Racing at Santa Anita : Delahoussaye Gets Gift, Victory

Eddie Delahoussaye describes 1986 as a “hit and miss year.” But on the year’s final Saturday, Delahoussaye scored a direct hit, riding Young Flyer to a two-length win over Saros Brig in the filly division of the $113,400 California Breeders’ Champion Stakes.

The mount on Young Flyer became Delahoussaye’s through the courtesy of Gary Stevens, the nation’s second-leading jockey, who had ridden the filly in her first three starts. Stevens elected to ride Road to Happiness in Saturday’s race and wound up fourth on the 5-2 favorite.

“I’ve been making a lot of the wrong choices lately,” said a disconsolate Stevens, who despite his disappointment still walked across the jockeys’ room to pat Delahoussaye on the back as the winning jockey discussed the race.

There was an omen for Stevens earlier on Saturday’s program, when Shower Decree, his winning mount in the fourth race, was disqualified and placed seventh by the stewards for interference near the quarter pole.

Unofficially, Stevens trails Jose Santos, the injured New York jockey, by about $140,000 in the battle for the national purse title, and Stevens appears to have run out of time. There are three days of racing left at Santa Anita this year--today, Tuesday and Wed- nesday--and Stevens would almost have to sweep the three stakes to close the gap. His best chance may be today, when Stevens rides Bedside Promise, winner of the National Sprint Championship at Hollywood Park, in the $80,000 Palos Verdes Handicap.

Delahoussaye would gladly trade places in the standings with Stevens, whose purse total is over the $11.1-million mark. Delahoussaye, after a $6.1-million year in 1985, is somewhere around $5 million this year and has dropped out of the national top-10 listings.

Actually, Delahoussaye will wind up winning more than the 173 races that he won last year. “I just didn’t have as many stakes wins this year, but these things go in cycles,” said Delahoussaye, who with Gato Del Sol in 1982 and Sunny’s Halo in 1983 became the fourth jockey to ride successive winners in the Kentucky Derby.

Mainly, Delahoussaye is happy to be finishing the year in one piece. In one of a series of jockey injuries during the closing days at Hollywood Park this month, Delahoussaye was spilled when Caro’s Hollywood broke down after crossing the finish line.

Despite considerable pain, Delahoussaye crawled under the inside fence to avoid the distressed horse, who was limping and thrashing next to him.

“I hit my helmet real hard and thought I broke my tail bone,” Delahoussaye said of the spill. “Then my left arm went numb. But I’m all right now. It’s still a little sore in back and only hurts bad when I get jostled real good.”

Young Flyer helped ease the pain Saturday, although based on her last start, a last-place finish in the Hollywood Starlet on Nov. 30, she looked like the kind of filly who might be good for a few jostles. On the way to the gate in the Starlet, she had acted up and hit Stevens in the eye.

Before 34,292 on Saturday, however, Delahoussaye had no problems. Young Flyer, the co-second choice with Saros Brig in the field of nine California-breds, was close to the pace-setter, Select a Song, going down the backstretch.

Young Flyer took the lead on the turn and was under little pressure from Saros Brig and the maiden Dance All Summer, who rallied from last to finish third. Young Flyer hit the wire in 1:24 for the seven furlongs.

Young Flyer, a daughter of Flying Paster and Youthful Lady, paid $8, $4.60 and $3.40 as she earned $68,400 for John Mabee, her breeder and owner. Saros Brig, whose second-place margin was 2 1/2 lengths, paid $4.60 and $3, and Dance All Summer returned $4.80.

Young Flyer’s trainer, 34-year-old Neil French, had never won a $100,000 stake before, and this was his first stakes win this year and his biggest win since Pencil Point won the Bing Crosby at Del Mar in 1982.

“She had some female problems at the time of her two races at Hollywood Park,” French said. “But I thought she had a good chance today and she was perfect in the paddock. She’s the best horse I’ve ever trained and better than her record shows.”

The first time she ever ran, Young Flyer broke her maiden by five lengths at Santa Anita in November. Then came a third-place finish at Hollywood Park and the star-crossed Starlet. Young Flyer is now 2 for 2 at Santa Anita and although French doesn’t have any immediate plans, he has 86 racing days in which to look for her next race.

Horse Racing Notes Bill Shoemaker, who at 55 is enjoying his best year for total purses, went over the $7-million mark Saturday when he rode General at War to victory in the sixth race. Shoemaker’s best previous year was 1981, when he won the Arlington Million with John Henry and finished with $6.1 million in purses. . . . General at War, a 3-year-old making his first start, is a son of General and Luna De Miel, whose earlier mating resulted in Lord at War, whom Shoemaker rode to victory in the 1985 Santa Anita Handicap. . . . Twilight Ridge, fourth in Sunday’s third race, has not won since she took the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes at Aqueduct in November of 1985. . . . J.D. Canyon flipped in the gate at the start of the ninth race, but she was considered an official starter for betting purposes because the race started and her stall door opened just before the incident. . . . There has been a reversal by the stewards regarding the riding status of Vicky Aragon. Despite a five-day suspension at Bay Meadows, the Santa Anita stewards have ruled that she will be able to ride here on Tuesday and Wednesday.