Santa Anita Weekend Racing : Whittingham Has Strength in Numbers

Trainer Charlie Whittingham, who has already broken Santa Anita’s season record for purse money, is in a good position to substantially add to his total this weekend.

Of the 14 horses entered in two stakes, six are from the overflowing Whittingham barn. Today, Greinton and Champion Pilot will run as an entry in the $200,000 San Bernardino Handicap. Sunday, Whittingham has outnumbered the opposition, 4-3, by entering Estrapade, Fact Finder, Air Distingue and Reine Mathilde in the $150,000 Santa Barbara Handicap.

Whittingham, who is celebrating his 72nd birthday today, is over the $1.6-million mark in purses for the meeting, which already has broken by $200,000 the record Laz Barrera set last season.

Whittingham’s main rival in the 1 1/8-mile San Bernardino is Precisionist, who this year became only the fifth horse to sweep Santa Anita’s three-race Strub Series.

Precisionist is the top-weighted starter at 127 pounds, seven more than Greinton and Champion Pilot, and trainer Ross Fenstermaker isn’t happy about that.

“I can’t figure it out,” Fenstermaker said. “We were assigned 126 pounds for the Santa Anita Handicap, then ran dead last in the next race, and now we get 127. Is this a better horse than the one that got 126 for the Big ‘Cap?”

His training interrupted by a cough, Precisionist didn’t run in the Big ‘Cap, then started a week later in the 6 1/2-furlong Potrero Grande Handicap, trailing in a six-horse field after experiencing traffic problems in the stretch.

Besides Whittingham’s quartet, the other horses entered in the Santa Barbara, which is 1 miles on the turf, are Clear as Crystal, Love Smitten and Salt Spring.

Talakeno drew away from eight rivals in the stretch Friday and went on to an easy victory in the $40,000 feature race.

Ridden by Laffit Pincay, Talakeno, a 14-1 outsider, finished 3 1/2 lengths in front of Oral Agreement, ridden by Darrel McHargue. Carocrest, ridden by Bill Shoemaker, finished third, another 1 1/2 lengths back.

The winner, a 5-year-old son of Vaguely Noble-Katonka trained by Laz Barrera, has won 4 of 19 starts and earned more than $91,000.

Ignored by most of the 23,102 on hand, the invader from Florida paid $31.20, $12.20 and $9.20. Oral Agreement returned $4.60 and $3.40, and Carocrest paid $7.80 to show.