La Jolla Handicap : The Medic Wins It for Very Pleased Owner

Dr. Ed Giammarino went from prescribing glasses to selling hamburgers because he was bored. If the fast-food business ever gets to Giammarino, he always has The Medic, who’s become a sight for sore eyes, going from the claiming ranks to a stakes winner since the La Jolla man bought him.

Considering his residence, Giammarino won just the right race Sunday, with The Medic surging from behind under Chris McCarron to win the $100,000 La Jolla Handicap by a half-length over favored Something Lucky before a crowd of 26,551. In a five-horse photo finish, it was another neck back to Savona Tower in third, and he was a neck in front of Sebrof, who had a head on Deputy Governor.

If it was appropriate that a La Jolla man win the La Jolla, it was also fitting that McCarron be aboard the winner. It was McCarron’s agent, Scott McClellan, who had told trainer Gary Jones that The Medic could be bought for $50,000 back in March.

At the time, The Medic was a maiden who had only one third-place finish to show for five starts. But Jones liked the 3-year-old colt for the price, and told McClellan that he’d buy him and then try to find an owner to pick up the tab.

Jones thought he had a natural buyer in optometrist Giammarino, because besides the name, The Medic also had a blaze on his forehead that looks like the snake that’s part of the symbol for doctors.

Giammarino, who had been in racing 20 years but never owned a stakes winner, still wanted to look at the horse and his record before he bought him.

“The two races before we bought him, he had been in trouble, and a clocker I knew recommended him,” Giammarino said Sunday, after The Medic had followed up his win in the La Puente Stakes at Santa Anita on April 15 with the $66,250 win in the La Jolla.

Since Giammarino bought the horse, the son of Sweet Candy and Mel Has Flipped has had three wins, three seconds and two thirds in eight starts, increasing his career purses to more than $200,000.

The first time Jones started The Medic, at Santa Anita in late March, it was against maidens for a $50,000 claiming price. There were no takers, and The Medic won by almost three lengths.

Less than two weeks later, Jones put The Medic on the grass for the first time and although he finished third, his handlers were encouraged.

“He was five wide, and two jumps past the wire he would have won,” Giammarino said. “That’s when we started to get high on him.”

The Medic won the La Puente, another grass race, in his next start, surviving a troubled trip. A string of three seconds followed in stakes at Hollywood Park, where The Medic didn’t appear to like the course.

“Our goal was to win this race, the Del Mar Derby (Aug. 23) and the Secretariat (Sept. 7 at Arlington Park),” Jones said. “We’ve won the first part.”

Returning to grass after running third on dirt in the Silver Screen Handicap at Hollywood on July 3, The Medic ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:42 1/5 and paid $12.80, $4.80 and $3.40 as the third betting choice in the field of 11.

Something Lucky, who had won his only two grass starts, didn’t benefit from a clean trip and paid $4 and $2.80 as the 17-10 favorite. Savona Tower, who won a division of the opening-day Oceanside Stakes here, paid $4.60, and may have been injured as jockey Fernando Toro didn’t return him to the unsaddling area after crossing the wire.

The Medic was only in front of one horse after three-quarters of a mile. Flying Newsboy was on the lead, running moderately, and Savona Tower and On the Line were just behind him in a bunched field.

Savona Tower took the lead at the top of the stretch and then Something Lucky, running on the outside, looked as if he was going to win as the wire approached. But The Medic passed both of them with just a few yards to go.

“He just got outrun early,” McCarron said of the winner. “Once I got clear, he took off. I had been knocking this horse, because he never does anything to impress you in the mornings, but I guess he saves all his energy for the afternoons.”

McCarron, who had two other winners Sunday, just returned to Del Mar in the morning after winning the Sorority with Blue Jean Baby on Saturday at Monmouth Park, N.J. McCarron was back on a plane Sunday night, to ride Lady’s Secret today at Saratoga.

“I had some traffic problems,” Laffit Pincay said of Something Lucky’s trip. “On the first turn, horses on the outside came in and shut me off. Considering all the traffic, he ran a good race. In fact, I thought I was going to win until Chris came up and beat me at the wire.”

Something Lucky had bled, despite running with anti-bleeding medication, and finished last, beaten by more than 29 lengths, in the Swaps on July 26 at Hollywood Park. He regained his previous form Sunday, but had luck in his name and not on the track.

Horse Racing Notes

The racing career of Late Request is over. The 4-year-old colt suffered two ankle fractures in Saturday’s San Diego Handicap at Del Mar, and it is also questionable whether he can even be saved for breeding. “It’s hard to figure because you couldn’t find a sounder horse,” trainer Laz Barrera said. Late Request, who broke down before running a half-mile, was a stakes winner in Panama and had earned $170,000 with 7 wins in 14 starts prior to Saturday. . . . Tasso’s handlers are concerned about how he came out of the San Diego Handicap, and trainer Neil Drysdale said he would know more today. Tasso, the 3-2 favorite, finished fifth. . . . Drysdale scratched Blanco from Sunday’s La Jolla Handicap and will run him today in an allowance race. . . . Barrera will run Buryyourbelief in the $200,000 Alabama Stakes next Saturday at Saratoga. The 3-year-old filly is going into the race in better shape than her trainer. Barrera, bothered by a pinched nerve in his back, is not looking forward to the six-hour airplane trip from the West Coast to upstate New York. . . . Trainer Mel Stute was back at Del Mar Sunday, but his Eastern-based horses will continue running back there. Very Subtle, winner of the Test Stakes last Thursday at Saratoga, will next try the $150,000 Meadowlands Budweiser Breeders’ Cup on Sept. 26 in New Jersey. Mixed Pleasure is scheduled to run next Saturday in a $200,000 race at Monmouth Park. Tomorrow’s Child, second to Blue Jean Baby Saturday in Monmouth’s Sorority, might run in the $300,000 Arlington-Washington Lassie in Chicago on Aug. 30 or the $125,000 Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 6. . . . Stute, who turned 60 Saturday, at least had a winner at Monmouth with Rare Starlet in an allowance race.