Racing at Hollywood Park : Toro, Clever Song Play It Again in the Premiere

The Premiere Handicap might be Hollywood Park’s oldest stakes race, but only twice in its 49-year history before Sunday had the same horse won it in consecutive years.

On Sunday afternoon, in front of a crowd of 26,877, Clever Song became the third to do so.

Fernando Toro, who had ridden the brown 4-year-old gelding to victory a year ago, did so again, slipping through to steal the rail on the turn for home and outrunning Al Mamoon in a stirring stretch drive.

Trained by John Gosden, Clever Song covered the 1 1/16 miles on a firm turf course in 1:41 1/5 to win by a head from Al Mamoon, with Bill Shoemaker bringing Le Belvedere home third in the five-horse field.

Afterward, Gary Stevens, Al Mamoon’s jockey, angrily blamed himself for the loss by the millionaire grandson of Secretariat.

“Bluntly, I cost my horse the race,” Stevens said. “I drifted out coming out of the turn and Toro got through and beat me. I’m taking all the blame.

“I kicked him in gear just before we came out of the turn and he was wanting to drift a little bit and instead of checking him and holding him down on the rail I was trying to let him just keep the same action he had.

“I figured I would come out the better for it, but the way it turned out it was bad judgment.

“He ran a very game race. I let the winner through and that’s stupid. Whenever you get beaten by a nose or a head like I just did and a horse gets through on the rail. . . . I mean, I still might have got beaten, he (Toro) might have had enough horse to come around and beat me, but the way it happened just makes me mad.

“I’d just as soon blame myself as blame the horse because the horse ran a hell of race and he was trying to come back all the way. It damn sure wasn’t his fault.”

Toro, meanwhile, was only to happy to accept the chance. He held Clever Song off the pace until they reached the turn and was perfectly positioned to take advantage of the opening.

“There was so much room on the inside, I knew I was in a good spot,” he said.

Al Mamoon, running for the first time on Lasix, an anti-bleeding medication, did not give up, and kept challenging Clever Song after the son of Clever Trick-Garden Song took the lead.

“Al Mamoon is a tough horse to beat,” Toro said. “He was coming back at me after I got on the rail.”

Toro said the difference between this year’s win and last year’s was in Clever Song’s behavior. The horse is much better behaved and consequently easier to handle.

“He was more relaxed this time,” Toro said. “Even in the paddock he was very quiet. It was the same in the race. Before, he used to be full of run all the time. You know, rank. Everything set up perfect today.”

Earning $61,900 for his owners, the MBH Stables, Clever Song paid $7.40, $3.00 and $2.10. Al Mamoon paid $2.80 and $2.10, while Le Belvedere paid $2.20 to show.

Rounding out the field were Exclusive Partner and Bozina.

The Premiere Handicap, a Grade III event, was the first stakes ever run at Hollywood Park. Prior to Sunday, the only horses to have won it in back-to-back years were Fleet Nasrullah in 1959 and 1960 and Winonly in 1962 and 1963.

Horse Racing Notes

Sunday’s program got off to an inauspicious start for jockey Antonio Castanon, who was thrown from his mount, Bride’s Advice, immediately after leaving the starting gate in the first race. Castanon escaped injury. . . . Trainer Ross Fenstermaker had his first winner since parting company with Fred W. Hooper when apprentice Aaron Gryder brought Tough Enjoleur home first in the day’s opener. . . . Jockey Pat Valenzuela scored a triple Sunday, winning the fifth, sixth and seventh races. . . . Jockey Laffit Pincay, who needs just two more victories to reach 2,000 at Hollywood Park, came up short Sunday. Pincay had five mounts but managed no better than a third-place finish in the first race. . . . Tiffany Lass, last year’s champion 3-year-old filly, is a doubtful starter in Wednesday’s $60,000-added Silver Spoon Handicap. The winner of two Grade I races in 1986--the Fantasy Stakes and the Kentucky Oaks--Aaron Jones’ unbeaten filly has not competed since injuring a foreleg in the Oaks. Now fully recovered--she worked five furlongs Sunday morning in 59 2/5--she had been entered in Wednesday’s race by trainer Laz Barrera. Jones, however, is dissatisfied at the high weight of 123 pounds assigned Tiffany Lass--5 to 11 pounds more than her rivals--and may scratch her, reducing the Silver Spoon field to just four horses.