Nostalgia’s Star Wins Strub; Roo Art Is 2nd

Not many people were telling trainer Jay Robbins and jockey Fernando Toro that they had much of a chance in Sunday’s $539,250 Charles H. Strub Stakes at Santa Anita. Corey Black, the 17-year-old apprentice who has a locker next to Toro’s in the Santa Anita jockeys’ room, said to the veteran rider: “There’s no chance that horse will get a mile and a quarter.”

That, Toro joked later, told him that Nostalgia’s Star had a chance in the Strub. “Corey hasn’t been right yet,” Toro said.

Toro thought he had a better chance when the 12-horse field reached the quarter pole Sunday afternoon before 45,739 fans. Right Con had taken the lead away from the faltering Herat, but Nostalgia’s Star, accelerating on the outside, was moving the fastest.

At the wire, it was Nostalgia’s Star winning the Strub by 3 1/2 lengths over Roo Art, and even Robbins admitted that he was surprised by that.

“I thought we had a good chance to win but not that impressively,” Robbins said.

Before the race, Jack Robbins, the veterinarian who is the trainer’s father, also wasn’t shouting from the rooftops.

“Maybe second or third, but I don’t think we’ll win it,” Jack Robbins said. “Second or third wouldn’t be bad. They pay $100,000 for second, you know.”

Afterwards, however, Jack Robbins conceded that he had some hope: “I thought we had a shot, but just like Tommy, I don’t like to exude too much confidence going into a race.”

Nostalgia’s Star, who was purchased for $95,000 by Fred Duckett, Mary Jane Hinds and Margaret Robbins (the trainer’s mother) after he won a stake at Los Alamitos in the fall of 1984, is a case of history repeating itself for the Robbins family in the Strub. In 1968, Most Host, who was owned by Jack Robbins in partnership with Connie Bishop, upset 1967 Horse of the Year Damascus in the race, on an off track similar to Sunday’s muddy going.

“We just reversed ourselves, didn’t we?” Jack Robbins said Sunday. “From ’68 to ’86.”

Nostalgia’s Star’s win wasn’t quite as improbable as Most Host’s, because there wasn’t a horse of Damascus’ stature in Sunday’s 39th running of the Strub. Proud Truth, one of the best 3-year-olds in the country last year, went off the 8-5 favorite, but he labored in the goo and finished fifth, just as he had done in the San Fernando.

Right Con, who had won the San Fernando, wound up fourth. And Fast Account, the other half of the William R. Hawn-owned entry, finished third, just as he had in the San Fernando.

Nostalgia’s Star, earning $314,250 and timed in 2:03 3/5, paid $13.20, $5.60 and $3.80. Roo Art, second by a neck, paid $6.20 and $4.20 and Fast Account returned $3.

Nostalgia’s Star was in ninth place, behind Proud Truth, as the field started its run down the backstretch.

“Most horses spit out the bit at that point, but this horse was just the opposite,” Toro said. “He was running like we were on a fast track. He started pulling, grabbed the bit and took off when we passed Proud Truth.

“When he stopped pulling, I knew we were in good shape at the five-eighths pole. He’s the kind of a horse that you have to hold together. He was lugging in a bit through the stretch, but he was still strong.”

Chris McCarron, who had won the Strub last year with Precisionist, seemed to be in a good spot with Fast Account.

“My horse tried hard, like he always does,” McCarron said. “He just couldn’t make up enough ground. He kicked in, but he wasn’t good enough.”

Jay Robbins, winning his first major race as a trainer, didn’t think Nostalgia’s Star would mind the muddy track.

“That was the best break he got, having this kind of a track to run on,” Robbins said. “Because he’s bred to like mud (by Nostalgia out of the Big Spruce mare, Aunt Carol) and I knew he’d relish it.”

Robbins plans to run Nostalgia’s Star next in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 2. Other jockeys need not apply. Toro believes.

There was a time recently when that wasn’t the case. Robbins had been forced to play jockey roulette with Nostalgia’s Star.

It seemed like every local jockey had had his chance to ride the 4-year-old colt, with nobody coming away terribly impressed.

And for good reason. Nostalgia’s Star seemed like one of those horses who was always close, but never had enough resolve to win a race. He hadn’t won a race all last year, and had been second or third in seven prior stakes, when he finally captured the El Cajon at Del Mar in September.

But even that win, and a victory two months later in the Alibhai Handicap at Santa Anita, didn’t bring mobs of jockey agents to Robbins’ barn.

When Nostalgia’s Star made his debut at Santa Anita this season by beating only two horses in the Malibu Stakes, there was cause for revived pessimism. Before the San Fernando Stakes on Jan. 19, Robbins tried to get Laffit Pincay for a rider. Pincay had won the Alibhai with the California-bred, but he chose to ride Encolure instead.

“I wanted to get somebody who had ridden him before (that covered a lot of riders), but I couldn’t find anybody,” Robbins said.

But then Toro became available, and he and Nostalgia’s Star, at 53-1 odds, finished second, about a length behind Right Con, in the San Fernando. And now they’ve won the Strub.

Horse Racing Notes

The win was Fernando Toro’s third in the Strub. He also clicked with George Navonod in 1976 and Super Moment in 1981. . . . Toro turned 45 Friday. . . . Roo Art’s second-place finish in the Strub ended a series of frustrations for trainer Wayne Lukas Sunday. His horses were close in three other stakes--Robin’s Rob being fourth in the Miss Grillo at Santa Anita, Badger Land running second in the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows and Gene’s Lady finishing second in the Berlo Handicap at Aqueduct. Truffles won the Miss Grillo, trainer Danny Velasquez’ first stakes win at Santa Anita. Snow Chief took the El Camino Real and Clock’s Secret won the Berlo. . . . Lukas also lost a win in Sunday’s fourth race at Santa Anita when Southern Halo finished first, but was disqualified for bumping Roman Magestraite in the stretch. . . . Will Dancer and Catane were scratched from the Strub. . . . Foscarini, ridden by Eric Saint-Martin and trained by Laurie Anderson, won Sunday’s Turf Paradise Handicap over Bold Run. . . . Nostalgia’s Star now has five wins, nine seconds, five thirds and purses of more than $766,000 for his 28 career starts