Yashgan Pulls Inside Job For Victory in Oak Tree

The stretch run of Sunday’s $400,000 Oak Tree Invitational was a Mr. Inside-Mr. Outside proposition.

But instead of the old Army football stars, Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis, the names were Yashgan and Both Ends Burning, the latter a 5-year-old gelding who was trying to join Cougar II and John Henry as the only horses with multiple wins in the stake.

Yashgan, the winner, made a run on the inside despite most of the real estate belonging to Alydar’s Best, the pacesetter and only filly in the race.

Both Ends Burning, who had rallied from ninth to win the Oak Tree last year, made a similar run from the outside and was gobbling up Alydar’s Best and Cariellor, then in second place.

Chris McCarron, who will be remembered as the first--and maybe the only--jockey to draw a five-day suspension and then ride in stakes races three straight days in the middle of it, admitted that he and Yashgan were lucky along the fence.

“If I get through, I’m a hero,” McCarron said. “If I don’t, everybody would have been saying, ‘What’s he doing that for?’ ”

Yashgan and McCarron came out heroes. They were fortunate that Alydar’s Best was tiring and drifted out just enough to give them room. Yashgan won by three-quarters of a length, with Both Ends Burning second, a neck better than Cariellor. Alydar’s Best finished fourth, a length back of Cariellor.

Yashgan is an English-bred 4-year-old who was purchased by his seven American owners from the Aga Khan for a reported $350,000 in June. The colt earned $240,000 Sunday, running 1 1/2 miles on the grass in 2:27 1/5 and paying $6, $3.40 and $3 as the second betting choice behind Both Ends Burning in the crowd of 37,451. Both Ends Burning paid $3.20 and $2.60 and Cariellor returned $4.40.

Fernando Toro, riding Alydar’s Best, said he was unaware that Yashgan was closing inside of him at the top of the stretch.

“My horse was drifting,” Toro said. “It was the first time she’s been exposed to sharp turns. I was just running my own race and not paying any attention to anybody else.”

At the head of the stretch, McCarron’s hopes rose and sank. “At first it looked like the filly was drifting out slightly and we’d be OK,” McCarron said. “But then Fernando got her to come in a bit and I thought we’d be in trouble again. I really didn’t have any choice. I was stuck where I was, because Pat (Valenzuela, riding Cariellor) was on the filly’s flanks and there was no way to get out.”

Although McCarron’s suspension started Saturday, a California rule permits him to ride only in certain designated stakes, which included a race at Bay Meadows Saturday and the Oak Tree. He’ll also ride tonight at Los Alamitos, because his five suspension days correspond with Santa Anita’s racing schedule and the Arcadia track is closed today and Tuesday.

McCarron may have found a new way to prepare for a big race. “I played in Tim Conway’s golf tournament all day, then showed up at the track about 3:45 in the afternoon,” the jockey said.

The ground McCarron saved and the ground Both Ends Burning lost by going wide may have been the different, according to Russell Baze, who rode the second-place horse.

“We got carried a little wide,” Baze said. “I was behind (Rafael) Meza (riding Talakeno), and didn’t think anything would open up, so I swung my horse to the outside. Maybe we wouldn’t have finished ahead of the winner anyway. But that’s horse racing.”

Yashgan came into the Oak Tree with a good record in France--four wins and three seconds out of eight starts--but he hadn’t won in four American starts.

After three starts in which he was no better than fourth for trainer Joe Canty in New York, Yashgan came to John Sullivan’s barn at Santa Anita and finished second, two lengths behind Tsunami Slew, in the Burke Handicap two weeks ago.

“He had trouble leaving the gate in that race, and that might have been a blessing in disguise,” McCarron said. “If he had been in contention early, the way we wanted to be, the race might have taken so much out of him that he wouldn’t have had anything left for this one.”

Sherwood Chillingworth, the Pasadena real-estate developer who heads the Yashgan ownership, said that his group bought the cheaply bred colt after he won a race at Longchamp in early June.

“But the Aga wanted to run the horse one more time in his colors,” Chillingworth said. “So we agreed to do that, and when he ran second, even though we technically owned him, the Aga still got the purse.”

Sagace, later to be the disqualified winner of this year’s Arc de Triomphe, beat Yashgan by two lengths in that race, a tipoff that Chillingworth and his partners had something. It just took a few races in the U.S. for Yashgan to find his best foot.

Horse Racing Notes Trainer John Sullivan said that a pre-payment of $10,000 would be made today to make Forzando II eligible to run in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Mile at Aqueduct on Nov. 2. Forzando, won the Metropolitan Mile at Belmont Park in late May but missed most of the summer because of a knee injury. “I’d like to have a race in him before he runs in the Breeders but there isn’t time,” Sullivan said. “He’s been training well, though. I’ve got Chris McCarron to ride him.” . . . Other Breeders’ Cup starters from California may be Au Bon Marche, who ran fourth in the Norfolk Stakes a week ago, and Fifty Six Ina Row. Au Bon Marche would run in the Juvenile Stakes and Fifty Six Ina Row would go in the Sprint. . . . Straw, a horse who finished second in a race at Santa Anita on Oct. 11, was disqualified and had the purse money taken away after a post-race test showed that there was procaine, an illegal anesthetic, in his system. Santa Anita stewards said that Straw’s trainer, Gary Jones, was being held blameless in the incident. . . . Bill Shoemaker finished third Sunday with Triptych in the Rothmans International and was ninth aboard Savannah Dancer in the E.P. Taylor Stakes, both run at Woodbine in Canada. Nassipour won the Rothmans and the Taylor went to Devalois. Shoemaker felt that Triptych might be one of his two mounts in the Breeders’ Cup races, the other being the sprinter Charging Falls. . . . There were some unusual payoffs Saturday when a bettor wagered $30,000 to show on Ketoh, who finished fourth as the 1-2 favorite in the Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park. As a result, the winner, Mogambo, paid $6 to win and $8.80 to show and runnerup Groovy’s prices were $6.60 and $15.40. Wayne Lukas, Ketoh’s trainer, couldn’t explain the 2-year-old colt’s first loss. “He was flat, uncharacteristically flat,” Lukas said. “He didn’t run a quarter of a mile. He’s galloped faster than what he ran Saturday. He came out of the race in fine shape and we’re still shooting to run him in the Breeders’ Cup (Juvenile).” Lukas said that a pre-payment would also be made today to make Louisiana Slew eligible for the Juvenile. . . . There will be betting at Santa Anita on the seven Breeders’ Cup races Nov. 2, plus an eight-race card at the track. Because Santa Anita is running only eight races that day, it was able to offer a 10-race program Sunday instead of the regular nine.