Santa Anita to Get a Fast Start : Pancho Villa Runs Today, Phone Trick on Sunday

Santa Anita’s 49th racing season, which opens today with a nine-race program beginning at noon, is assured of a fast start. Pancho Villa meets 11 other 3-year-olds in today’s Malibu Stakes, and on Sunday, Phone Trick runs in the Palos Verdes Handicap. Neither colt is a slowpoke.

It’s unfortunate that Phone Trick isn’t running against Pancho Villa in the $100,000 Malibu at seven furlongs, but Dick Mandella, who trains Phone Trick, has his reasons.

“I have a tendency to talk more like an owner than a trainer when it comes to Phone Trick, because I own 20% of him,” Mandella said. “I still think he has an outside chance to win the Eclipse Award for sprinting. That’s the owner coming out in me, because by rights, I guess, Precisionist should get it. Anyway, I thought it would mean more for the horse’s reputation if he beat older horses in the Palos Verdes than just 3-year-olds in the Malibu.”

Naturally, Wayne Lukas, who trains Pancho Villa, has another opinion about the sprint title. Actually, he has two opinions, because if Precisionist doesn’t take the vote, either Pancho Villa or Mt. Livermore, another Lukas trainee, could win the championship.

Lukas, who also has a division of horses in New York, heard last week that support was building in the East for Pancho Villa, even though Precisionist won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint Stakes last month in the near-record time of 1:08 2/5 for six furlongs at Aqueduct.

Pancho Villa ran fifth against Precisionist, but the Secretariat colt has since won the National Sprint Championship at Hollywood Park, where Precisionist finished fourth on a muddy track. That was Pancho Villa’s fourth stakes win this year at a mile or less.

Pancho Villa and Mt. Livermore, a multiple stakes winner who has been retired, may split votes, which will work to Precisionist’s advantage. A drawback for Pancho Villa and Phone Trick is that many voters may already have cast their ballots before these Santa Anita races. And although Pancho Villa’s win at Hollywood Park in 1:08 4/5 came just four weeks ago, he inexplicably wasn’t listed among the sprinters in information that was sent to the voters in early December.

The only time Pancho Villa and Phone Trick met, last March at Santa Anita, Phone Trick won by 2 lengths.

“We beat Pancho Villa when he was good,” Mandella said. “He went to New York right after that and ran some good races.”

That March win was only Phone Trick’s second career start; he has added three more wins, the most recent a 7 1/2-length, 1:08 4/5 sizzler at Hollywood Park on Dec. 15. That was his first start in seven months because of a knee injury, and he missed facing Precisionist, who scratched out of the race.

“I wanted Precisionist in there,” Mandella said. “My horse missed four months of training with the knee, and he really didn’t have that many fast workouts in him going into the race. I’m still not convinced he can’t go farther, even though his sire (Clever Trick) has the reputation of being a sprint sire. If they had gone any farther in that last race, he would have won by 30 lengths.”

A horse with a right to beat Pancho Villa in the Malibu is Another Reef, simply because he did it, by 2 3/4 lengths at equal weights, in the $170,000 Vosburgh Stakes at Aqueduct on Nov. 16. At 123 pounds, Another Reef, Pancho Villa and Banner Bob are the high weights today.

Like Phone Trick, Another Reef is a horse whose career was threatened earlier in the year. In May, Another Reef underwent surgery to correct a paralyzed palate that was giving him breathing problems. More than five months later, Another Reef returned to the races and finished third at Aqueduct. Then came his upset win in the Vosburgh. Pancho Villa gets another chance today, and win or lose he’ll be part of Santa Anita’s fast start.

Santa Anita Notes The field for Friday’s La Brea Stakes is headed by Lady’s Secret, a possible Eclipse Award winner for best 3-year-old filly. The nine-horse La Brea is filled with stakes winners, however, and in post-position order they are: Reigning Countess, Lady’s Secret, Savannah Slew, Ambra Ridge, Balladry, Shywing, Folk Art, Rascal Lass and Maria Valdez. . . . Lady’s Secret, who has a third and two fifths in three starts at Santa Anita, is another of those Wayne Lukas-trained horses who didn’t blossom until going East. Lady’s Secret won eight straight in New York and New Jersey before her second-place finish behind stablemate Life’s Magic in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. . . . Lukas’ Mt. Livermore won only 2 of 14 starts in California; in New York, he won 9 of 13. . . . Gainesway Farm in Kentucky has syndicated Pancho Villa for breeding, the 40 shares reportedly selling for more than $6 million. The colt won’t be sent to stud until after his 4-year-old season in 1986. . . . Santa Anita is open through Sunday, then after Monday off, runs six more days until Jan. 6. . . . Post time after today is 12:30 p.m. . . . The Pick Nine is again being offered, after a lukewarm reception at the Oak Tree meeting. Because of the Pick Nine, the daily double is the second and third races. . . . Season highlights: the Charles H. Strub Stakes Feb. 2, the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap March 2, the Santa Anita Derby April 6 and the San Juan Capistrano Handicap April 20. The season ends April 21. . . . One of Phone Trick’s rivals in Sunday’s Palos Verdes is Debonair Junior, who won the race last year. The last horse with consecutive wins in the Palos Verdes was Native Diver in 1964-65. . . . T.V. Residual is a likely starter for Dick Mandella in Saturday’s $100,000 California Breeders’ Champion Stakes, 2-year-old filly division.