Arcadia ‘Cap Won by Oldtimers--Strawberry Road and Whittingham

Prior to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Stakes at Aqueduct last November, a European television commentator downplayed the chances of Strawberry Road II.

“He’s traveled all over the world and I think he’s starting to look a little long of tooth,” the commentator said.

Strawberry Road’s second-place finish behind Pebbles, whom he probably would have caught in one or two more strides, was no embarrassment. But his eighth-place finish as the 6-5 favorite in the Washington D.C. International two weeks later at Laurel seemed to indicate that his best days were in the scrapbook.

This season, however, the 7-year-old Australian-bred was back in action, and after two respectable finishes in races that might have turned out better, Strawberry Road seems to have found the fountain of youth. It has been trainer Charlie Whittingham, not Ponce de Leon, who’s led the horse to those waters.

On Sunday, in his seventh American start, Strawberry Road scored his first victory in the United States, winning the $121,800 Arcadia Handicap by 2 lengths before 39,666 fans.

“He’s a fine, old campaigner,” Whittingham said after the race. “A tough, old campaigner.”

Whittingham, who will be 73 next month, could just as well have been talking about himself. The Arcadia was his third stakes win in as many tries in the last eight days, coming after Greinton’s victory in the Santa Anita Handicap and Hidden Light’s triumph in the La Habra Stakes last week.

The scratches of Clanrallier and Truculent reduced the Arcadia field to seven, three saddled by Whittingham, and the race’s other tough, old campaigner finished 1-2-4, with Hail Bold King running second and Val Danseur getting fourth. The only horse in Whittingham’s way was Schiller, who finished a bothered third, a half-length behind Hail Bold King.

Strawberry Road, a winner in Australia, Germany and France, won for the 17th time in a 42-race career and earned $76,800, hiking his career purses to more than $1.6 million. The horse has been shared by several owners, but now he’s the equal property of Bruce McNall of Malibu and Allen Paulson of Encino.

Strawberry Road covered the 1 miles on a yielding turf in 2:03 2/5 and, as the slight second choice, paid $5.20, $4 and $3.40. Hail Bold King’s mutuels were $6.40 and $4.60 and Schiller, at 60-1 the longest price on the board, paid $8.80.

Favored Talakeno, whose last two wins were on soft turf, finished sixth, beating only Fabbiani. “He didn’t fire,” said Pat Valenzuela, Talakeno’s jockey. “The course was the same as the ones he won on, but he didn’t show any enthusiasm. I think it was just an off day for him.”

Strawberry Road’s off days at Santa Anita had come in the San Marcos Handicap on Jan. 26, when he ran second despite being bumped leaving the gate; and on Feb. 17 in the San Luis Obispo Handicap, in which he threw a front shoe.

“Don’t worry, jock,” Whitting- ham said before Gary Stevens boarded Strawberry Road Sunday, “you’re getting on a different horse today.”

Leaving the track, Stevens said to Whittingham: “You were right.” Later, in the jockeys’ room, Stevens added: “He was good before, but today he was better than I expected. He was also washy (sweaty) before the last two races, but today he was completely settled.”

Strawberry Road’s gate problems have been as much his own fault as being bothered by other horses, and Sunday he was helped by an assistant starter for the first time.

“Foreign horses are not used to that,” Stevens said. “And sometimes if you put an assistant in there, the horse will turn his head to see who it is, and you’ll get left 10 winks, anyway.

“But this horse handled it good. He had been sucking back, so the assistant got his nose right up to the ‘V’ of the gate.”

Carrying 125 pounds, eight more than Talakeno, the second-high weight, Strawberry Road stayed close behind the pace-setting Lucky N Green going down the backstretch. Stevens could have made the lead sooner, but he waited until they reached the quarter pole.

“I wanted to sit with him as long as I could, because I heard that he has had a tendency to pull himself up when he gets ahead,” Stevens said. “But he wasn’t like that today.”

Vivian Pulliam, the trainer of Schiller, thought her horse might have finished second if he hadn’t “got stopped dead” at the three-eighths pole. Carlos Marquez, riding Schiller, said he had to check the 4-year-old gelding, and Bill Shoemaker, riding Hail Bold King, said that his horse was responsible.

“My horse started lugging in,” Shoemaker said. “He made the other horse check a bit. I pinched him back slightly.”

Schiller might have made second, but catching Strawberry Road was never in the cards. The horse who’s long in the tooth is even longer in the stride.

Horse Racing Notes Owner Allen Paulson, whose Estrapade was scratched from Saturday’s Santa Ana Handicap when heavy rain forced the stakes race off the grass, is furious about Santa Anita’s decision. “It’s ridiculous that they didn’t leave the race on the turf,” Paulson said. “We wait four months to get this expensive mare (Paulson bought her late last year for $4.5 million) ready for this race, and then they put it on the dirt. How much longer can you wait to get a horse ready? It also cheapens the meaning of important stakes, because the horse that won didn’t have the best horses to run against because of the scratches (four besides Estrapade), yet she still gets credit. This is the third or fourth time this meeting they’ve taken a race off the grass that’s affected my horses. I’ll tell you, it wouldn’t have happened at Hollywood Park.”. . . Responding to Paulson’s comments, Alan Bach, Santa Anita vice president for marketing, said: “The decision was made by (vice president for racing) Jimmy Kilroe, who has more than 50 years of experience in the game to back up his judgments. It was done for safety reasons and nothing else. Safety for the horses--about $20 million worth--and the safety of the jockeys who would have had to ride them.” . . . Carlos Marquez was fined $200 by the stewards for striking Pat Valenzuela with his whip in the final yards of Saturday’s ninth race. Marquez, who finished second aboard Jovial, was responding to being hit by the whip of Valenzuela, who said it was unintentional. Marquez, on the outside, had to reach across his horse to hit Valenzuela, who said the blow was so hard that he thought it might have broken his wrist. Valenzuela finished third with Big Dan Ryan. . . . Trainer Laz Barrera, who stayed at Del Mar rather than making his customary move to Saratoga last summer, will return to the upstate New York track with a stable of horses this year. “Too many claiming races at Del Mar and I’ve got a lot of allowance horses who will be able to run at Saratoga,” Barrera said. “Not only that, help was too hard to find at Del Mar.”