San Diego Handicap at Del Mar : Lewis Makes Right Choice for Cutlass Reality

Before trainer Craig Lewis decided to stay home, he had considered shipping Cutlass Reality to Minnesota for Sunday’s Canterbury Cup.

Lewis said that the Canterbury Downs racing secretary was a friend of his, and a stopover there could have fit in nicely with an eventual appearance at Hawthorne, just outside Chicago, for the Budweiser Gold Cup.

But then Lewis looked at the purse of Sunday’s $117,700 San Diego Handicap and decided that there wasn’t much difference between that stake and the $150,000 race in the Midwest.

Lewis could have made friends of the five other San Diego Handicap trainers by going to Canterbury. Instead, Cutlass Reality continued his pillage of the handicap ranks in California, winning his fifth in a row and fourth straight stake with a four-length waltz past Simply Majestic and five others before a crowd of 23,931. Craig Lewis’ real friends are the trainers who were given a better chance to win in Minnesota.

Cutlass Reality’s $63,700 day was also part of a super Sunday for Gary Stevens, who won the last three races and clicked with five of nine mounts overall to move past Eddie Delahossaye in the jockey standings. Stevens has 25 winners after 17 days here and Delahoussaye has 24.

Simply Majestic, who ran last, 23 lengths behind Cutlass Reality, in the Hollywood Gold Cup on June 26, improved by 19 lengths Sunday, but still could do no better than second, finishing four lengths ahead of Nostalgia’s Star, the late-running 6-year-old who inexorably moves toward the $2-million earnings mark with few victories but a string of in-the-money finishes.

Cutlass Reality, running 1 1/16 miles in 1:41 2/5, ran coupled with stablemate Aly Khan and paid $3.20, $2.60 and $2.20. Simply Majestic paid $4.40 and $3 and Nostalgia’s Star returned $3. Cutlass Reality, who had won only 7 of 56 starts before his California winning streak began at Hollywood Park on May 27, added the San Diego Handicap to victories in the Californian, the Hollywood Gold Cup and the Bel Air Handicap and increased his career earnings total to $1.1 million.

Cutlass Reality was in fifth place, about 10 lengths behind his entrymate, Aly Khan, as the field began its run down the backstretch. Synastry, a sprinter who had won going six furlongs just last Monday, put away Aly Khan after they had run a half-mile, but he wilted on the far turn when Cutlass Reality shifted into gear. Synastry wound up fourth and Aly Khan finished last.

Cutlass Reality had not trained well here, perhaps giving the rival trainers encouragement. In a workout between races on Aug. 7, the 6-year-old son of Cutlass and Landera took 1:14 3/5 to cover six furlongs. Synastry ran that far in a swift 1:09 4/5 Sunday, and Cutlass Reality was only 1 1/2 lengths behind him, and moving like an avalanche.

“All the skeptics said it was a fluke that he won all those big races at Hollywood Park,” Gary Stevens said. “He doesn’t care for this track and he still obliterated a decent field of horses.

“He’ll prove himself some day. He doesn’t get a hold of this track as well as Hollywood Park. He just tolerates it. He doesn’t seem to cover the ground as easily. I’m glad Craig (Lewis) let me work him in his last two works. We didn’t ask for any speed. We kept him strong and his heart big.

“I felt in the first 50 yards he would win. I tapped him on the shoulder once down the backside and he kind of dragged me into the far turn. I know he inhaled the others pretty quickly.”

Lewis hopes to run Cutlass Realty in the $500,000 Budweiser Gold Cup on Aug. 27, followed by the $200,000 Good Wood Handicap at Santa Anita on Oct. 22, and then it will probably be the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 5 at Churchill Downs. Since Cutlass Reality wasn’t nominated, it would cost his principal owners, New Yorkers Howard Crash and Jim Hankoff, a fee of $360,000 to run in the Breeders’ Cup.

They reportedly paid $125,000 for Cutlass Reality last December and since then he’s earned more than $650,000. If any horse is worth a $360,000 gamble, this one is.

Horse Racing Notes

Cutlass Reality carried 123 pounds, 8 more than Simply Majestic and 7 more than Nostalgia’s Star and Synastry . . . According to trainer Charlie Whittingham, heat, giant mosquitoes and a suspect ride by Jorge Velasquez ganged up on Goodbye Halo, accounting for the 3-year-old filly’s disappointing fourth-place finish Saturday in the Alabama at Saratoga. Whittingham, back at Del Mar Sunday, said that Goodbye Halo would be shipped back to California, with a race during the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita scheduled to be used to get her ready for the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5. “It was real hot at Saratoga and I’ve never seen mosquitoes that big,” Whittingham said. “It’s an advantage for horses that have already been training in the heat.” Goodbye Halo shipped from California to New York on Wednesday. “We might have been better off bringing her in at the last minute, because that way she wouldn’t have had the chance of the heat really affecting her,” Whittingham said. “There was a slow pace, and she had a wide trip and still only got beat by about two lengths. She’s still a real good filly. She’s earned over $1 million.” Goodbye Halo had won 8 of 10 starts before the Alabama.

Manzotti, who began the year at Santa Anita, proved Sunday that his second- place finish to Lost Code in the Michigan Mile was no fluke. Ridden by Eddie Maple, the Michael Stidham-trained 5-year-old won the $150,000 Canterbury Cup by a length over Valiant Cougar. . . Steinlen, who was second to Skip Out Front in the American Handicap at Hollywood Park in his last start, traveled about 3,000 miles to Saratoga Sunday and ran second again, this time to My Big Boy, who was a half-length winner in the $121,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap. My Big Boy got a seven-pound break in the weights. . . Political Ambition’s leg injury is a hairline fracture and he’ll be sidelined for a lengthy period. . . Texian, who won a one-mile maiden race at Del Mar this season, is one of eight horses entered in Wednesday’s $60,000 De Anza Stakes. Texian will run coupled with Great Genes.

and they’ll be opposed by Hombre Hombre, Shipping Time, Music Merci, Playmeonemoretime, Three Times Older and Jonathan’s Gold.