Lovlier Linda Is Winner as Favorites Falter in Santa Margarita

If the horses only knew. Lovlier Linda, a lanky 5-year-old chestnut, was bound for the idyllic Kentucky bluegrass, as a broodmare who’d be courted by a succession of privileged stallions.

But that was before Sunday. Now it’s going to be another year of hard work for Lovlier Linda, who worked the hardest in the $300,000 Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap, winning by three lengths and shocking most of the people in a crowd of 50,406 at Santa Anita.

It was difficult to determine what jarred the fans more, Lovlier Linda winning the 1 1/8-mile race as easily as she did or Adored and Estrapade, the two favorites, finishing next-to-last and last in the eight-horse field.

Adored, a daughter of Seattle Slew, won the Santa Margarita last year--as Lovlier Linda finished fifth--and had won all five of her starts at Santa Anita.

Estrapade, a Vaguely Noble mare, had never run on dirt before, having run in France until late last year, but trainer Charlie Whittingham, who has a barn full of talent, told friends that she was the best he had. Two starts at Santa Anita--a third and a first--and several impressive workouts seemed to underscore Whittingham’s assessment.

But in the Santa Margarita, while Lovlier Linda was dispatching all challengers in the run through the stretch, Adored and Estrapade were hard-put just to finish the course.

At one point, in the run for the final turn, both seemed to be in the best possible position, within striking distance of Lovlier Linda and Percipient, a couple of horses whose best races had been at shorter distances.

“This wasn’t the same mare today,” jockey Laffit Pincay said of Adored. “She didn’t seem to want to run at all.”

Fernando Toro rode Estrapade, and if he had a vote, the mare would be better off on grass. “She didn’t handle the track,” Toro said. “It took her a half mile of running to realize she wasn’t on grass. Then she started jumping up and down. I was in a perfect spot, sitting right on Adored, but then she spit out the bit.”

With one bettor reportedly dumping $100,000 to show on Adored, there were some funny parimutuel payoffs. Lovlier Linda, timed in 1:48, returned $21.60, $8.40 and $8.60. Mitterand, who carried four pounds more than the winner, had her three-race winning streak ended and paid $5 and $5.80 for finishing second, almost two lengths in front of Percipient, whose show price was $10.

The win was worth $180,000 to William R. Hawn, the Dallas man who won the 1978 Santa Anita Handicap with Vigors, Lovlier Linda’s sire.

“Lovlier Linda faded in the stretch in this race a year ago; she couldn’t get the distance,” Hawn said. “She’s won a pass to stay in racing for another year. I was considering retiring her.”

Lovlier Linda won three stakes after the 1984 Santa Margarita, but Sunday was the first time she was asked to run as far as 1 1/8 miles again.

“I considered her more of a sprinter,” said her trainer, Willard Proctor. “She hadn’t completely proved that she could go this far. I worked her a little more between races this time. I gave her a seven-eighths-mile work, then a quick five furlongs (in :58 3/5 last Tuesday).”

This was the 69-year-old Proctor’s biggest win other than the June day in 1972 when he saddled Convenience to upset Typecast in the $250,000, winner-take-all match race at Hollywood Park. Convenience finished second in the Santa Margarita that year and also in ’73.

Chris McCarron has been an on-again, off-again rider of Lovlier Linda, and was on her this time to pick up his 3,997th career victory.

“I was told (by Proctor) to let her run,” McCarron said. “And she just pulled me to the lead. Once she got position, she was all right. At the head of the lane, she showed a good turn of foot and kicked it in. I looked over my shoulder a couple of times and kinda felt we’d be all right.”

Randy Winick, who saddled Mitterand and Dontstop Themusic, who broke in the air, felt apologies for Mitterand weren’t necessary.

“At the eighth pole, I thought we still had a shot,” Winick said of Mitterand. “But the other filly just didn’t stop.”

Lovlier Linda, with 10 wins out of 20 lifetime starts, will continue to run on dirt, but gets a rest before her next assignment. And as for those stallions in Kentucky, they’ll just have to wait. Whether she knows it or not, this mare just ran herself out of the ’85 breeding season with that performance on Sunday.

Horse Racing Notes Since the Santa Margarita became an invitational in 1968, Lovlier Linda has been the biggest longshot winner. She also was one of the stake’s most convincing winners, the three lengths tying the margins that Susan’s Girl (1973) and Lucie Manet (‘77) won by. . . . Santa Anita made the list of certified bleeders available to the public for the first time on Saturday. There was was one horse on the list Saturday, two Sunday.