Stakes Race Fails to Develop as Shoemaker Figures : Jockey Settles for Second Place in Photo Finish on Opening Day of Oak Tree Meeting

Bill Shoemaker says that when one of his horses is involved in a photo finish, he isn’t wrong very often. He can usually tell whether he’s won or not.

On Wednesday, however, 38,677 races worth of experience didn’t help Shoemaker one whit. The 55-year-old jockey was wrong about the result of the $68,850 Henry P. Russell Handicap, which helped open a monthlong Oak Tree season at Santa Anita.

Proved wrong by the photo-finish camera, Shoemaker still found defeat difficult to accept. “I still don’t think I lost, they’ve got to show me the photo,” Shoemaker said with a smile as he padded to the showers from his locker several minutes after the race.

By the smallest of noses, Glaros and jockey Alex Solis held on at the wire to beat Louis Le Grand, with Shoemaker aboard. Either way, trainer Charlie Whittingham was a winner--he saddled both Glaros and Louis Le Grand, in addition to Attention, another horse in the field of 13. Attention finished sixth.

Under threatening skies, the opener drew 40,466 fans, which was almost 20,000 fewer than last year’s first day, when the Oak Tree record was set. There were portable-radio giveaways both days, which, according to one Santa Anita official, might have been part of Wednesday’s problem. “Those were good radios we gave away last year, and a lot of people are still using them,” he said.

Oak Tree’s first day with no Pick Six carryover will probably cost the track in attendance today. No one picked six winners in the fourth through ninth races Wednesday, which in previous seasons would have resulted in half of a pool of more than $300,000 being carried over to the next day. Instead, 41 people with five winners took home $3,766 apiece, and there were much smaller payoffs for bettors with four and even three winners. Oak Tree’s philosophy behind dropping the carryover is the idea of distributing payoffs to more people.

One of the reasons no one hit the Pick Six was Glaros, a 4-year-old French-bred colt who was registering his first American victory. Glaros, winless in four California starts and fifth in the Escondido Handicap at Del Mar in his last race, paid $53.40, $21.40 and $11.80, running the 1 miles on grass in 2:01 and earning $41,850 for his owners, John Bedrosian and Richard Eamer.

Louis Le Grand, who at 5-1 was the second betting choice, paid $7.40 and $6.20. It was 1 3/4 lengths farther back to Nadirpour, who was 20-1 and paid $10.20 to show. Montecito, the 3-1 favorite, was never in contention and finished ninth.

Shoemaker wasn’t alone in having difficulty deciphering the outcome between Glaros and Louis Le Grand. From his vantage point in the box seats, Whittingham thought Louis Le Grand had caught Glaros with his late run, and Solis just wasn’t sure.

“I couldn’t tell,” Solis said. “The other horse (Louis Le Grand) was running real strong at the end, and I was just riding my horse as hard as I could.”

Solis, who had never been aboard Glaros before, not even for a morning workout, broke from the outside position for the short run down the hill. For the late run, Solis had Glaros closer to the rail, saving ground. Glaros was between horses on the final turn and then, with another horse in front of him, Solis brought the colt to the outside at the quarter pole, giving him several authoritative cracks with a right-hand whip. Solis switched to the left hand closer to the wire.

Mainly because of Snow Chief, who has earned $1.8 million this year, Solis was among the national riding leaders until he ran into a mid-summer slump that started at Hollywood Park. On Sunday, riding Momentus with a five-length lead going into the stretch of the Hawthorne Juvenile Stakes near Chicago, Solis had to bail out when the horse jumped the fence and practically destroyed the eighth pole.

Solis, suffering bruises to his arms, was sore and unable to work out horses for Whittingham at Santa Anita the next day. Momentus took the worst of it, needing surgery after he fractured four ribs and suffered a gash on his leg.

Glaros, after winning twice in France, came to Whittingham late last year. After running seventh in the Oak Tree Invitational last October, he was sent to the farm for a rest and rejoined Whittingham this spring.

“The horse needs distance,” Whittingham said. “A mile and a quarter, a mile and a half, that’s his game. This year at Hollywood Park and Del Mar, there weren’t too many races that long that would help him.”

Wednesday, 1 miles were just right for Glaros, even though Shoemaker went home still unable to believe the horse had won.

Oak Tree Notes In Wednesday’s seventh race, which was filled with stakes winners, Nostalgia’s Star was a good-looking winner over Varick, with favored Variety Road finishing last. It was the first win for Nostalgia’s Star since he won the Strub Stakes in February. . . . In preparation for Breeders’ Cup day Nov. 1, Santa Anita has doubled the size of the winner’s circle, added a 1,000-person dining facility in the clubhouse and installed 1,000 temporary box seats at trackside. The total capital-improvements program cost $5 million.