Weekend Racing at Hollywood Park : Brave Raj Could Be First 2-Year-Old Millionaire

Literally, Brave Raj is not the million-dollar baby who was found in the 5- and 10-cent store. But if this tall, slightly built 2-year-old filly finishes at least third Sunday in the $1-million Hollywood Futurity, it will still be reason enough to dust off the lyrics to that old song.

Brave Raj, winner of five straight stakes, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita in her last start, has already broken the record for highest earnings by a 2-year-old filly. Brave Raj’s $450,000 win in the Breeders’ Cup boosted her total to $911,150, breaking by about $44,000 the record that Outstandingly set in 1984.

In the Futurity, Brave Raj has a chance to carve even bigger niches in racing history. No 2-year-old--colt or filly--has ever earned $1 million in a year and no horse has ever won two million-dollar races in the same year.

Snow Chief, a stablemate of Brave Raj in trainer Mel Stute’s barn, holds the overall record for earnings by a 2-year-old with $935,740 in 1985, and Brave Raj can break that mark by finishing at least fourth Sunday.

Good fillies have been unable to beat the colts in the first five runnings of the Futurity, and with Capote, the best 2-year-old in the country, on the sidelines until next year, 13 horses have been entered for Sunday’s one-mile race. In post-position order, they are:

Masterful Advocate, to be ridden by Laffit Pincay; Exclusive Enough, Larry Snyder; Temperate Sil, Bill Shoemaker; Qualify, Gary Stevens; Broadway Pointe, Angel Cordero; Prince Sassafras, Ray Sibille; Malibu Prince, Gary Baze; Brave Raj, Pat Valenzuela; Wilderness Bound, Fernando Toro; Thunder Cat, Eddie Delahoussaye; Nasty Naskra, Rafael Meza; Gold on Green, Cash Asmussen; and Alysheba, Pat Day.

It is costing the owners of Broadway Pointe and Brave Raj $50,000 apiece to supplement their horses into the Futurity. Exclusive Enough and Alysheba, both owned by Dorothy Scharbauer of Midland, Tex., will run as a betting entry and all starters will carry 121 pounds except Brave Raj, who will tote 118 because of the filly allowance.

Although Brave Raj comes from a male line that includes Nasrullah, Princequillo, Bold Ruler and Jaipur, her immediate parentage is not particularly strong. Rajab, the sire, stood for a $3,000 stud fee this year in Ocala, Fla. Bravest Yet, the dam, never won a race, although both of her foals, Brave Raj and Peal Out, have been stakes winners.

Dr. William S. Karutz, a New York ear, nose and throat specialist, bred Brave Raj, and she brought $24,000 at an auction of unraced 2-year-olds last February in Florida.

Brave Raj won her first start by 7 1/2 lengths at Garden State Park in May, when Gary Gregory, one of Stute’s assistants, was there with Snow Chief, who was about to run in the Jersey Derby.

When Stute arrived, Gregory suggested that he look at the horse. A deal was made, Stute buying Brave Raj for $300,000 on behalf of Dolly Green, the Beverly Hills oil and land heiress, who had switched trainers, going from Laz Barrera to Stute, only a couple of months before.

The 59-year-old Stute had never spent $300,000 on a horse before--in fact, he had never spent more than $80,000 on a horse. Much of his reputation has been based on taking lesser-priced horses and molding them into stakes winners.

The first time he started Brave Raj, in the Landaluce Stakes at Hollywood Park July 4, he got a shock. Not only didn’t Brave Raj win, she wasn’t even competitive, finishing fifth in a nine-horse field and running 9 3/4 lengths behind the winner, Delicate Vine.

“I was disappointed and worried,” Stute said.

Then at Del Mar last summer, Brave Raj began to show the form that would lead her to the Breeders’ Cup. After a close second in a small stake after the ground broke out from under her leaving the gate, Brave Raj won the Sorrento and, after Stute had spent $10,000 more of Green’s money to supplement her, she took the Del Mar Debutante by 3 1/2 lengths.

Because of her breeding, Brave Raj was eligible for some rich races restricted to Florida-breds, and Stute, as he had with Snow Chief, made the trip with the filly, who won both of her stakes starts at Calder.

Despite her four-race streak, Brave Raj was the third betting choice in the Breeders’ Cup. The opposition wasn’t just Florida-breds, or untested 2-year-olds at Del Mar, it consisted of the division’s best, which included major winner Sacahuista and undefeated Tappiano, the best on the East Coast.

They were no match for Brave Raj, who beat Tappiano by 5 1/2 lengths. That more than doubled the next-biggest winning margin in the seven Breeders’ Cup races.

“She just exploded in that race,” Stute said. One more explosion Sunday and Brave Raj will become the million-dollar baby who practically started in a 5- and 10-cent store.

Horse Racing Notes Pat Valenzuela, who suffered a possible crack in his wrist when he was injured in a post-race accident Wednesday, has told Mel Stute that he will be able to ride Brave Raj Sunday. Valenzuela didn’t ride Thursday or Friday. . . . Wayne Lukas said that Talinum is over his cough but will miss the Futurity because he received a 14-day medication that might have resulted in a disqualification had he run and still had the substance in his system Sunday.