The Californian at Hollywood Park : McCarron Rides 13-1 Longshot to Victory

Reality, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Different people see different things, but few could believe what they saw Sunday at Hollywood Park.

Before an astonished crowd of 26,039, Cutlass Reality, a 6-year-old longshot running in his 58th race, carried Chris McCarron to a memorable upset victory in the $300,000 Californian.

Left in the wake of the chestnut son of Cutlass and Landera were such stars as Gulch, who finished second, 2 3/4 lengths behind the winner; Judge Angelucci, who came in third 4 1/2 lengths back, and 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand, who was last, 1 3/4 lengths behind stablemate Judge Angelucci.

Had the 35th running of The Californian attracted a larger field than the four who went to the post, Cutlass Reality would surely have gone off at greater odds than 13-1. As it was, he proved that even those odds were too long.

Trained by Craig Lewis, Cutlass Reality covered the 1 1/8 miles on a fast main track in 1:47 3/5 to equal the stakes record set by Desert Wine on the old course in 1984. The victory gave him the biggest payday of his career, $180,200, and increased his earnings to $680,430, more than enough to put a smile on the faces of owners Howard Crash of Beverly Hills and Jim Hankoff of New York.

It also ended a long dry spell for McCarron, giving him his first stakes victory of the meeting.

“When I got home last night, my wife said, ‘Gee, you haven’t even won a stake here yet,’ ” said McCarron, adding that even had the field been larger he still would have liked his chances.

“If it was 12-horse field, I still would have been running third, unless there were a couple of sprinters in there,” he said. “The small field didn’t have much to do with it at all.”

The Californian is a Grade I race that has been won by such illustrious horses as Swaps and Cougar II, Ancient Title and Affirmed. Horses such as Cutlass Reality just don’t figure to win, but as McCarron said afterward, anything can happen.

“In all honesty, it looked like he was outclassed,” he said, “but, by the same token, the way Craig Lewis has been going, everything he leads over here (from the barns) has been running out of its skin.”

Lewis leads the Hollywood Park trainer standings for the meeting with 14 wins, 11 seconds and 11 thirds from 66 starts. Cutlass Reality was not expected to add to those totals, but he did.

“This horse just proved that any time you’re out there, you’ve got a chance,” McCarron said. “If you’re sitting in here (the jockeys’ room), you don’t have a chance.

“The horse really looked good in the post parade. He felt real strong and he was relaxed. When he left there (the starting gate), he was very aggressive. Right from the word go.”

Judge Angelucci, who won the race last year, took an early lead under jockey Eddie Delahoussaye and held it until Cutlass Reality overtook him approaching the far turn. Gulch, ridden by Gary Stevens, mounted a challenge at the top of the stretch, but the winner had plenty left and won drawing away.

“I wasn’t sure who it was who moved up on my flank turning for home,” said McCarron, who then was interrupted by Bill Shoemaker.

“It sure wasn’t me,” joked Shoemaker, who had kept Ferdinand off the pace but found he had nothing left at the finish. Many in the crowd booed when Ferdinand returned to be unsaddled, believing that trainer Charlie Whittingham had merely used The Californian to give Ferdinand a prep race for the $500,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on June 26.

The same thing had happened last year, when Ferdinand finished fourth in The Californian and then went on to take the Gold Cup.

As for Gulch, Stevens said the weights made the difference.

“What’s it say here?” Stevens asked, looking at the day’s program. “115 and 126. That comes out to about 11 pounds.”

Ferdinand, sent off as a 3-to-5 favorite, Judge Angelucci and Gulch each carried 126 pounds, and Cutlass Reality carried 115. Under race conditions, the weights were based on earnings, and the big three had won more than $7.5 million between them, whereas Cutlass Reality had barely $500,000 to his credit.

Still, Stevens wasn’t about to question Cutlass Reality’s right to be running in such supposedly lofty company.

“I don’t know if you remember him as a 3-year-old, but he’s won $500,000 the hard way, so he’s definitely got a touch of class,” Stevens said. “He’s definitely run against some good horses.

“Not taking anything away from him (Cutlass Reality) at all, he ran a terrific race, but I think the extra 11 pounds got to my horse a bit.”

The last time Ferdinand, Judge Angelucci and Gulch got together in these parts was for the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Hollywood Park last November 21.

In that race, Ferdinand edged fellow Kentucky Derby winner Alysheba by the shortest of noses en route to his 1987 Horse of the Year title. Judge Angelucci finished third, and Gulch ran a surprisingly poor ninth.

The bay son of Mr. Prospector then took the winter off, returning in March to win a $55,000 allowance race and the Potrero Grande Handicap, both at Santa Anita. His impressive performances continued in the East when, after finishing third in the Oaklawn Handicap behind Lost Code and Cryptoclearance, he won both the Carter Handicap at Aqueduct and the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park.

There was one factor operating against the Wayne Lukas-trained colt Sunday, however. Despite 12 victories in 26 starts and earnings of $2,384,881, he had never won at more than a mile; The Californian was run at 1 1/8 miles.

But Lukas had voiced the hope earlier in the week that Gulch’s last three outings might have prepped him for The Californian.

“The last time he ran two turns he might not have been quite tight enough,” Lukas said. “So what we’re hoping for is that these extra outs that he’s had at Oaklawn (Park) and back in New York in the Carter and the Met are going to set him up for this one.”

Gulch ran well, but he also ran smack into a horse that ran the race of his career.

Cutlass Reality’s only reason for being in the race was to pick up fourth-place money of $22,500, which would have paid the 6-year-old’s feed bills for a while longer.

In his previous 57 starts, he had managed 8 victories, 11 seconds and 9 thirds. His only two wins in the past year had been in allowance company.

A feeble sixth-place effort in the Grade I John Henry Handicap on May 15 was followed by a victory in a $55,000 allowance race May 27, but trainer Lewis was uncertain whether to run his horse in The Californian or save him for the $100,000 Inglewood Handicap next Sunday.

“What would you do?” Lewis asked the Daily Racing Form last week. “Run against three of the toughest horses in America for $300,000 and hope one or two of them stub their toes, or go against Steinlen and The Medic in the Inglewood for $100,000?”

Lewis chose to gamble and run Cutlass Reality in The Californian.

“We knew the worst we could do was win $22,500,” he said afterward.

And the best Cutlass Reality could do was to place his name alongside those of Swaps, Cougar II, Ancient Title and Affirmed. His victory, in fact, was perhaps the biggest upset in The Californian since Porterhouse beat Swaps in 1956.