santa Anita on New Year’s Day. That was the 6-year-old’s first victory since the English-bred won the Swaps at Hollywood Park on July 22, 1990, in his first start on dirt.

Before that victory, efforts were made to sell Jovial, who had even been bred to a few mares while his string of dull races was extended. “We had some people who would have taken him to the Midwest,” Jackson said. “But they got squeamish about putting up the money when they looked at his form.”

Running Sunday with a tie around his tongue for the second consecutive race, Jovial put consecutive victories together for the first time since he won the Cinema Handicap and the Swaps in 1990, beating Best Pal by 2 3/4 lengths in the $158,900 San Pasqual Handicap before 22,270 at Santa Anita.

Best Pal, a 1992 horse-of-the-year candidate, even though injuries ended his season in June, was disqualified from second to fifth place when he and jockey Kent Desormeaux came out three lanes to interfere with Excavate on the backstretch of the 1 1/16-mile race. The three stewards’ revised order of finish, after a foul claim by Pat Valenzuela, Excavate’s jockey, moved Marquetry into second place and Provins to third.

Best Pal had finished a half-length ahead of Marquetry, who was a head better than Provins at the wire. Excavate, beaten by more than 3 1/4 lengths, was placed fourth after the disqualification.

Trainers sometime tie a horse’s tongue to keep them from choking when they race. “I really didn’t have any reason for doing it,” Jackson said. “He had trained with the tongue tie for a while, and I just decided to keep it on.”

Jovial originally raced in the United States for Jack Munari, who also owned In Excess, but Sunday the $91,400 purse went to Jackson and John Swift, who is a 25% partner in the only horse he races with Jackson. The second betting choice, Jovial paid $7 and was timed in 1:41 4/5 on a fast track.

Jovial’s victory was his sixth in 17 starts. As a 3-year-old, he became seriously ill after the Swaps, suffering from ulcers and colitis. “It was touch and go there for a while that summer at Del Mar,” Jackson said.

Jovial has had five jockeys during his losing streak, with the last two victories coming under Mickey Walls, Santa Anita’s 18-year-old new arrival who won the Eclipse Award for best apprentice in North America while competing in Canada last year.

Walls and Jovial were in fourth place Sunday behind Memo, Marquetry and Best Pal. Trailing by 4 1/2 lengths after a half-mile, Jovial made a sweeping move heading into the stretch and went by Best Pal, who had taken the lead at the top of the stretch.

“The horse was dragging me around the track,” Walls said. “The first part, he was real relaxed. Then he got bumped a little and it really turned him on, and he was just on his muscle from the half-mile pole home.”

At the meeting, Walls had won six races in 74 starts before the San Pasqual. “This was the biggest win of my career,” he said. “I needed something like this to get me off my feet. I won two Saturday (both longshots).”

Trainer Gary Jones, who saddled three winners Sunday, said that Best Pal’s performance would set him up for the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap on March 6. Best Pal won three stakes at Santa Anita last year--the Big ‘Cap besides the Strub and the San Fernando--before a shin injury sidelined him for the year.

Best Pal carried high weight Sunday of 124 pounds, nine more than Jovial. Desormeaux, who might receive a five-day suspension from the stewards when they review the disqualifying incident Wednesday, was more concerned about the way Best Pal ran than the interference.

“All I can say about the race is that he’s back,” Desormeaux said. “He felt twice as good as he did last year. He’s heavier and more muscled. They hooked him (at the head of the stretch), but they didn’t get by him until he was winded.”

Jones noted that Best Pal had had only 11 workouts in seven months’ time. “I’m tickled to death about his race,” the trainer said. “He was obviously a short horse today, and he was giving away a lot of weight. But he was still game and he ran hard.”

To run in the Santa Anita Handicap, Jovial’s owners will have to supplement him for $25,000 and pay another $15,000 in entry and starting fees. Horses could have been made eligible last summer for $500 and been nominated as late as last Dec. 1 for $2,000.

“I was sick of him then,” Bruce Jackson said. “I was just trying to get rid of him.”

Horse Racing Notes

In another stake at Santa Anita Sunday, Regal Groom, after finishing last in the Turf Express Handicap at Hollywood Park on Nov. 27, led all the way to beat favored Repriced by a half-length in the $56,825 Reb’s Policy Handicap over 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course. Laffit Pincay rode Regal Groom to his 12th victory in 40 races. . . . Wednesday’s $75,000 Santa Catalina Stakes for 3-year-olds has drawn seven entrants--Imperial Ridge, Siebe, Art of Living, Crown Sterling, Glowing Crown, Tossofthecoin and Top Of The Moon. . . . Bien Bien, fourth in Saturday’s San Marcos Handicap, bled internally during the race. . . . Trainer Gary Jones’ victories Sunday were with Battle Quest, Mizter Interco and Zalon, who outran stablemate Cork. . . . Gary Stevens, who rode Battle Quest and Zalon, was one of the early jockeys who rode Jovial. “He’s an awesome colt,” he said after they won the Swaps.