Santa Ana Handicap : Whittingham’s Filly Set Down for Bumping

While the stewards deliberated about whether his filly, Fitzwilliam Place, had fouled another filly to win Saturday’s $157,900 Santa Ana Handicap at Santa Anita, trainer Charlie Whittingham stood in front of the tote board and recalled other major wins that had become arguable losses.

Whittingham had time for such discourse, because the three stewards took 10 minutes to make their call.

Whittingham remembered Cougar II in the 1971 Woodward Stakes, a disqualification that had horse-of-the-year ramifications, and there was the defrocking of Perrault in the 1982 Santa Anita Handicap, a decision that Whittingham still says was in deference to John Henry’s reputation rather than what happened in the stretch run.

As the minutes ticked by Saturday, Whittingham said: “When they take a long time, you know you’re in trouble.”

Whittingham, it turned out, was in trouble, and Fitzwilliam Place’s name can be added to those of Cougar II and Perrault--Whittingham horses who were disqualified from victories in major races. After Fitzwilliam Place, on the outside, had gotten her nose to the wire ahead of Pen Bal Lady, the stewards ruled that the winner had squeezed and bumped the second-place filly and gave the victory to Pen Bal Lady. The difference between first and second was $61,400, with Pen Bal Lady’s collection of owners pocketing $94,900.

There was much dissatisfaction with the decision, starting with Whittingham and his jockey, Jorge Velasquez, and spreading to the crowd of 34,815, some of whom hooted at inconclusive replays on the television monitors. At least one large trash receptacle was overturned.

In the stewards’ stand high atop the track, the three men who made the decision--Pete Pedersen, Tom Ward and Hubert Jones--continued to look at reruns after their decision had been made.

“Coming out of the turn, near the three-sixteenths pole, Velasquez hits his horse on the shoulder and that points her to the inside,” Pedersen said. “She makes contact with Pen Bal Lady and knocks her sideways. (Eddie) Delahoussaye (the rider of Pen Bal Lady) was already well down in there when the contact was made.”

Velasquez needed to regain his composure when he got back to the jockeys’ room, and asked for a few minutes before he commented.

“I don’t think I should have been disqualified,” he said. “My filly did drift out. But when he (Delahoussaye) got in there, he hit my filly in the rear end and caused his own problem. I should have never been disqualified.”

An Irish-bred who had been running in France, Fitzwilliam Place went off at 28-1 after ducking out at the start and running last in her only American start a month ago. Pen Bal Lady, running on medication Saturday after bleeding while finishing third in the Buena Vista Handicap two weeks ago, paid $13.40, $7.40 and $4.80, running 1 1/8 miles on the grass in 1:47 1/5, missing the stakes record by three-fifths of a second. Fitzwilliam Place paid $25.80 and $12.40 and Galunpe, who got beat by only three-quarters of a length despite a traffic problem on the far turn, paid $8.20. The 3-1 favorite, Top Corsage, ran sixth after being close to the pace early.

The disqualification gave trainer Hector Palma his first win in a major stake. Palma was going to tell Delahoussaye to claim foul as soon as he dismounted, but the stewards had already called for an inquiry right after the horses crossed the finish line.

“The other filly drifted out, but then she came back in,” Palma said.

Fitzwilliam Place had been leading all the way and Carotene, who would finish fourth, was outside her leaving the turn, with Delahoussaye and Pen Bal Lady on the rail.

“By the quarter pole, the other filly drifted out, so I went in,” Delahoussaye said. “I thought we were going down. I had much the best filly. I thought she was finished when she got bumped. Then she kicked in again. I guess it took a little out of her getting bumped.”

When Trevor Denman, the track announcer, started his announcement with “Ladies and gentlemen . . .” Palma said he knew the result was going to be reversed.