Balboa Stakes at Del Mar : Shoemaker, Temperate Sil Win; Futurity Next

Bill Shoemaker won his third stakes race in a row and the 952nd of his career here Wednesday afternoon when he brought favored Temperate Sil home first in the $50,000 Balboa Stakes before a crowd of 16,200.

The 2-year-old roan colt by Temperence Hill out of Rukann covered the seven furlongs on a fast dirt course in 1:23 to win by 2 lengths. Polar Jet, with Russell Baze up, finished second, while Pat Valenzuela, aboard Gold on Green, was third.

The victory, Temperate Sil’s second in three starts, was worth $32,250 to his owner, Lewis Figone of San Francisco. Temperate Sil paid $3.60, $3.20 and $2.60 after going off as the 4-5 favorite in the eight-horse field.

Longshot Polar Jet paid $21.40 and $7.40 for his second-place finish, while Gold on Green paid $3.20 to show.

Trainer Charlie Whittingham, who teamed with Shoemaker and Hidden Light to win last Sunday’s Del Mar Oaks--after Shoemaker and trainer Joe Manzi had won the Chula Vista Handicap the day before with Fran’s Valentine--was asked how soon he had recognized Temperate Sil’s potential.

“Right away; he could run from the day we first got him,” the 73-year-old Whittingham said, adding that ideally he would have preferred to make the Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 10 Temperate Sil’s third race. Now, it will be his fourth start.

“The only reason he ran here (Wednesday) is because he’s a little green,” Whittingham said. “Otherwise I would have saved him for the Futurity.”

That inexperience showed itself during Wednesday’s race as Shoemaker had his hands full keeping the powerful Kentucky-bred colt in line.

He had to check him briefly in the backstretch and, as he later said, had to “jump him over the heels” of Laffit Pincay’s mount, Fleeting Jet.

Gold on Green and Bold Bargain, with Santiago Soto up, made most of the early running, but Temperate Sil caught and passed them on the turn for home, with Shoemaker being pressured slightly by Baze’s strong outside challenge on Polar Jet.

Once Temperate Sil got his nose in front, however, it was all over. He won comfortably.

“He’s going to be a nice colt. It’s early yet,” Shoemaker said. “He’s feeling so good right now, he just wants to run off. He’s sharp. He needs a little of that edge taken off him.”

But not too much. As is always the case with promising 2-year-olds, the Kentucky Derby immediately becomes the goal. Asked about that, Whittingham, who won this year’s Derby with Ferdinand, said, smiling: “You always think about the Derby, but that’s a long way off. You don’t want to think about it too soon--you might mess up your horse.”

For now, Whittingham, Shoemaker and Temperate Sil will be content to point instead to the Del Mar Futurity in two weeks.

Horse Racing Notes

Hot and Smoggy, with Octavio Vergara up, finished first in Wednesday’s fourth race but was moved back to seventh when stewards ruled the 2-year-old colt had lugged in in midstretch, “bumping and impeding” two other horses. . . . The Bruce Headley-trained Variety Road, making his first start since bruising a foot in the Santa Anita Derby April 6, gave apprentice Corey Black the third of his day’s four winners by taking the seven-furlong seventh race in 1:22 2/5. . . . Alex Solis and Terry Lipham were both back in action Wednesday. Solis spent the past two weeks in his native Panama after X-rays taken Aug. 9 revealed he broke a rib earlier at Hollywood Park. Lipham bruised his chest and ribs in a post-race spill last Thursday. Eddie Delahoussaye had to take himself off several of his mounts Wednesday because of a sinus problem. . . . John Sullivan, the trainer of Del Mar Derby and La Jolla Mile winner Vernon Castle, said he still is unsure whether to run Vernon Castle in Monday’s $300,000 Del Mar Invitational Handicap. “I’d like to give him a little rest,” Sullivan said. “Three races here is asking a lot.”