Palomar Handicap at Del Mar : Valenzuela Puts the Whip to 2 Horses, but His Win on Aberuschka Stands

Pat Valenzuela wasn’t sure whether he hit Chris McCarron’s mare in the head with his whip during the stretch run of Saturday’s $98,300 Palomar Handicap at Del Mar.

McCarron was sure, and the three stewards agreed with him, but only to a point. They didn’t think that Valenzuela’s wayward whip was a factor in the outcome, and they allowed Aberuschka’s head win over Sauna, ridden by McCarron, to stand, giving the well-traveled 4-year-old filly a purse worth $62,750 before a crowd of 26,456.

Aberuschka, ridden by Valenzuela, had passed the early leader, Cenyak’s Star, as the nine-horse field headed into the stretch, and he appeared to have clear sailing to the wire before McCarron got Sauna into high gear.

With about 50 yards to go, McCarron said Sauna was struck by Valenzuela’s right-handed whip.

“My horse threw her head,” McCarron said. “I couldn’t tell whether it affected her stride or not.”

After reviewing the rerun, the stewards disallowed McCarron’s foul claim. “McCarron’s horse didn’t break stride,” steward Hubert Jones said. “The rider’s action wasn’t affected, either.”

Valenzuela, the leading rider through 16 days of the meeting with 23 wins, wondered if his whip had hit Sauna.

“If it did, I didn’t feel it,” Valenzuela said. “If I did it, it was because Chris was riding close to me. My filly was still running hard. I don’t think the other horse would have gotten by me, anyway.”

There was a curt exchange between McCarron and Valenzuela in the jockeys’ room.

“Chris, what difference did it make?” Valenzuela said to McCarron. “You were hitting your horse in the head, anyway.”

McCarron flushed. “I wasn’t hitting her in the head,” he shot back. “ You did.”

With that, McCarron grabbed a towel and headed for the shower.

Aberuschka is owned by Jerry Moss, a Los Angeles record executive, and his wife, Ann.

Aberuschka was timed in 1:34 2/5, breaking by two-fifths of a second the stakes record that A Thousand Stars set in the 1980 Palomar. The Palomar has only been run at the mile turf distance for the last 11 years.

Aberuschka, the second choice in the betting at 3-1, paid $8.40, $3.40 and $3. Sauna paid $2.60 and $2.20 as an entry with Estrapade, which went off as the 9-10 favorite. Fran’s Valentine, who finished third in her first grass start, was almost four lengths behind Aberuschka and paid $3.40.

The highly regarded Estrapade flattened out in the stretch and finished sixth.

Aberuschka’s trainer, Bobby Frankel, was at Saratoga, N.Y., where he saddles Truculent today in the Bernard Baruch Handicap. In absentia, Frankel has a chance to double up at Del Mar today, running Al Mamoon in the Eddie Read Handicap. Al Mamoon has been installed as the 5-2 favorite.

Aberuschka is an Irish-bred daughter of Thatching and Veruschka. She made her first U.S. start a winning one in the Sari Song Handicap last November at Hollywood Park.

Aberuschka also won a small stake at Santa Anita in April, and shortly afterward Frankel took her on the road for a second-place finish in the Lady Canterbury Handicap at Canterbury Downs near Minneapolis. Aberuschka won an overnight handicap at Belmont Park in June, then returned to Hollywood Park for another win on July 4, her last start before Saturday.

Valenzuela, who rode Aberuschka in her last Hollywood win, had been the regular rider on Fran’s Valentine, but he got off that filly Saturday.

Estrapade, ridden by Fernando Toro, was close to the leaders in the early going.

“I sent her today,” Toro said. “I had no place to go, but she wasn’t going anywhere, anyway. She was clear in the stretch and not gaining.”

Horse Racing Notes

Both John Gosden and Michael Whittingham can’t understand why today’s Eddie Read Handicap, with its consistently strong fields, isn’t rated a major race (Grade I) by the 12-member panel that annually ranks North America’s top races. The Read has only Grade II status. “The caliber of horses in both the Eddie Read and the American make them the same as Grade Ones,” Gosden said. The American is also a Grade II. Gosden has entered Zoffany and Clever Song in the Read and Whittingham will saddle Truce Maker. . . . Kenny Black, a leading rider in Maryland with a promising future in California before drug and weight problems knocked him out of action in 1984, has been suspended for 30 days in Minnesota for refusing to submit to a drug test at Canterbury Downs. Through his attorney, Black has obtained a hearing before the Minnesota State Racing Commission on Wednesday. Black, 22, was the third-leading rider at Canterbury this season but had slumped recently because of weight problems and reportedly became ill last Wednesday trying to sweat himself down from 124 pounds to 118 or 119, weights that he’d ridden at earlier this year. Corey Black, Kenny’s 17-year-old brother, is one of the leading apprentices in the country and ranks third in the Del Mar standings. . . . Today’s third race at Del Mar is the $50,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap, in which Take My Picture will try for her fifth straight win. . . .Gary Stevens, given a five-day suspension by the Del Mar stewards, will miss two mounts at Saratoga--on Persevered in the Sanford on Wednesday and on Broad Brush in next Saturday’s Travers. . . . Classy Cathy won a three-horse photo in Saturday’s Alabama at Saratoga, with Valley Victory second and Life at the Top third. . . .Buffalo Beau, trained by Jack Van Berg, won Saturday’s Omaha Gold Cup at Ak-Sar-Ben.