Alysheba Makes It Look Fast and Easy : In His First Win at Santa Anita, Colt Coasts to Strub Stakes Win

In seven of his previous nine races, Alysheba had finished either first or second, never winning or losing by more than three-fourths of a length. Three of the outcomes were settled by a nose, a neck or a head.

With all of those races still bouncing around in his head, and with a heavy heart, Clarence Scharbauer, part of the Midland, Tex., family that races Alysheba, made a request of his trainer, Jack Van Berg, before Sunday’s $500,000 Charles H. Strub Stakes at Santa Anita.

“Jack, would it be possible to win one of these by daylight?” Scharbauer said.

It was Alysheba who obliged. In mid-stretch, last year’s Kentucky Derby winner and champion 3-year-old colt said goodby to Candi’s Gold, the last of his challengers, and coasted to a three-length victory, with most of the crowd of 50,757 fans appearing to love every step of it.

Alysheba was brilliant in the Derby, doing an adagio in the stretch to avoid falling down; he was professional in winning the Preakness two weeks later; and he was unrelenting despite losing the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic to Ferdinand by one of those noses that haunt Scharbauer. But on Sunday, he probably ran what was the equivalent of his fastest race.

The time for the 41st running of the 1-mile Strub was 2:00 2/5, not nearly as fast as some of the other winners of the stake and well off Spectacular Bid’s record 1:57 4/5 clocking in 1980. But as Eddie Gregson, the trainer of runner-up Candi’s Gold, noted after the race, this was an extraordinary performance.

“This track has been playing so slow that a time like this is just unbelievable,” Gregson said. “This is like running 1:58 on the old track. We got nine pounds from Alysheba (117 to 126) and we still got outrun.”

Alysheba earned $275,000, making him the 10th horse to earn $3 million or more in a career, and paid $3.80, $2.60 and $2.20. Candi’s Gold, who has been second five times since his last win, at Hollywood Park more than six months ago, paid $3.20 and $2.40. On the Line, trying to become the sixth horse to sweep the three-race Strub series, finished third, 11 lengths behind Alysheba, and paid $2.80.

Temperate Sil, a factor on the lead with On the Line through a fast opening six furlongs of 1:09 4/5, wound up last in the six-horse field.

Minutes after the winner’s-circle prerequisites, the Scharbauers--Clarence, his wife Dorothy and their daughter Pamela--were talking about a rematch with Ferdinand in the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap on March 6.

“If Ferdinand wins the San Antonio Handicap (next Sunday), that should make the next race a doozy,” Clarence Scharbauer said.

Added Dorothy Scharbauer: “I hope he does.”

Although Alysheba hadn’t run in 11 weeks, had never won at Santa Anita and was attempting to become the first horse to win the Strub without a prep race, Van Berg was all but guaranteeing victory Sunday.

“I had more confidence in this horse than any horse I’ve been around,” said Van Berg, who has trained more than 5,000 winners. “It was a perfectly run race. There was speed up front, and this horse knows where to go, he knows where the finish line is. He’s got guts.”

At the start, Alysheba and Chris McCarron were in fifth place, with Temperate Sil, On the Line and Masterful Advocate up front. The winner was 6 1/2 lengths behind On the Line after three-quarters of a mile, but nearing the quarter pole both Alysheba and Candi’s Gold, fourth much of the way, began gobbling up On the Line and Temperate Sil.

Gregson knew then that his colt was in a two-horse race. Gary Stevens, riding Candi’s Gold, thought at the top of the stretch that they were going to win.

Near the sixteenth pole, McCarron hit Alysheba once and he started to pull away. McCarron didn’t have to use the whip again; it was all over.

“At the three-eighths pole, he was in high gear,” McCarron said. “They were going to have to put a wall in front of us. Ferdinand? Bring him on.”

Alysheba had several workouts--all but one at Hollywood Park--that showed that his Strub wouldn’t be a warm-up for the Big ‘Cap. Van Berg prefers the Hollywood track for training because it doesn’t get as sticky after a rain.

“Every work was a little more aggressive without losing a pound of flesh,” McCarron said. “He’s so much more physically and mentally mature than last year.”

Van Berg weighed Alysheba after his Breeders’ Cup heartbreaker to Ferdinand and the scale showed 1,003 pounds. After working 1 miles in a race-like 2:03 on Jan. 27, Alysheba weighed 1,004.

“The weight might be the same, but he’s filled out more,” Van Berg said.

In the walking ring before the Strub, the crowd responded to the sleek appearance of a Derby winner looking for more. Alysheba responded by kicking his back legs.

“He’s a showman,” Van Berg said. “They clapped and he kicked back. He was like a boxer about to go into the ring.”

Trainer Wayne Lukas had expected his entrant, On the Line, to take the lead.

“The other horse (Temperate Sil) was too fast for us,” said Jose Santos, riding On the Line. “I think he ran better than he did in winning the other two races (the Malibu and the San Fernando), but the other two horses are just better than he is at a mile and a quarter.”

Temperate Sil once more was the last horse loaded into the gate, because that sometimes settles him down. But not on Sunday.

“I thought he might relax, but he didn’t want to do it today,” said his rider, Bill Shoemaker, a seven-time winner of the Strub. “He relaxed a little around the first turn, but when On the Line came up, he wanted to go with him. It couldn’t have done either one of them any good.”

Gregson will take another shot at Alysheba in the Big ‘Cap, but with a different horse, Super Diamond. He’s thinking of sending Candi’s Gold, a Big ‘Cap nominee, elsewhere.

“I thought we might open up a length, a length and a half, on Alysheba,” Gregson said. “But we couldn’t do it. He’s a monster.”

Horse Racing Notes

In another stake on Sunday’s program at Santa Anita, Top Corsage led all the way to win the $62,050 B. Thoughtful by a half-length over Smooch. Top Corsage, a 5-year-old mare ridden by Jose Santos, has won three of her last four starts. Favored Northern Aspen broke awkwardly and beat only one horse. George Scott ended his relationship with Allen Paulson, as racing manager and trainer, after the Northern Aspen race. Scott is organizing a public stable and many of his duties with Paulson reportedly will be assumed by John Gosden. . . . Chris McCarron, who returned after his victory on Alysheba to take Sunday’s last race, won his first Strub in 1985, with Precisionist. . . . Slewbop, a 3-year-old son of Seattle Slew who was one of the horses that owner Peter Brant transferred from LeRoy Jolley to Wayne Lukas, won by 6 1/2 lengths at Santa Anita Sunday and paid $36.80. Slewbop was beaten by a total margin of 50 lengths in his first four starts. . . . Another 3-year-old winner Sunday was Claim, a Mr. Prospector colt who is 2 for 2. . . . Havanaffair, second to Ruhlmann in the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows, is among 11 3-year-olds entered in Wednesday’s $75,000 Santa Catalina Stakes. The others are Glad Music, Stalwars, Propost, Lively One, Gran Musico, Tony Aglo, Blade of the Ball, Roberto’s Bouncer, Chance Fab and Cash in Store. . . . Trainer Mel Stute said that Very Subtle’s bleeding in Saturday’s La Canada may have been caused by the 4-year-old filly’s nose striking the saddlehorn of her lead pony in the post parade. Favored Very Subtle finished a distant third to the winner, Hollywood Glitter. . . . Pat Valenzuela, who has missed eight days of the meeting because of illness, is not named to ride any horses Wednesday, which will be his fourth straight day off. . . . Santa Anita has added a stake, the $150,000 Budweiser Breeders’ Cup, which will be at a mile on grass for fillies and mares on April 9. . . . Preston Smith, a former harness trainer from Downey, won leasing rights to a 3-year-old colt, Potter’s Pride, in a drawing Sunday. Santa Anita pays the horse’s bills for two months, with Smith keeping any purses he wins and then either going on with the horse at his own expense or accepting $15,000. . . . The Santa Anita-based Davie’s Lamb, trained by Julio Canani and ridden by Frank Olivares, won the Twilight Tear Handicap at Turf Paradise. . . . At Gulfstream Park, Equalize won the Canadian Turf Handicap.