This Time, Alysheba Noses by Ferdinand : Win in San Bernardino Handicap Gives Van Berg-Trained Horse a 2-1 Edge

Ten years later, it looks as though there has been a reincarnation of Affirmed and Alydar, those Siamese twins from the Triple Crown series in 1978.

The new pair at the finish line are Alysheba and Ferdinand, but there’s a hole in the theory--Alysheba is the horse who’s been first to the wire lately, and he’s a son of Alydar, who was seldom good enough to win the close ones against Affirmed. Maybe this particular reincarnation comes with an equalizer.

When Affirmed and Alydar met in the Triple Crown, Affirmed swept the series by less than two lengths.

Alysheba and Ferdinand met for the third time in the San Bernardino Handicap Sunday before 47,839 at Santa Anita, and the result was a dramatic flip-flop of their first battle in the Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park last November.

This time, Alysheba’s nose was on the wire an instant before Ferdinand’s, and that, combined with his half-length win over the same adversary in March’s Santa Anita Handicap, gives the 4-year-old a 2-1 edge over the 5-year-old in a long-running rivalry between Kentucky Derby winners that is probably only in its infancy.

There was almost a party pooper in Sunday’s race, which had its purse increased from $250,000 to $530,000 because of the presence of Alysheba and Ferdinand.

Good Taste, who ran for a $50,000 claiming price in January, led for a half-mile, fell 5 1/2 lengths behind and then was closing improbably while Chris McCarron on Alysheba and Bill Shoemaker aboard Ferdinand thought they were in a two-horse fight to the finish. Carrying 113 pounds, 14 fewer than either Alysheba or Ferdinand, Good Taste missed second by only a head.

“I looked back after I hit the wire and saw another horse and figured it was (the usual late-closing) Nostalgia’s Star,” McCarron said. “Then I saw the horse was a chestnut and said to myself, ‘Gee, that must be the same horse I thought I put away on the turn.’ ”

The win was worth $350,000 to Alysheba’s owners, Clarence and Dorothy Scharbauer of Midland, Tex., and their daughter Pamela, and made the colt only the third horse to surpass the $4-million mark in career purses. Only the retired John Henry and Snow Chief, with respective totals of $6.5 million and $4.2 million, are ahead of him.

The 4-5 favorite in a field of five, Alysheba ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:47 1/5, paying $3.60, $2.20 and $2.10. Ferdinand paid $2.20 and $2.20, and Good Taste returned $2.20. Nostalgia’s Star had no rally Sunday and finished fourth, 3 1/2 lengths behind Good Taste and 11 ahead of Foreign Legion. Both Bobby Frankel trainees, Simply Majestic and Roi Normand, were scratched.

Alysheba and Ferdinand were close to each other from the beginning, Shoemaker unhappy that his horse’s lack of quickness kept him from being second behind Good Taste early.

Alysheba, who entertained the gathering in the paddock with what has become obligatory hind kicking, moved past Good Taste even before they hit the far turn. Shoemaker, who probably lost the Big ‘Cap because Alysheba had gotten the jump on Ferdinand at just about the same point, was moving in tandem with his horse Sunday.

In mid-stretch, with Alysheba on the rail and Ferdinand just outside him, Shoemaker’s horse inched ahead.

“He was ahead of us for about 70 yards,” McCarron said. “I hit my horse once left-handed, then just waved the stick at him the rest of the way.”

Unlike the Breeders’ Cup, when they made a $10,000 side bet just past the finish line, McCarron and Shoemaker were sure of Sunday’s outcome as they pulled their horses up.

Sure, that is, until they reached the jockeys’ room and McCarron saw the official photo of the finish on a television monitor. Alysheba’s head was up and Ferdinand’s head was about ready to bob back up, and that was the difference.

Trainer Charlie Whittingham called it just a nod, remembering that Ferdinand had also lost a similar decision to Broad Brush in the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap a year ago.

“It was closer than I thought,” McCarron said. “I’ll bet it was closer than what Shoe thought, too.”

Considering the closeness of the finish, the rail would have been expected to be the worst place to be, because it was playing dead all day.

“I don’t worry about a track bias, unless it’s something that continually happens several days in a row,” McCarron said. “The really good horses usually overcome a track bias. When this horse won the Kentucky Derby, coming from behind, all the races before that (that day) were won by horses on the lead, and in the race after the Derby, speed held up once more.”

Shoemaker said that he had no problem keeping Ferdinand’s mind on his business through the stretch. The son of Nijinsky II has been known to try pulling himself up after he makes the lead.

“He was all right today, he kept on running and ran his heart out,” Shoemaker said. “At the top of the stretch, I knew it was going to be a horse race. I thought Alysheba was going to quit at one point in the stretch, but he didn’t.”

Gary Stevens, riding the Argentine-bred Good Taste in his first American stakes race, thought Alysheba and Ferdinand were both going to quit.

“Those two were like they were in a match race from the five-eighths pole home,” Stevens said. “They were at each other’s throats the rest of the way. My theory is that even good horses can only run as hard as they can for three-eighths of a mile, tops, and Alysheba and Ferdinand were all out for quite a ways. My horse is a nice horse; he tries as hard as any horse I’ve ever ridden.”

Jack Van Berg, Alysheba’s trainer, indicated that the colt would run next in the $500,000 Pimlico Special in Baltimore on May 14. Under the conditions of the race, Alysheba could pick up an extra $100,000 if he wins, because of being a nominee to the Triple Crown.

On Saturday, Charlie Cella, the president of Oaklawn Park, said on national television that Alysheba was “ducking” Lost Code because Van Berg’s colt stayed in California and didn’t run in the Oaklawn Handicap. Lost Code, undefeated this year, won the Oaklawn race.

“Everybody has their own opinion but I haven’t ducked anybody all year and I won’t be ducking anybody,” Van Berg said Sunday.

The issue will be moot by the time Pimlico runs its race. Lost Code is expected to be there, too.

Horse Racing Notes

Pat Valenzuela, who had been one of Santa Anita’s leading jockeys before he quit riding without cause in early March, reported to the track stewards last week, was fined $500, suspended for the rest of the season that ends a week from today and put on probation for the duration of his license, which expires at the end of 1990. Valenzuela has never tested positive by the stewards for drugs, but racing investigators have learned that he has undergone rehabilitation for a problem at least three times in recent years. Valenzuela’s suspension ends a week from Tuesday, when he is expected to resume riding in Albuquerque, N.M., where he has been staying with one of his brothers in recent weeks. Valenzuela will be tested frequently for drugs if he resumes riding in California. . . . Trainer Jack Van Berg got credit for another win Sunday when his Joe’s Tammie won the Bouwerie Stakes at Aqueduct. . . . Gary Jones, who trains Good Taste, won the Sacramento Handicap at Golden Gate Fields with Mausie. On Saturday at Keeneland, however, Jones’ Stalwars ran a distant third in the Lexington and is now a doubtful starter for the Kentucky Derby on May 7. . . . Ferdinand’s second money of $80,000 sent him over the $3.6-million mark. . . . Although Ferdinand is nominated along with Alysheba for the Pimlico Special, he is likely to remain in California and run at Hollywood Park. “I’d still like to try the other horse again, someplace down the line,” said Ferdinand’s trainer, Charlie Whittingham. Alysheba has four wins and a second in his last five starts. . . . Ferdinand has had three straight seconds after a four-race winning streak that was capped by the victory in the Breeders’ Cup. . . . Chris McCarron won the San Bernardino for the fourth time, all in even years during the 1980s. His last win in the stake was also in a photo, with Precisionist edging out Greinton in 1986.