Canani Claims Another Stakes Win as the Del Mar Goes to Silver Circus

Julio Canani, working in the depths of the claiming ranks most of the time, needed 13 years to win two stakes races at Del Mar, starting in 1975.

Now, Canani has won two stakes in 3 1/2 weeks with the same horse, and typically this 3-year-old gray gelding is a runner that the 49-year-old Peruvian claimed from somebody else.

Silver Circus was being trained by John Russell until Canani plucked him out of a maiden claiming race for $32,000 at Hollywood Park last Dec. 11. Silver Circus didn’t win that race, which came in only his second start, but under Canani his earnings have gone over the $200,000 mark, counting Sunday’s $127,900 win in the $217,900 Del Mar Derby before 23,464 fans.

Silver Circus ran once for a $45,000 claiming price for Canani, but then the trainer started protecting him. Against lesser company, Silver Circus won two races and finished second twice in five starts for Canani before he captured the Oceanside Handicap here on opening day.

The same late move from last place that brought Silver Circus victory in the Oceanside worked in the Del Mar Derby. It was still a three-horse race only two strides from the finish line Sunday, with tiring Perfecting trying to hold on in the middle, Roberto’s Dancer attempting to give trainer Chris Speckert his second stakes win in as many days with a dash along the fence and jockey Russell Baze aboard Silver Circus closing from the outside.

Silver Circus got there by a head over Perfecting, who had a head on Roberto’s Dancer, and it was 1 lengths farther back to Bel Air Dancer in fourth place. Perfecting ran the same type of pace-setting race in the Oceanside, and also finished second, a length behind Silver Circus.

Lively One went off the 2-1 favorite in his second start on grass and finished sixth. Jockey Bill Shoemaker said Lively One appeared to be uncomfortable with the track.

Silver Circus, owned by Joe Scardino, paid $10.80, $4 and $2.60. Perfecting, ridden by Gary Stevens, returned $3.80 and $2.60 and Roberto’s Dancer, under Fernando Toro, paid $3. Silver Circus’ time for 1 1/8 miles was 1:49, the slowest clocking for a winner of the stake since 1983.

Canani’s first stakes winner here, Willmar, was a horse he claimed in 1975 for $20,000. The first horse Canani ever started in a race was a filly he claimed for $2,500 the day after he cashed a $3,000 bet. Against colts, she won that first race for Canani at the Solano County Fair.

Canani had some anxious moments watching Silver Circus win Sunday. The gelding and Baze were crowded leaving the gate by Prove Splendid, who veered to his right. After settling down well about nine lengths behind White Mischief and Perfecting, they had to swing six horses wide coming into the stretch.

“That’s the way he runs--make one run and don’t get stopped,” Baze said. “It’s hard to get stopped in the middle of the race track. We were just a little bit wide. I was hoping I’d get there in the stretch, but the horse on the lead (Perfecting) was hanging tough. I wasn’t sure I was going to get by him.”

Stevens would prefer to have Perfecting come from off the pace, but the jockey said that he had no choice Sunday, being the only speed in the race.

“My horse (Roberto’s Dancer) came home steady, but he just couldn’t get there,” Toro said. “I saved ground, cutting the corner at the quarter pole, and he gave it a good try.”

Shoemaker indicated that going back to running on dirt might be the best thing for Lively One, who was seventh in the Will Rogers Handicap, his only other grass start. In his last race, Lively One won the Swaps at Hollywood Park.

“He had a good trip, but he was struggling all the way and laboring,” Shoemaker said Sunday. “This is not his best surface.”

Canani, who had never won a race as important as this one, thought Silver Circus was better Sunday because he didn’t run in the La Jolla Handicap, won by Perfecting over Roberto’s Dancer on Aug. 7.

“Three races in a row at the meet are too much to ask of a horse,” Canani said. “I want to have him around next year and not knock him out.”

Silver Circus might leave California for the first time to run in the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs on Sept. 25.

That would require that Silver Circus adjust to running on dirt again, but for a $1-million purse, Canani may send the horse there and hope he remembers how.

Horse Racing Notes

Owner Gene Klein’s bittersweet luck with 2-year-olds continued Sunday when One of a Klein, a 2-year-old Danzig filly making her first start, won Del Mar’s fourth race by 3 1/2 lengths, running six furlongs in 1:09 3/5. On Saturday, Crown Collection, a 2-year-old son of Alydar, also won his first start. Klein paid $600,000 for One of a Klein. Last week, however, Great Genes, a 2-year-old son of Saratoga Six who cost Klein $230,000, broke down at Del Mar and had to be destroyed. “That’s two Saratoga Sixes I’ve lost,” Klein said. “There was another one, named Upstart, at Hollywood Park. Boom--a half-million bucks when you lose two like that.” Saratoga Six broke down at Santa Anita in the fall of 1984, but he was saved through surgery for stud duty. In the only season he raced, Saratoga Six was undefeated in four starts, winning the Hollywood Juvenile Championship and the Del Mar Futurity. . . . Klein said that neither Great Genes nor Upstart was insured. “The (annual) premiums run about 5% of the value of the horse,” Klein said. “When a horse gets up to about $1 million in value, we start insuring them. But when you have as many horses as I do, you’d go broke insuring them all. You might go broke, anyway.”

Mill Native, the 40-1 winner of Saturday’s Arlington Million at Woodbine, will go from French trainer Andre Fabre to Charlie Whittingham when the 4-year-old arrives at Del Mar later this week. Whittingham said that Mill Native will run during the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita in preparation for the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5. . . . Mill Native was fortunate just to start in the Million. He was No. 4 on the alternates’ list, which meant that the race’s handicapping panel ranked him 11th among the foreign horses. There were enough scratches of horses ahead of Mill Native for him to gain a berth in the race. One of the horses immediately ahead of Mill Native on the list was Sir Harry Lewis, who was an impressive 3 1/2-length winner at Del Mar the day before the Million.

One of the California disappointments in the Million was Deputy Governor, who finished 11th in the 14-horse field after winning the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar on July 31. “He was lackadaisical and never got into the bit at all,” said Deputy Governor’s trainer, Neil Drysdale, who was back at Del Mar Sunday. “He didn’t ship very well and didn’t seem to be very spirited from the time he arrived.” Drysdale was unable to arrange a plane for Deputy Governor to get him to Woodbine a week before the Million, then a flight early in the week was delayed a day because of mechanical problems. Drysdale said that Deputy Governor would get a rest before he plans any more races for him.

Dee Hubbard, the thoroughbred-quarter horse owner who was unsuccessful in buying Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos a couple of years ago, said that he is on the verge of closing a deal that will make him owner of Ruidoso Downs, the quarter horse track in New Mexico. . . . Olympic Prospect, who won twice at Hollywood at 6 furlongs, running 1:08 4/5 on dirt and 1:08 on grass, will try the main course at Del Mar Wednesday, carrying high weight of 121 pounds in the $75,000 Bing Crosby Handicap, also at three-quarters of a mile. The eight-horse field also consists of Synastry, Sebrof, Faro, Hilco Scamper, Paisano Pete, My Gallant Game and L.B. Jaklin.

Sunday’s seventh race was an interesting allowance that included Mi Preferido, a horse scratched from this year’s Kentucky Derby because of an injury; Fast Account, a 6-year-old who ran fourth at 92-1 in Spend a Buck’s 1985 Derby; and Success Express, who had been winless in nine races since winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last year. Fast Account rallied from last to win the race, with Mi Preferido second and Success Express off the board. Fast Account, second in the Santa Anita Derby and fourth in the Belmont, hadn’t won a race since March of 1986, one of the reasons being a nagging stifle (upper rear leg) problem, another was that he spent the spring of 1987 at stud, being bred to about a dozen mares. Asked why Fast Account is back racing, owner-breeder Fritz Hawn said: “The more we bred him, the better his stifle seemed to get. If you ever have trouble with a stifle, maybe that could be the answer.” . . . Success Express and Tejano, another Wayne Lukas trainee, have now gone 0 for 20 since their major wins last fall, Tejano having taken the Hollywood Futurity.

A Del Mar Thoroughbred Club official said that of several rival applicants for the track lease that expires after next season, the bid from the Nederlander theater and Ogden concession groups is the most threatening. “They have a 12-month proposal that would theoretically give the plant much more use than it’s getting now,” the official said. The Thoroughbred Club has been operating racing at the state-owned fairgrounds since 1970. The State Race Track Leasing Board, which will decide which group receives a 20- year lease starting in 1990, meets Tuesday to consider the proposals.