Mervyn LeRoy Handicap : Delahoussaye Wins, Going Coast-to-Coast

They presented a large, well-decorated cake to Eddie Delahoussaye in the jockeys’ room at Hollywod Park just prior to Sunday’s feature race.

“Congratulations, Eddie,” read the iced lettering on the top, a reference to Delahoussaye’s victory the day before in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.

They could just as easily have presented the same cake to him after the $200,000-added Mervyn LeRoy Handicap, because once again it was Delahoussaye in the winner’s circle.

Judge Angelucci, prepared perfectly by trainer Charlie Whittingham, was a convincing winner of the Grade I event, beating runner-up Simply Majestic by 3 1/2 lengths while covering the 1 1/16 miles on a fast main track in 1:40 4/5, two-fifths of a second off Spectacular Bid’s stakes record. Mark Chip was third, another 4 1/2 lengths behind.

The victory, the 5-year-old chestnut’s 10th in 21 career starts, was worth $129,600 to his owner, Olin B. Gentry of Lexington, Ky., and increased Judge Angelucci’s earnings to $1,537,535.

Sent off as the second-favorite behind Good Taste by the crowd of 27,980, Judge Angelucci had no difficulty in going virtually wire-to-wire. He paid $5.60, $3.60 and $2.80. Simply Majestic, ridden by Russell Baze, paid $4.20 and $3.20, while Chris McCarron’s mount, Mark Chip, paid $5.20 to show.

Whittingham was confident going into the race, feeling that Judge Angelucci’s 10-length loss to Simply Majestic at Golden Gate Fields on April 2 had been an anomaly. In that race, the Breeders’ Cup Handicap, Simply Majestic broke Secretariat’s world record for 1 1/8 miles by clocking 1.45 flat.

“It was that track up there,” the trainer said, referring to Golden Gate’s traditionally fast surface. The fact that Judge Angelucci had had a seven-week layoff also helped, Whittingham said.

“He’s had a little rest,” he said. “He got tired chasing Ferdinand (in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last fall and in the San Antonio and Santa Anita handicaps this spring). Everybody who chases Ferdinand winds up tired.

“He likes this track better than he does Santa Anita. But he ran well at Santa Anita, too.”

High-weighted at 123 pounds, Judge Angelucci was carrying five more pounds than Simply Majestic and nine more than Good Taste, who was involved in a photo-finish with Alysheba and Ferdinand in his last race, the San Bernardino Handicap on April 17. This time, Good Taste did not have the late kick, despite Gary Stevens’ urging, and finished sixth in the eight-horse field.

“He was fighting himself all the way,” Stevens said, “and I was trying to get a hold of him. Gary (Jones, Good Taste’s trainer) hadn’t been training him here because he didn’t think he likes this race track. I’d have to agree with him.”

For a while Sunday, it wasn’t a question of whether Stevens and Delahoussaye would get to the wire on time but whether they would get to the track on time?

Stevens, who two weeks ago won the Kentucky Derby aboard Winning Colors, and Delahoussaye, who earned his first Preakness Stakes victory Saturday on Risen Star, arrived less than three hours before the feature race after their flight from Baltimore was delayed by mechanical problems.

Obviously, the delay did not bother Delahoussaye, who has scored three Grade I victories in a row, having won the John Henry Handicap last Sunday.

“A little different track makes a difference with those two horses,” Delahoussaye said. “Of course, the other horse (Simply Majestic), you have to give him credit, he ran a good race. But Charlie had this horse super today. He relaxed great. He just pricked his ears and was going very easy. He’s a kind horse. It’s been a super weekend.”

And one in which victory in the Mervyn LeRoy was just the icing on the cake.

Horse Racing Notes

The field for the Mervyn LeRoy was reduced to eight when trainer Jim Benedict scratched Cutlass Reality, who ran just a week earlier in the John Henry Handicap. . . . Laffit Pincay, who won the race in each of the past two years, aboard Skywalker in 1986 and on Zabaleta last May, finished fourth this time on Red Attack. . . . Rafael Meza was excused from his mounts for the second day in a row Sunday after suffering a kidney stone ailment. Meza, 30, spent Saturday night at Centinela Hospital Medical Center after doubling up in pain at the breakfast table Saturday morning. He was released Sunday morning and is expected to be back riding on Wednesday. . . . Apprentice James Corral, who has ridden 10 winners so far this meeting, has received a five-day suspension, beginning Wednesday, for causing interference in the stretch aboard Somekindaguy during the second race last Friday. Corral’s horse won but was disqualified and placed second. . . . After spending seven weeks recuperating from injuries sustained in a spectacular accident at Santa Anita April 8, jockey Dave Patton resumes riding this week.