Weekend Racing at Santa Anita’s Oak Tree Meeting : 6 to Challenge Delicate Vine in Oak Leaf

Some trainers at Santa Anita think that California horses will have an advantage in the Breeders’ Cup Nov. 1 because many of them have become accustomed to the track where the seven races worth $10 million will be run.

That theory can even be applied to California 2-year-olds, for in the next seven days the best of the crop is scheduled to be running in the Oak Leaf Stakes and the Norfolk Stakes, major juvenile races that gain importance this year because they serve as useful tuneups for the Breeders’ Cup.

The first of these two juvenile races is Sunday’s $200,000 Oak Leaf for fillies, and it will be followed by the $200,000 Norfolk for colts a week from today. Both races are at 1 1/16 miles, the same distance as the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes. The Breeders’ Cup races for 2-year-olds were only a mile the first two years they were run.

The Oak Leaf starter who seems to have quickly acclimated herself to Santa Anita is Delicate Vine, who would have been the favorite, anyway. Delicate Vine is not only undefeated in four starts, she has also won every race convincingly.

Despite Delicate Vine’s dominance, six other fillies were entered in the Oak Leaf, including Taxpayer’s Folly, a Louisiana Downs horse whose owner, John Franks, had to pay a supplementary fee of $10,000 because she wasn’t nominated.

The Oak Leaf field, in post-position order: Tip a Sou, with Laffit Pincay riding; Saros Brig, Bill Shoemaker; Taxpayer’s Folly, Eddie Delahoussaye; Road to Happiness, Pat Valenzuela; Sacahuista, Chris McCarron; Silk’s Lady, Martin Pedroza, and Delicate Vine, Gary Stevens. Both Tip a Sou and Silk’s Lady are trained by Henry Moreno. All of the starters will carry 115 pounds.

Taxpayer’s Folly beat colts in the Louisiana Downs Futurity, and Sacahuista almost did the same thing in the Del Mar Futurity, losing by a nose to Qualify.

Sacahuista, whose career began at Hollywood Park in the summer, won a pair of stakes at Saratoga before she lost by 1 lengths to Delicate Vine in the Arlington-Washington Lassie.

Sacahuista is trained by Wayne Lukas, who has won the Oak Leaf three out of the last four years--with Landaluce, Life’s Magic and Arewehavingfunyet.

While Sacahuista returned less than two weeks after the Lassie to almost win the Del Mar Futurity, Delicate Vine has prepared for the Oak Leaf by being introduced to Santa Anita. The latter filly is well-traveled, having won stakes at Hollywood Park, Monmouth Park and Arlington Park, but she didn’t see Santa Anita until after the Lassie.

“It hasn’t made much difference,” Delicate Vine’s trainer, Bobby Frankel, said. “Two of the first times we tried her at Santa Anita, she had bullet workouts.”

A bullet workout is the fastest workout time that day at that distance. Sept. 21, Delicate Vine didn’t actually earn a bullet, working three-quarters of a mile in 1:13, but only one horse worked faster that day, turning in a time of 1:12 4/5. Sept. 27, Frankel worked Delicate Vine seven furlongs, and her time of 1:26 3/5 was the fastest of the day. Friday, over a track listed as muddy, Frankel was pleased when Delicate Vine ran a half-mile in :47 4/5.

All of Delicate Vine’s races have been impressive, but her best might have been her first stakes test, a come-from-behind win in the Landaluce at Hollywood Park July 4.

After Delicate Vine tries to boost her reputation Sunday, Gulch, considered to be the best 2-year-old colt in the country, will arrive from New York to run in the Norfolk a week from today.

It will cost Gulch’s owner, Peter Brant, $10,000 to supplement his colt to the Norfolk, and LeRoy Jolley, the trainer, told Santa Anita’s racing office Friday that the horse was coming. Gulch, who has already won two major races--the Hopeful at Saratoga and the Futurity at Belmont Park--might have used the Champagne Stakes, Oct. 18 at Belmont, as his Breeders’ Cup prep.

Horse Racing Notes

Captain Valid, who won the Hollywood Juvenile Championship in July but then raced ineffectively in three starts in Chicago and New York, is sidelined indefinitely. Captain Valid underwent surgery earlier this week after breaking a rear ankle. . . . Corbin Robertson, the Houston oilman who owns Captain Valid, had Meadowlake, an undefeated 2-year-old, in 1985, but he didn’t race this year because of injuries. Robertson is one of the partners in Turkoman, who is favored today in the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont. . . . It is Ross Fenstermaker’s understanding that Chris McCarron, who rides Turkoman today, will decide next week whether he will ride Turkoman or Precisionist if both start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, as expected. Fenstermaker trains Precisionist. Robertson has promised McCarron breeding privileges with Turkoman when the colt goes to stud next year. . . . Skywalker and Palace Music are top-weighted at 122 pounds apiece today at Santa Anita in the Col. F.W. Koester Handicap.