Racing at Santa Anita : Bello Horizonte Surprises in Arcadia Handicap

It was a serendipitous event Saturday at Santa Anita when a trainer thought her horse had been beaten by a head but it won by a nose.

Bello Horizonte, running for only the fourth time in 14 months, closed from the outside to nip another closer, Sarhoob, by a nostril. The improbable finish to the $100,000 Arcadia Handicap surprised most of the principals as well as the 32,480 fans.

Until the photograph of the finish was posted, many of those in the crowd were shouting epithets at the television monitors even after they had a second chance to watch the footage of the mile grass race.

“Surprised me,” somebody said to Eddie Delahoussaye, the jockey aboard Bello Horizonte, as he walked off the track.

“Me, too,” Delahoussaye said, “but I’ll take it.”

Sally Lundy, an assistant trainer for her husband, Dick, who is with 10 of owner Allen Paulson’s horses in Florida, seemed to jump about as high as Bello Horizonte’s withers when the 6-year-old Irish-bred’s number was posted on the tote board. Bello Horizonte, with a history of knee problems, ran only twice last year and was making his second start this year. The Arcadia was two days short of the second anniversary of his last victory and was only his fourth in 22 lifetime starts.

“I thought we got beat by a head,” Sally Lundy said. “But then by the time I got down to the track, and they still hadn’t put the numbers up, I thought maybe it was a little closer. I was excited. I was happy for the horse.”

Sarhoob, ridden by Chris McCarron and making his first start since an eighth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs in his American debut on Nov. 5, was three-quarters of a length ahead of Patchy Groundfog in the seven-horse field.

Patchy Groundfog, who ran as an entry with Ofanto, led the pack until Bello Horizonte and Sarhoob charged from the outside in the last sixteenth of a mile.

Bello Horizonte, assigned 113 pounds but carrying 116 because Delahoussaye couldn’t make the weight, paid $20.60, $7.80 and $3. Sarhoob, the French import, was the high weight of 120 pounds and paid $5.20 and $3. Patchy Groundfog, who with his stablemate went off the 9-5 favorite, paid $2.40. Ofanto finished sixth.

Bello Horizonte was timed in 1:36 1/5, two seconds off the track record, and earned $64,700. In his last start, at the same distance, he finished third but had none of the stretch speed he showed Saturday.

“I thought Chris won,” Delahoussaye said. “My horse bobbed his head at the right spot. The slow pace hurt him the other day in his last race.”

McCarron said he was riding with his head down and couldn’t tell who won. Charlie Whittingham, who took over the training of Sarhoob from his French conditioner, Andre Fabre, after the Breeders’ Cup, was surprised at the result, as were his assistants. Dick Lundy used to work for Whittingham, before he moved to New York and then returned to California last year to become Paulson’s head trainer in the United States.

When the field made the turn for home, Sarhoob was ahead of only one horse--Bello Horizonte, who was nine lengths behind the leader, Ron Bon, going down the backstretch. Ron Bon stopped running at the eighth pole and finished last.

Last fall, Bello Horizonte was scheduled to be sold at auction at Hollywood Park. But Dick Lundy thought the horse’s knees were all right and withdrew him from the sale.

Lundy ran second Saturday with Savannah’s Honor, who was beaten by Colonial Waters in the $200,000 Johnnie Walker Black Classic at Gulfstream Park.

Bello Horizonte was next scheduled to run in the March 11 $75,000 San Marino Handicap, for horses who haven’t won $35,000 or more going a mile or farther.

“We’ll have to do some rethinking,” Sally Lundy said. “He’s not eligible for that now.”

Horse Racing Notes

Music Merci, who won three stakes as a 2-year-old, including the Del Mar Futurity, will be favored today in the San Rafael Stakes, which has drawn just four other starters. . . . Houston, who is arguably the best 3-year-old in California, worked five furlongs in 1:01 Friday at Santa Anita. Undefeated in his only two starts, he is about two weeks away from a race. . . . Although Is It True, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last year, is also working again, it is beginning to look as though he won’t make the Kentucky Derby. He underwent knee surgery after the Breeders’ Cup.

The weights for next Sunday’s $1-million Santa Anita Handicap are due today, with trainer Eddie Gregson guessing that his Super Diamond will get 122 pounds, two less than Nasr el Arab. . . . Super Diamond worked six furlongs Saturday in 1:13 1/5. . . . Nine other horses may run--Payant, Frankly Perfect, Good Taste, Stalwars, Cherokee Colony, Perceive Arrogance, Triteamtri, Stylish Winner and Martial Law. The owners of Nasr el Arab and Martial Law, who hadn’t nominated their horses, are paying a $25,000 penalty per horse to run.