Horse Racing Roundup : By Land By Sea Stuns Favored Very Subtle

Longshot By Land By Sea battled with Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Very Subtle all the way in the $109,300 El Encino Stakes and won by a half-length when the favorite gave way in the final strides before a crowd of 35,770 at Santa Anita Saturday.

Ridden by Fernando Toro, By Land By Sea was timed in 1:41 3/5 for 1 1/16 miles, just two-fifths slower than the stakes record.

By Land By Sea paid $60.80, $12.80 and $7.40, and earned $64,300 to push her income to $138,565. The Kentucky-bred daughter of Sauce Boat has won six of eight career starts, including her first four in a row at a small Kentucky track.

Antonio Castanon was a late substitute on Very Subtle for the ailing Patrick Valenzuela in the race for 4-year-old fillies. Very Subtle, the odds-on favorite, was 2 3/4 lengths ahead of Annoconnor and paid $3.20 and $2.80. Annoconnor, with Corey Black, paid $6.40.

At Hallandale, Fla., Salem Drive rallied from ninth place at the turn for home and earned a 1-length victory in the $157,550 Gulfstream Park Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Handicap.

Salem Drive tied the stakes record by running a mile and one-sixteenth in 1:40 3/5. The 6-year-old horse, ridden by Gene St. Leon, won $94,530 with his third victory of the winter season.

Equalize, an 11-1 longshot, held off King’s River by a neck for second place. Show Dancer, the 6-5 favorite, finished fifth.

Perfect Parade was in the lead and Salem Drive was ninth at the half-mile pole. Equalize took the lead nearing the eighth pole. Salem Drive stayed inside, got through between horses, caught Equalize just inside the sixteenth pole and won going away.

Salem Drive paid $8.80, $4.40 and $3.40. Equalize paid $14.80 and $10.60, and King’s River paid $5.80.

Salem Drive won the Royal Palm Handicap at Hialeah Park Dec. 5 and the Bougainvillea two weeks later. In his first start of 1988, he was second in the Grade I Hialeah Turf Cup. His earnings total $632,917.

King’s Swan, ridden by Jose Santos, raced to a 4 1/2-length victory in the $113,600 Assault Handicap at Aqueduct in New York.

Palace March, ridden by Robbie Davis, was second, 3 1/2 lengths ahead of Proud Debonair, with Richard Migliore up.

King’s Swan, an 8-year-old gelding by King’s Bishop-Royal Signet, covered 1 1/8 miles on the fast track in 1:48 4/5 to earn $68,160.

He returned $3.60, $2.60 and $2.10; Palace March paid $4.40 and $2.80, while Proud Debonair paid $2.60.