Santa Barbara Handicap at Santa Anita : Pen Bal Lady Needs No Help to Win This Time

Trainer Hector Palma could be headed for a big week. On Sunday, Palma topped Charlie Whittingham for the second time in two weeks, winning the $163,300 Santa Barbara Handicap with Pen Bal Lady, and on Wednesday he will use a familiar Whittingham tactic, starting five 3-year-olds in the two divisions of the Baldwin Stakes.

Two weeks ago at Santa Anita, Pen Bal Lady needed help from the stewards in winning the Santa Ana Handicap, being moved up to first after Whittingham’s Fitzwilliam Place was disqualified for interference and dropped to second place. On Sunday, Pen Bal Lady got help via a strong stretch ride from Eddie Delahoussaye, holding off Carotene by a head at the wire in the Santa Barbara as Fitzwilliam Place finished fourth before a crowd of 33,082.

The English-bred Pen Bal Lady gave Palma the second major win of his career--the Santa Ana was the first--and ran 1 miles on grass in 1:59 3/5, the fastest winning time for the stake since Stravina won in the same clocking in 1976.

The first four finishers in the Santa Ana led the eight-horse field to the wire again Sunday, only the order was changed. Carotene, fourth last time, rallied from far back in the Santa Barbara and finished 2 lengths ahead of Galunpe, who was third in both races.

Pen Bal Lady, the fourth choice in the betting and carrying 119 pounds, two fewer than Carotene, paid $11.80, $4.60 and $2.80. Carotene paid $4 and $2.80 and Galunpe, the slight favorite over Carotene, returned $2.60.

Carotene earned $95,800 for the syndicate that owns him, upping her career total to almost $400,000.

Delahoussaye won his third race of the day and his eighth stake of the season. “If this result doesn’t clear up the confusion about the last race (the disqualification), then I don’t know anything about racing,” Delahoussaye said.

Pen Bal Lady lurked in fourth place after three-quarters of a mile, with Fitzwilliam Place leading from the start and Chapel of Dreams and Proper Mary in between.

Pen Bal Lady started moving up on the turn and took the lead with about an eighth of a mile to go. Carotene, who was last after three-quarters, 7 1/2 lengths off the lead, came wide into the stretch and seemed ready to pounce on Pen Bal Lady.

“I just hand-rode my filly the last 100 yards,” Delahoussaye said. “At first, I thought the other filly might get by, but in the last 50 yards, I could see that she wasn’t going to.”

With a Breeders’ Cup campaign in mind for Pen Bal Lady, Palma plans to give her a rest.

“This took a lot of pressure off from last time,” Palma said. “They said that maybe she should have won, or maybe she shouldn’t have, after that last race. There were no ifs today. She proved that at least she’s the best at Santa Anita.”

Pen Bal Lady had never run 1 miles before Sunday, whereas Carotene won at that distance in last year’s Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita and added a victory in the 1 1/2-mile Pan American Handicap at Gulfstream Park in February.

“Turning for home, I thought she was a winner, but the other filly was too tough,” said Roger Attfield, Carotene’s trainer. “The winner ran a really big race and my horse just couldn’t get by.”

Carotene, Canadian-bred, is expected to stay at Santa Anita for the $400,000 San Juan Capistrano on April 24.

On Wednesday, Palma runs Our Native Wish and Exclusive Nureyev in the first half of the Baldwin, with Accomplish Ridge, Canon Law and Reformado entered in the second division. It’s the way Charlie Whittingham has been known to surround stakes races. He got elected to racing’s Hall of Fame partly by using such tactics.

Horse Racing Notes

Charlie Whittingham’s seven-race winning streak--all on grass--ended Sunday when Billy’s Back finished off the board on the dirt and Fitzwilliam Place ran fourth in the Santa Barbara Handicap. . . . Purdue King, one of the eight likely starters in next Saturday’s $500,000 Santa Anita Derby, has been sold, for a figure reportedly in excess of $1 million. John Valpredo, who also bred Purdue King, sold him to Bob Starnes, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., construction man and Starnes’ trainer, Barry Wexler, has joined the colt at Santa Anita. . . . Mi Preferido, the probable favorite in the Derby, worked five furlongs Sunday in a quick :58 for jockey Chris McCarron. “McCarron was very much impressed,” trainer Laz Barrera said. “He said that the colt did it very easy.” . . . Other expected starters Saturday will be Lively One, Tejano, Flying Victor, All Thee Power, Ruhlmann and Winning Colors, who’ll try to become the first filly to win the race since Silver Spoon in 1959. The only other filly to win the stake was Ciencia in 1939. . . . After bleeding in a recent workout, Ferdinand will be able to race on Lasix, a diuretic, when he runs in the San Bernardino Handicap on April 17. . . . Despite 86 wins, Eddie Delahoussaye still trails Gary Stevens in the jockey standings by 17. Stevens rode two winners Sunday.