Horse Racing : Squan Song Has Shipped Out and Shaped Up

If Squan Song could talk, the 4-year-old filly who will try to stop Mitterand and Life’s Magic Sunday in the $150,000 La Canada Stakes at Santa Anita would tell you how not to make a coast-to-coast trip.

When Squan Song was shipped to Santa Anita from Maryland last weekend, this is what she endured:

Friday, 7 p.m.--Squan Song, accompanied by her groom, Jose Magana, is loaded into a van at Laurel Race Course and driven to JFK Airport in New York.

Saturday, 1 a.m.--Squan Song arrives at JFK, but because the airport is snowed in, spends the night and all the next day in a van.

Saturday, 11:30 p.m.--Squan Song’s plane finally leaves JFK, more than seven hours behind schedule.

Sunday, 1:30 a.m.--The plane lands in Houston, an unscheduled stop necessitated by a required crew change.

Sunday, 1:45 p.m.--After spending more than 12 hours in the plane on the runway, Squan Song leaves Houston when the fresh crew arrives.

Sunday, 4 p.m.--The plane arrives in Los Angeles and Squan Song is vanned to Santa Anita.

“It took almost 48 hours to get her here,” says Carlos Garcia, who trains Squan Song. “She was an awfully tired horse when she arrived.”

That’s easy for him to say. On Wednesday, however, Squan Song worked three furlongs at Santa Anita and was clocked in a zippy :35 1/5.

“She’s bouncing back,” Garcia said. “The competition hasn’t been much, compared to what she’ll see in the La Canada, but we’re hoping she’ll give a good account of herself.”

Others in the five-horse field include Mitterand, who’s trying to become only the second filly (Taisez Vous was the first in 1978) to sweep the La Canada series, and Life’s Magic, whose owners, Gene Klein and Mel Hatley, received an Eclipse Award Friday night at the Century Plaza Hotel for her winning last year’s 3-year-old filly championship.

Robert Brennan paid $125,000 for Squan Song as a weanling, and a victory in her last start, the Busher Handicap at Aqueduct on Dec. 29, pushed her career purses to $240,196.

A daughter of Exceller from a Damascus mare, Squan Song has overcome knee surgery and made the most of 14 races, winning six stakes at five different tracks.

“If we run well Sunday,” Garcia said, “we’d like to stay and get invited to run in the Santa Margarita Handicap (a $300,000 race on Feb. 24). After that, the plan is to go back East and run against the boys in the Campbell Handicap at Pimlico (on March 16).”

In the La Canada, Life’s Magic will be making her first start since the Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park on Nov. 10, when she finished second, seven lengths behind another champion, Princess Rooney.

Mitterand has won the La Brea and El Encino Stakes, the first two legs of the La Canada series. She is trained by Randy Winick, whose father, Arnold, bred the filly in Florida and still owns 25% of her with Ross Gilbert, a Beverly Hills Mercedes dealer.

Arnold Winick is confident. “I’m glad Life’s Magic is in,” he said. “Because if we run against her, it will show us where we’re at with our filly.

“The way our horse has been going, it’s going to take an awful good filly to beat us.”

Last year, Life’s Magic was that kind of filly. She won three major stakes and pushed her lifetime earnings to $1.4 million. At Santa Anita, however, her best finish was a second in three starts. But that was early in the year, before she went out of town and started winning.

Horse Racing Notes The field for the La Canada, in post-position order: Allusion, with Chris McCarron riding; Percipient, Pat Valenzuela; Squan Song, Laffit Pincay; Life’s Magic, Jorge Velasquez, and Mitterand, Eddie Delahoussaye. Life’s Magic carries 126 pounds, five more than Mitterand and four more than Squan Song. Allusion and Percipient each carry 117. . . . There’s also only a five-horse field for today’s San Vicente Stakes for 3-year-olds. With the first five horses sharing in the purses, that means all 10 of the starters will earn money in the two weekend stakes. “It used to be,” trainer Charlie Whittingham said, “that when there was a small field, other trainers would enter, figuring they might get a piece of the purse. But nowadays there are so many rich races around that they don’t do it anymore.” . . . Ted Bassett of Keeneland was elected president of the Thoroughbred Racing Assn. Friday at the Century Plaza, replacing Morrie Alhadeff of Longacres. . . . Santa Anita has a holiday card Monday, topped by the $60,000 Sierra Madre Handicap.