Steinlen Goes the Distance for Lukas : Stevens Rides to Victory in $111,200 Inglewood Handicap

Trainer Wayne Lukas was wearing that wire-to-wire grin, the kind you flash on the way to the winner’s circle.

This is not an unusual occurence with Lukas, the nation’s leading money-winning trainer for the past five years, but on Sunday he was especially pleased.

And with good reason.

Steinlen, a 5-year-old bay horse trained by Lukas and ridden by Gary Stevens, had just won the $111,200 Inglewood Handicap at Hollywood Park.

That not only put $66,200 into the pocket of Steinlen’s owner, Daniel Wildenstein, it also gave Lukas the chance to gloat a little.

“John Gosden said we’re not going to be bona fide turf trainers till we win at beyond a mile,” Lukas said. “So today we’ve arrived.”

The British-bred Steinlen, bearing the royal blue and light blue colors of Wildenstein Stables, arrived some time ago. This was his eighth victory in 18 starts and his fourth in the last five outings.

His only loss lately, in fact, came in the John Henry Handicap on May 15. Then, Deputy Governor defeated him by two lengths. They met again Sunday, the two favorites in the field of nine, but this time it was Steinlen who won.

Going wire to wire, the son of Habitat and Southern Seas covered the 1 1/16 miles on a firm turf course in 1:40 2/5 to beat Deputy Governor by 2 1/2 lengths. Third, another 1 3/4 lengths behind, was Galunpe, ridden by Fernando Toro.

The crowd of 28,891 made Deputy Governor the narrowest of favorites over Steinlen, sending the John Henry winner off at 2-to-1 and the Premiere Handicap winner at 2.10-to-1.

Lukas and Stevens, who had decided to rate Steinlen in the 1 1/8-mile John Henry, changed tactics this time.

“Today we decided to let him run a more natural race,” Lukas said. “The other day I think we got him beat. We tried to stretch him out (and) we took a little bit of it away from him. Today we just said, well, what he wants to do naturally, let him do it.

“I told Gary, just take a hold of the knot and don’t ask him, don’t do anything, just sit still and see what happens.”

What happened was that Steinlen ran away from the rest. He turned in fractions of 0:24, 0:47, 1:10 and 1:33 2/5. The latter figure really had Lukas grinning.

“They were good fractions,” he said. “I think the key was the 47. Then he got to 33 and then I think it was over. It’s hard to catch up when you get in that position, I don’t care how good a horse it is behind you.”

Lukas is not sure what is next for Steinlen.

“I want to do what’s best for the horse,” he said. “He’s certainly a quality horse. He’s really good. He’s really getting his act together. Very sound. Very willing.

“Our goal with this horse is to make him our Breeders’ Cup Mile horse. Whether he’s that good or not, we’ll see. Any time you run a 33 and change, like that on this course or any course, I think you’ve got a chance to be a factor.”

Stevens, too, had nothing but praise for his mount.

“He pretty much rated himself,” Stevens said. “I had so much horse at the three-eighths pole I figured rather than waiting for Deputy Governor to swallow me up this time, or any of the other horses to get in contention, to go ahead and try to open up (a lead).

“I felt that he could run the last three-eighths real strong and he did. He’s getting better every time that he runs.

“I got into a little bit of a tug-of-war with him last time going to the starting gate. He doesn’t like ponies real well and he got a little ornery and was a little rank with me last time. Today I got him away from the pony and he relaxed a lot more.”

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Dick Mandella, who had expressed doubts about running Invited Guest against the powerful By Land By Sea in Saturday’s Milady Handicap, decided to run her when he couldn’t find transportation for the filly to Omaha, Neb., for the June 25 Ak-Sar-Ben Budweiser Breeders’ Cup. Although Invited Guest did not win, she and jockey Bill Shoemaker won $30,000 for owner R.D. Hubbard by finishing second, a half-length behind By Land By Sea. “I’m very proud of her,” Mandella said Sunday. “She gave it her best go.” Invited Guest is being pointed at the $200,000 Vanity Invitational Handicap on July 23. . . . Another horse being readied for that weekend is Stalwars, whom trainer Gary Jones has aimed at the $200,000-added Swaps Stakes on July 24. Stalwars, who has not run since being knocked out of the Kentucky Derby by a virus, will probably tune up for the Swaps by running in the July 3 Silver Screen Handicap. . . . There will be three graded races on this weekend’s Hollywood Park card, the Grade II Princess Stakes on Saturday, followed by the Beverly Hills Handicap and the Hollywood Gold Cup, both Grade I events, on Sunday.