Santa Margarita Handicap : The ‘Flamingo Connection’ Scores Another Upset--With North Sider

The second half of the Florida-California connection struck on Sunday at Santa Anita, where Angel Cordero rode another Wayne Lukas trainee to an upset victory in a major stake.

Just a day after the Cordero-Lukas combination startled the crowd at Hialeah with a win at 9-1 aboard Talinum in the Flamingo, the jockey and trainer did an encored at Santa Anita, with North Sider taking the $300,000 Santa Margarita Handicap by a head over Winter Treasure in front of 45,109 fans.

North Sider paid $6.80, $3.80 and $2.60, but her prices probably would have tripled had she not run as an entry with two other Lukas runners, Family Style and Life at the Top. All three were running because Lady’s Secret, Horse of the Year and winner of the Santa Margarita in 1986, was kept in the barn after she was assigned high weight of 129 pounds for what would have been her first race this year.

It is likely that Lady’s Secret will now make her debut against males, running in the $100,000, 1 1/8-mile Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park. Because of a sex allowance, female horses carry less weight when they run against males. From Gulfstream, Lady’s Secret would probably head for Oaklawn Park.

On Sunday, Family Style finished sixth and Life at the Top, who runs like a lesser horse at Santa Anita, was eighth in the 12-horse field.

Winter Treasure went off at 34-1 and her Santa Margarita payoffs were $17.60 and $7.60. It was 1 lengths back to Frau Altiva, who paid $5 to show.

At 17-10, Seldom Seen Sue was favored over the Lukas entry after four wins in the last five starts and she finished 10th.

“She had no excuses,” said Gary Jones, who trains Seldom Seen Sue. “She was in a perfect position (just behind the leader, Life at the Top, at the quarter pole), and when the running started, she wasn’t there.”

Fran’s Valentine, who had earned $1.3 million, more than any starter, going into the race, broke slowly and after making up some ground at the end, finished fifth.

Running 1 1/8 miles in 1:48 4/5, which was 1 4/5 seconds slower than the stakes record that Lady’s Secret set last year, North Sider earned $180,000, which was $26,000 more than she banked all last year.

“That’s not a 10-per-center, either,” Lukas said. The trainer, who usually gets 10% of what a horse earns, bought half of North Sider after her last race, a second to Fran’s Valentine in the Santa Maria Handicap, and now races her with Paul Paternostro of Lexington, Ky. Paternostro and the Lettuce Farm bought North Sider privately two years ago. Lukas wouldn’t divulge the amount, but said that they “paid a lot.”

Because North Sider spent the second part of last year at Ak-Sar-Ben and Bay Meadows, she was considered to be in the second string of Lukas’ female division.

But there is such depth to the barn’s distaff contingent that even the second string can be dangerous.

“I said before the race that I couldn’t handicap the three horses we were running,” Lukas said. “I figured that whoever got the good trip would win the race, and it was such an even race that you could have made a case for several of the horses besides our three.”

Infinidad, who finished fourth, broke through the gate prior to the start, as did Top Corsage, who ran next-to-last.

Life at the Top and Sari’s Heroine battled for the early lead, with Seldom Seen Sue in striking distance and North Sider fifth, just about where Lukas told Cordero to place the 5-year-old Topsider-Back Ack mare.

Cordero, who took a plane from Miami that got him to Los Angeles at 10 a.m. Sunday, had never ridden North Sider before.

“Angel said that he sat on her as long as he could when they got to the top of the stretch,” Lukas said. “She was pulling to go ahead and he let her go.”

Although Winter Treasure closed the gap on North Sider through the stretch, she was tiring, according to jockey Fernando Toro.

“I had a real traffic problem at the turn,” said Laffit Pincay, Frau Altiva’s jockey. “I don’t know if it made any difference, but she finished good.”

The Lukas barn, which won 134 stakes in 1985-86, already has captured 14 this year. Cordero, who missed more than four months of action last year because of a spill at Aqueduct that resulted in a broken leg and a lacerated liver, is back on the national leader board this year with a purse total of more than $1 million.

On Saturday, he vaulted off Talinum in the winner’s circle with such gusto that he seemed to be about 20 feet in the air. On Sunday, there was less enthusiasm. Riding Lukas’ horses on a bi-coastal schedule can be profitable, but it also saps the energy.

Horse Racing Notes

Wayne Lukas indicated that Talinum would skip the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park on March 22 and go directly into the Florida Derby on April 4. . . . Badger Land, who won the Flamingo for Lukas last year, then did not race again after being fifth in the Kentucky Derby and fourth in the Preakness, has recovered from an ankle problem and has resumed training at Hollywood Park. Lukas estimates that Badger Land’s first race might be around June 1, probably at Belmont Park. . . . After a $9-million handle Sunday, Santa Anita’s per-capita for 51 racing days is $204. The track record was $196 set last year. . . . Trainer Charlie Whittingham saddled five straight winners over the last three days before Plum Certain finished off the board in the seventh race. . . . Whittingham will saddle three starters--Ferdinand, Epidaurus and Bruiser--in next Sunday’s $1-million Santa Anita Handicap. . . . Chris McCarron, who broke his thigh bone in a spill on Oct. 16, on Sunday worked his first two horses since the accident and has set his return date for March 17--St. Patrick’s Day. . . . Melair, the unbeaten filly who underwent major stomach surgery early this year, is recovering nicely and might be bred this year. . . . Indian Sign, a 60-1 longshot in the ninth race, was scratched after he ran away in the post parade, almost ran into the starting gate and went through the gap near the top of the stretch, taking jockey Larry Sterling into the barn area.