Santa Anita Weekend Racing : Toro Wants a Dream to Come True

Fernando Toro is perhaps the finest turf-course jockey in the United States.

But even though the Chilean-born rider has had 12 chances, he has never won Santa Anita’s prestigious San Juan Capistrano Handicap, a long grass race covering about 1 3/4 miles.

Thirteen is hardly an auspicious number, but Toro can be thankful his pursuit of the winner’s circle in the 46th running of the $300,000 event is taking place on a Sunday, rather than a Friday.

The race will highlight the final weekend of the Arcadia track’s 50th anniversary meeting.

“Some people talk about the Kentucky Derby, but for me I have a dream to win the San Juan,” Toro said. “I’ve never been one of the top three or five riders, but I do get better mounts on the grass. I think I can ride on any surface, but the turf has been good to me. And I think I have a very good reputation on the turf.

“I’ve won many races on the turf, but never this one, and I want to win it very badly.”

In Toro’s defense, he has been aboard only one favorite in the San Juan, Caucasus in 1977. But the horse finished third.

“I had a good chance to win, but in a long race like that, everything has to break right,” Toro said. “And that time it didn’t.”

With the exception of the San Juan, the turf has usually been kind to the 44-year-old jockey. In 1976, at Hollywood Park, Toro had 76 winners, an astounding 40 of them on the turf. The rub of the green has also been with him at the current meeting, where he has won five stakes races, all on the turf.

In four of those victories, Toro’s mounts were saddled by trainer Charlie Whittingham, among them Estrapade, the winner of the $100,000 Santa Ana Handicap at 1 1/8 miles March 16.

“Charlie asked the big question the other day,” said Toro, who will be aboard Estrapade again. “This mare will be the class of the field, but the distance is so long. Can she go that far?

“I don’t know, but I do know it’s a very nice horse. It can be in any kind of position and still win.”

Whittingham is no stranger to the San Juan, having won it 10 times. In fact, he’s on a roll, having won it in 1983 with Erins Isle and last year with Load the Cannons.

In addition to Estrapade, who will carry 120 pounds, Whittingham will send out Prince True, with Chris McCarron up.

Seven other horses will go to the post, trying to end Whittingham’s string. They are Swoon, ridden by Laffit Pincay and carrying 117 pounds; Palestiglio, Bill Shoemaker, 111; Epson Downs, Rafael Meza, 112; Best of Both, Eddie Delahoussaye, 115; Naar, Sandy Hawley, 111; Western, Gary Stevens, 120, and Semillero, Darryl McHargue, 115.

Shoemaker has won the San Juan five times, once in a masterful wire-to-wire ride aboard Olden Times in 1962. He will be trying to break a tie with another legend, Johnny Longden, who won the last race of his career in the San Juan, No. 6,032, aboard George Royal March 12, 1966.

This afternoon’s feature, the $80,000-added San Simeon Handicap, also promises to be interesting, with eight sprinters in a 6 1/2-furlong turf race.

Debonaire Junior, ridden by Rafael Meza and carrying high weight of 127 pounds, will be out to win his fourth stakes race of the meeting. Last year, Debonaire Junior won the Baldwin Stakes on the Hillside turf course and was named the sprint champion of the meeting.

Racing Notes Rake, an expected starter for Sunday’s San Juan Capistrano, suffered a broken pastern bone in his right front leg Friday morning. He will have surgery today. . . . Chris McCarron, the meeting’s leading rider, has 86 wins, seven more than his closest pursuer, Gary Stevens. The positions won’t change today, since McCarron will be aboard Violado and Stevens will ride Tank’s Prospect in the Arkansas Derby. . . . The training title is going down to the wire with Mel Stute, Laz Barrera, Charlie Whittingham and Ted West all in the running. Stute has saddled 26 winners, Barrera 25, Whittingham 24 and West 22.