Yashgan, Getting a Touch of Luck, Slips by Tights to Win by 2 Lengths

As the owners of the horses were leaving the walking ring just prior to the running of Sunday’s $87,600 San Gabriel Handicap at Santa Anita, Jack Liebau made sure he caught up with his partner, Sherwood Chillingworth.

“I’ve got to touch this guy for luck,” Liebau said. While Chillingworth was on a winning streak, having won the race before the San Gabriel with Matafao, Liebau was still downcast over the 10th-place finish of his 3-year-old colt, Au Bon Marche, in Saturday’s Tropical Park Derby at Calder.

Liebau found Chillingworth and rubbed his sportcoat. That gave the San Gabriel a nice touch. A few minutes later Yashgan, the 5-year-old Englishbred that Liebau and Chillingworth own with five other men, came off the rail in the stretch to overtake Tights and win the 1 1/8-mile turf stake by two lengths.

The win, worth $51,600 and boosting Yashgan’s career earnings to more than $500,000, was the first for the Aga Khan-bred horse since he won the Oak Tree Invitational at Santa Anita in October.

Since then, Yashgan ran second to Vanlandingham in the Washington D.C. International at Laurel and was a disappointing ninth as the favorite in the Hollywood Turf Cup a month ago.

John Sullivan, who began training Yashgan when the horse arrived in California in September after four non-winning starts in New York, felt that the horse’s poor performance at Hollywood Park might be attributed to his long trip to Maryland and back for the International.

“That trip might have knocked him out,” Sullivan said. “He was wide down the backside in the Hollywood race, but I don’t think that had any bearing on the result.”

Yashgan, timed in 1:49 3/5 on a rain-softened course listed as good, was favored by 32,810 fans in a field of eight and paid $5.60, $4 and $3.60. Tights, making his first stakes appearance since November of 1984, paid $5.40 and $4.20 in finishing three-fourths of a length ahead of Rivlia, whose show price was $4.20.

Yashgan’s assignment in the San Gabriel became easier when Drumalis was scratched. Drumalis, who came back from intestinal surgery last summer to win the Bay Meadows Handicap two weeks ago, is in the process of being tested on dirt for the first time, and with that in mind, trainer Darrell Vienna is saving him for the San Pasqual Handicap on Jan. 25 and the San Antonio Handicap on Feb. 16.

Chris McCarron, who has ridden Yashgan in all five of his California races, found room on the rail to win the Oak Tree. On Sunday, however, there was no opening.

“At the three-eighths pole, there was no place to go,” McCarron said. “Fernando (Toro) was riding and riding his horse (Foscarini), but the horse wasn’t picking it up. I found myself in a three-horse pocket and then Tights (who had the lead) started to open up.

“But there was a little gap on the outside, mainly because Capture Him ran out of gas. I was able to slip through that and go on from there.”

Laffit Pincay, trying to win his second straight stake after scoring with Badger Land in the Los Feliz Stakes Saturday, felt that Tights tired after leading by two lengths over Yashgan at the top of the stretch.

“He ran real good,” Pincay said. “He got tired because the track is very heavy right now.”

Rivlia, whose dam, the champion turf runner Dahlia, produced Dahar, the winner of last year’s San Gabriel, rallied from near the rear to take third. Bred and owned by Nelson Bunker Hunt, Rivlia raced in France before winning his only United States start three weeks ago at Hollywood Park.

“He (Rivlia) was coming on pretty good at the finish,” said Bill Shoemaker, who rode Dahlia in the early 1970s. “He runs like his mother, with the same kind of stride. A longer distance should suit him. He’s a 1-mile-to-1 1/2-mile horse.”

Yashgan, who was purchased for a reported $350,000 by the Liebau-Chillingworth group last June, is being pointed for the San Luis Rey Stakes on March 29. That’s at 1 1/2 miles, which should help Rivlia, but may not be a problem for Yashgan, either. Yashgan’s win in the Oak Tree was at the same distance.

Horse Racing Notes Trainer John Gosden entered Boom Town Charlie in both the San Gabriel and The BART Handicap at Bay Meadows Sunday, then kept the 6-year-old at Santa Anita when rain forced the other stake off the turf. Boom Town Charlie ran fifth in the San Gabriel. . . . Sherwood Chillingworth’s seventh-race winner, Matafao, is a former $20,000 claimer who ran second in the Goodwood Handicap at Santa Anita in October. Chillingworth said that Matafao might run in the $100,000 Kyne Handicap at Bay Meadows on Jan. 19. . . . Proud Truth, winner of the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Aqueduct in November, is scheduled to be flown from Florida to Santa Anita on Jan. 14. Proud Truth is scheduled to run in the San Fernando Stakes on Jan. 19 and stay for the Charles H. Strub on Feb. 2. . . . Gosden said that Alydar’s Best underwent surgery for a fractured foreleg and is back at his barn. The filly ran third in the Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita and was fourth in the Japan Cup in Tokyo. . . . Au Bon Marche will get a rest, being shipped back to California from Florida after his 10th in the Tropical Park Derby.