Volante Handicap at Oak Tree : Justoneoftheboys Survives a Foul Claim

The prospects for Justoneoftheboys were not good going into Saturday’s $110,000 Volante Handicap at Santa Anita’s Oak Tree meeting.

Of the eight horses in the field for the 1 1/8-mile turf race, only two, Justoneoftheboys and Schiller, had never won a stake. Justoneoftheboys, with 3 wins in 11 starts, had earned only $64,600, second lowest in the field.

Worse for Justoneoftheboys, jockeys Bill Shoemaker and Laffit Pincay, the 3-year-old colt’s regular recent riders, had better offers and were riding out of town.

But the jockey whom trainer Ron McAnally got to ride Justoneoftheboys, Alex Solis, has been in a big stakes race or two before. Solis won the 1983 Flamingo Stakes at Hialeah and, since coming to California this year, he has quickly become a favorite for longshot players.

Justoneoftheboys’ win by three-fourths of a length in the Volante was at 12-1 odds, and Solis, trainer Ron McAnally, the colt’s owners and 33,553 fans had to wait out a foul claim by Pat Valenzuela before the stewards notarized the victory.

Valenzuela rode Floating Reserve, who ran second after drawing even with Justoneoftheboys at the eighth pole.

“The other horse brushed with my colt and caused him to lose his footing,” Valenzuela said. “My horse might have come in a little, but the horse inside me came out pretty good. It didn’t show it that much on the rerun, but my horse got brushed just when we got head and head with the other one.”

Solis didn’t feel the brush was a factor. “It was nothing,” the 21-year-old Panamanian said. “Pat’s horse was coming in on us in the lane.”

McAnally said that Solis told him that Floating Reserve came in more on him than his horse came out. “He said that he didn’t have room to hit out horse, the other horse crowded him so much,” McAnally said.

The win was worth $65,000 to owners Morris Cohen and Dion Rocachina, who paid $10,000 for Justoneoftheboys at a yearling auction. Justoneoftheboys, timed in 1:47 3/5, paid $26, $8.80 and $5.80. Floating Reserve, who finished 2 lengths ahead of Schiller, had mutuels of $5.20 and $4.80 and Schiller returned $11.80. The Favorite, First Norman, was well-positioned early, running third behind Justoneoftheboys and Floating Reserve, but faded to finish seventh.

As a 2-year old, Justoneoftheboys ran one race, losing to the top colt Saratoga Six at Hollywood Park.

“He bucked shins in the race and a little later the owners called me and asked if I’d take over the horse,” McAnally said.

Cohen, who is in the retail grocery business, is an equal partner in the horse with Rocachina, who has two other horses on his own and produces documentary films. On Saturday, it was the stewards who were in the film room, analyzing Valenzuela’s objection. They didn’t leave the finish on the cutting-room floor.

Horse Racing Notes Greinton, who finished last in Saturday’s Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, returned from the track with no problems, according to Rodney Rash, a Charlie Whittingham assistant who was in touch with the trainer. “he just didn’t handle the off track,” Rash said. “They’ll bring him back to California, either for the Oak Tree Invitational (Oct. 20) or to give him a rest.”. . . Besides Vanlandingham in the Gold Cup, other stakes winners Saturday at Belmont included Kamikaze Rick in the Rare Perfume, Danger’s Hour in the stronger division of the Lawrence Realization and Mt. Livermore in the Fall Highweight Handicap. . . Mt. Livermore provided the 57th stakes win of the year for the Wayne Lukas stable, which finished second in the Rare Perfume with Wising Up. . . . Fighting Fit, trained by Bobby Frankel, ran second in the Fall Highweight. . . . Chris McCarron rode two second-place finishers at Belmont, Gate Dancer in the Gold Cup and and Fighting Fit. . . . McCarron will be back at Santa Anita today to ride Yashgan, an English-bred who finished second last June in France to Sagace, the heavy favorite today in the Arc de Triomphe at Longchamps. . . . Actor Robert Wagner was in the winner’s circle Saturday with Loucoum, his French-bred filly who won the fifth race. . . Ruben Hernandez, who rode both halves of the daily double is the former New York jockey who won the 1979 Belmont Stakes with Coastal, thwarting Spectacular Bid’s attempt to sweep the Triple Crown. . . . Gary Stevens had a riding triple for the second time in four days. . . . Local jockey Luis Ortega won the Golden Harvest Stakes at Louisiana Downs Saturday with Dacertina. . . . Both Ends Burning beat The Noble Player by 1 1/2 lengths to take the Tanforan Handicap at Bay Meadows for the second straight year.