Silver Screen Handicap at Hollywood Park : Iz a Saros’ Victory a Stroke of Luck

Trainer Joe Manzi has never denied that luck is part of the racing game. Manzi’s luck never turned better than Sunday, when Iz a Saros, a 3-year-old colt he intended to run in a $40,000 allowance race 10 days ago, wound up in Sunday’s $163,400 Silver Screen Handicap instead, and then won the stake by 2 1/2 lengths. The victory earned $95,900 for owner-breeder Earl Scheib, who won’t have to paint any cars this week.

When entries were taken for the eighth race on June 30, Manzi thought he had dropped in the name of Iz a Saros, a colt with a career record of two wins in nine starts, including two far-back finishes in stakes at Del Mar last summer.

At home that night, Manzi took a call from a jockey agent who told the trainer that another of his horses--Lin--was listed in the official entries instead of Iz a Saros.

Manzi scratched Lin, then saved Iz a Saros for the Silver Screen, which brought together eight largely nondescript members of the season’s 3-year-old crop.

“The mixup over that last race--which I can’t explain--was another reason why I thought we might win the Silver Screen,” Manzi said. “I’ve seen something like that happen time and again and it turns out good for you, and this was the classic example. Many times when you try and scratch a horse and the stewards won’t let you, it seems like the horse wins, anyway.”

Iz a Saros, giving 18-year-old jockey Aaron Gryder his fourth stakes win of the season, was angled over to the fence from his No. 6 post position going into the first turn, led all the way and comfortably held off Stalwars, making his first start since a fever knocked him out of the Kentucky Derby two months ago. Stalwars finished 1 lengths ahead of Bel Air Dancer, who had a nose on Blade of the Ball.

A foul claim by Corey Black, the jockey of Blade of the Ball, against Bel Air Dancer and Gary Stevens for interference at the start of the far turn was not allowed by the stewards. Lively One, who bore out in the same incident and was actually the cause of the tight quarters, went off the slight favorite over Stalwars and finished fifth while racing closer to the lead and wearing blinkers for the first time. Cougarized, who was in contention early, was eased by jockey Laffit Pincay midway through the stretch.

Iz a Saros ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:49, which was 1 3/5 seconds slower than the track record held by Fran’s Valentine, whose parents--Saros and Iza Valentine--are the same as the Silver Screen winner. Fran’s Valentine, who set the record in the 1985 Hollywood Oaks, also won the Kentucky Oaks that year and is the most renowned horse the 80-year-old Scheib has ever owned.

“I started four horses today,” Scheib said Sunday. “First time I can ever remember doing that.” The owner of about 275 auto-painting shops in more than 35 states did no better than second with the three other starters.

Iz a Saros, who earned only $47,850 before Sunday, paid $24.40, $9.80 and $7. Stalwars’ prices were $4.20 and $2.80 and Bel Air Dancer paid $4.40.

Iz a Saros suffered a hairline leg fracture at Del Mar last year and although it healed naturally, the colt didn’t rejoin Manzi’s barn until about six months later at Santa Anita. The horse was competitive in his first three starts, but didn’t win his first race this year until June 16 at Hollywood.

Gryder rode Iz a Saros once before, back in April, but he got the mount Sunday because Pincay rode Cougarized. Manzi wanted Gryder to have Iz a Saros out in front, but the trainer thought they were traveling too fast when he saw splits of :22 2/5 for the first eighth of a mile and :45 3/5 for a half.

“He might have been going quick, but he was just galloping,” Gryder said. “His ears were pricked, and he felt comfortable. When I got the lead going into the first turn, I felt confident. I heard them (the rallying horses) about the three-eighths pole. I just let my horse go a little bit more, hoping he would have some more and he did.

“Then I opened up on him a little more and then I just sat still about the quarter pole, hoping he would still have something left and that nobody would be flying. About the eighth pole, I heard (Chris) McCarron hollering at his horse (Stalwars) and at the sixteenth pole I glanced over, and he wasn’t any closer, so I didn’t think anybody would get us then.

“I heard about the entry thing and the other race. It was a good mistake to happen, wasn’t it?”

With the Silver Screen as a foundation, Stalwars may be better in the $200,000 Swaps on July 24. That stake is an eighth of a mile longer than Sunday’s race.

“In the Lexington (Stalwars’ previous race, at Keeneland on April 16), he was in the race for a half a mile and after that I had no horse at all,” McCarron said. “But today he finished well, he just got a little bit tired near the end.”

Shoemaker could make no excuses for Lively One, who has been 12th in the Kentucky Derby and 7th and 5th in two Hollywood Park stakes since running second to Winning Colors in the Santa Anita Derby.

“The blinkers put some speed into him,” Shoemaker said. “We’ve tried everything else with him, we might as well have tried that. But this looks to me like a horse who’s only good at making one run.”

Black had problems other than traffic with Blade of the Ball, who was a good second in the Cinema Handicap in his last start. On Sunday, Blade of the Ball refused to change lead feet, which shifts a horse’s weight to the other side of his body, and ran the entire race on his left lead.

“I tried to get him to switch (leads) five times down the backside,” Black said. “Running a mile and an eighth on one lead--there’s no way a horse can win that way.”

It might be difficult to imagine Iz a Saros stretching out to 1 miles in the Swaps with the running style he showed Sunday. But Manzi no doubt will try him. And he’ll probably arrange another mistake at the entry box just for good luck.

Horse Racing Notes

Gary Stevens rode 3 winners, giving him 72 in the first 51 days of the meet and a lead of 21 over Laffit Pincay in the jockey standings. . . . Aaron Gryder’s two wins moved him into a tie for third place with Chris McCarron. Each have 45 winners. . . . Eddie Delahoussaye, 36, has a 28-year-old brother who also rides, and Edwin Paul Delahoussaye’s arrival at Hollywood Park will make for some confusion. The younger Delahoussaye had been riding on the Louisiana circuit. . . . Two former California jockeys scored stakes victories Sunday. Sandy Hawley rode Blondeinamotel to victory in the $110,000 Shady Well at Woodbine and Pat Valenzuela won the $50,000 Valnor Handicap at Hawthorne. . . . Sunday’s crowd was 26,488. . . . Today’s stake, the 49th running of the American Handicap, is only a five-horse affair, with Steinlen, a 5-year-old English-bred, trying to win his third race of the meeting.