McCarron Cashes In on Chance : He Guides I’m Splendid to Victory in $625,850 Starlet at Hollypark

Chris McCarron didn’t ride the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies race at Aqueduct last month. But he did pick up a ride in the Hollywood Starlet a day or two later, even though he had to wait until Sunday to win the $625,850 event for 2-year-old fillies at Hollywood Park.

I’m Splendid lived up to her name under strong urging in the lane from the red-haired jockey and scored a 2 3/4-length victory in the mile time of 1:36 before 32,330 fans.

It was the first time McCarron had ridden I’m Splendid, who arrived from the New York headquarters on Thursday, walked over the Hollywood Park main course Friday and galloped Saturday.

But McCarron was ready for his date with the young lady. As his agent, Scotty McClellan, recalled after Sunday’s race: “Right after the Breeders’ Cup, Jimmy Toner (I’m Splendid’s trainer) contacted me and asked if we had a mount in the Starlet. Mr. Toner was thinking of sending his filly out here for the race. We rode Earl’s Valentine in the Breeders’ Cup (finishing 10th), and we owed her trainer, Joe Manzi, the call if he wanted to run her back in this race.

“When Joe told us his filly wouldn’t be running in the Starlet, that freed us up to take the mount on I’m Splendid,” McClellan said. “Obviously it worked out great for everyone.”

McCarron admitted he was concerned that I’m Splendid failed to handle a muddy track at Saratoga when she finished fifth in the Spinaway Stakes there in August. Sunday’s Starlet was run in the mud. “But she won two races earlier in the year in the mud including a stake (the Schuylerville at Saratoga), so maybe she had an excuse other than the mud when she lost,” McCarron said. “She had real good tactical speed today and just ran a great race.”

For Toner, the win by I’m Splendid was his first in a Southern California stakes race and was the second major triumph of the year for the Kentucky-bred daughter of Our Native. I’m Splendid won by 4 1/2 lengths over a good field in the Selima Stakes at Laurel Race Course in Maryland Oct. 19. Her winning time that day was three-fifths of a second better than that posted by Mom’s Command in last year’s Selima.

I’m Splendid wasn’t nominated to the Breeders’ Cup, and the Selima had been her last outing before the Starlet.

“She runs her best when her races are spread several weeks apart,” Toner said. The six-week wait was worthwhile for Caesar Kimmel, a real estate and communications executive from Deal, N.J., who owns the filly.

I’m Splendid, in winning her fourth of seven starts, earned $344,217 to increase her 1985 earnings to more than $560,000.

The 4-1 second choice in the field of nine, I’m Splendid returned $9.80, $6 and $2.80. Trim Colony, who closed strongly but too late, paid $7.80 and $3.80. Twilight Ridge, the heavy 7-10 favorite, lugged in twice--once nearing the 3/16 pole, and again near the eighth pole--and had to settle for third.

Twilight Ridge, who paid $2.40, became the second Breeders’ Cup race winner in two days to lose at Hollywood Park. Precisionist, Breeders’ Cup Sprint champion, was fourth in Saturday’s National Sprint Championship.

So add the 2-year-old filly division as one without a clear-cut champion at the moment. Toner said late Sunday that he and Kimmel might consider giving I’m Splendid a chance to unravel the puzzle by supplementing her for $50,000 to the 1-mile Hollywood Futurity Dec. 15.

“We’re gonna have a nice dinner tonight and not think about it for a while,” Toner said. “Then tomorrow we’ll decide which direction to take. Obviously running her back in two weeks might not be in the best interests of our filly. But we’ll have to see.”

Toner, a 45-year-old Philadelphian who was the youngest trainer in the nation at age 19 when he began his career, certainly knows the ups and downs of his profession. Before his work with I’m Splendid, his biggest victory was with another filly, Buzz My Bell, in the 1983 Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga. That same year, he suffered his most disappointing loss when his Disastrous Night was beaten a nose by eventual Kentucky Derby winner Swale in the Young America at the Meadowlands.

Horse Racing notes Wild Kitty gave trainer Cotton Tinsley his first Hollywood Park stakes victory since Loma Malad won the 1980 Haggin Stakes when she won the $35,000 Desert Law, an overnight event for 3-year-old fillies contested as Sunday’s fifth race. Wild Kitty, ridden by Fernando Toro, won the seven-furlong race by three quarters of a length. . . . High-powered athlete’s agent Howard Slusher is famous for getting multimillion dollar contracts for his clients. Apparently, he doesn’t have the same success with horses. Coopers Hill, a 4-year-old colt he claimed for $16,000 at Santa Anita Nov. 9, made his first start for his new owner in Sunday’s seventh race, a mile for $20,000 claimers, and finished fifth in a 10-horse field.

Precisionist, fourth as the 2-5 favorite in Saturday’s National Sprint Championship, will not race again in 1985, trainer Ross Fenstermaker said Sunday. The Crozier colt, who won four of nine starts, including the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and $1.1 million this year, will be returned to training as a 5-year-old in early 1986 and be pointed toward the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap in March. . . . Scat Dancer, third behind Tasso and Storm Cat in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, may be sent West for the $1 million Hollywood Futurity Dec. 15.