Vanity Handicap : Corey Black Returns Home, Rides Infinidad to Win

Corey Black needed a morale booster. The 18-year-old jockey left the United States two months ago to ride for one of France’s leading trainers, Andre Fabre, and although Black won some races, he and Fabre ended their agreement a couple of weeks ago.

Black will be returning to France since another trainer is signing him to a contract, but he was back in Los Angeles last week, getting his visa situation straightened out.

In the process, Black picked up the mount on an old friend, the 5-year-old mare Infinidad, and now the jockey may recross the Atlantic on euphoria alone.

Infinidad, who hadn’t won a stake in California since Black rode her last fall at Santa Anita, was brought through on the rail Sunday and knocked off heavily favored Seldom Seen Sue and North Sider in the stretch to win the $200,000 Vanity Handicap by 6 1/2 lengths at Hollywood Park.

Although Black was the leading American apprentice based on purses last year, this was his first major victory.

“I’ve always liked this horse,” Black said. “It makes it nice to win a race like this back here.”

Seldom Seen Sue was bet down to 9-10 by a crowd of 35,355, and in the early going she ran just behind North Sider, who was setting quick fractions, running the first three-quarters of a mile in 1:09 1/5.

That was the undoing for both of them. North Sider still finished second, 2 3/4 lengths ahead of Clabber Girl, and Seldom Seen Sue, who had already won two stakes at the meeting, wound up fourth, more than 10 lengths behind Infinidad.

Infinidad, the fifth betting choice in a field of seven, paid $26.80, $9 and $5. North Sider paid $3.80 and $3 and Clabber Girl paid $5.40.

Infinidad, bred in Chile and owned by Arthur Hancock of Paris, Ky., ran 1 miles in 2:00 3/5 and earned $110,000. She went into the race with only one win in nine starts this year, but that victory came in her last start, at Churchill Downs in mid-June.

Before that win, Infinidad had a series of races in Kentucky and California in which she could manage only one second-place finish. The slump started shortly after Black, three days after his apprenticeship ended, rode her to victory in the Princess Rooney Stakes at Santa Anita last November.

On Sunday, Black rode Infinidad like he may have ridden too many of his mounts in France. She was far back going down the backstretch, ahead of only one horse and at one point eight lengths behind North Sider.

“I knew the pace was fast and there was a speed bias here,” Black said. “So I tapped her with my whip at the five-eighths pole, but not much happened.

“That made me think I didn’t have too much horse left. But this mare is smarter than me. She knows when to run. When I hit her, she was probably thinking, ‘What’s this dumb jock doing back there?’ ”

At the furlong pole, Black swung Infinidad outside North Sider for their romp to the wire. Clabber Girl was also rallying, but she didn’t have the closing punch of Infinidad.

On a working vacation, Black exercised Infinidad for trainer Charlie Whittingham last week, but didn’t know he had the mount on her until entry time Friday morning.

In France, Black said he won with 9 of 66 mounts.

“But Mr. Fabre wasn’t happy, so we ended our arrangement,” Black said. “I might have been overcompensating the way I rode over there.

“Because the races are so far, the idea is to gallop your horses early and then ride them hard at the end. But maybe I was riding my horses too far back.”

The runner-up to Allen Stacy, a Maryland-based jockey, in the Eclipse Awards voting for 1986’s best apprentice, Black’s success dwindled after he lost his weight allowance.

He’s going to give France a second try, then will return to California in November, just about the time Hollywood Park is running the seven Breeders’ Cup races worth $10 million.

Whittingham might have Infinidad ready for one of those by then.

“This mare ran well in Kentucky and she’s improved over the year,” Whittingham said. “She doesn’t like the turf, and we’ll keep running her here rather than sending her back.”

Whittingham’s other starter in the Vanity, Reloy, was making her first start on dirt. Third for a while, Reloy dropped back quickly and finished last.

“When a horse is used to the grass,” Whittingham said, “they get to trying too hard on dirt and the ground breaks away and they start to slip.”

Twice at Santa Anita this year, Infinidad was unable to catch Reloy, who won the Santa Ana and the Santa Barbara Handicaps. But those races were on grass, undoubtedly the surface where Reloy will do the rest of her running.

Horse Racing Notes

Infinidad gave Charlie Whittingham a sweep of the weekend stakes. The trainer saddled Judge Angelucci, who won the Bel Handicap on Saturday, and Whittingham has six stakes wins for the season. . . . North Sider, getting $40,000 for finishing second, still went over the $1-million mark in career purses. . . . Laffit Pincay, who rode North Sider, said this of Infinidad: “I couldn’t believe how fast she went by me.” . . . North Sider won the Santa Margarita Handicap at Santa Anita last March while Infinidad finished fourth. “But we were nine wide coming into the stretch that day,” Corey Black said. “This time, we were able to get through inside.” . . . Black won the sixth race on the card with Don’t Fight It. . . . Frau Altiva and Annapurna were scratched from the Vanity. . . . Red Attack, who finished fifth in the Hollywood Gold Cup, won the Equipoise Mile Handicap Sunday at Arlington Park. . . . Bill Shoemaker, aboard One from Heaven, finished third in the Queen’s Plate at Woodbine, with Market Control beating Afleet by 3 lengths. . . . Danny Winick, who had a winner disqualified for interference on Saturday’s card, received a five-day suspension from the Hollywood Park stewards. . . . There was dead heat for win in Sunday’s last race, after a foul claim by Fernando Toro, aboard Havatry, against Incluso and Pincay and disallowed. . . . No one has hit the Pick Nine since June 19, and the pool has grown to $1.4 million.