Racing at Santa Anita : For Eddie Delahoussaye, It’s Stakes Wins or Nothing

Saturday was the Santa Anita season in microcosm for Eddie Delahoussaye. The 37-year-old jockey rode the winner of the featured stakes race, but he didn’t win on his six other mounts. Doing what he does best--waiting to make a late run with a horse--Delahoussaye brought No Review from eighth lengths behind for a 1 1/4-length win over Galunpe in the $218,800 Santa Barbara Handicap before a crowd of 32,796.

It was Delahoussaye’s 13th stakes win of the season, tying him with Laffit Pincay for the lead. But the meeting hasn’t been that successful for Delahoussaye in other races, as he pointed out after the Santa Barbara.

“You like to win those stakes, because those are the ones with the most money,” Delahoussaye said. “But I haven’t been so hot in the other races.”

Delahoussaye didn’t have to be shown the statistics to know. The hard facts are that he’s won 13 stakes with 38 mounts, a .342 winning percentage, but he’s only batting .156 in other races with 54 wins out of 346 tries.

Delahoussaye has won three of the last four stakes at Santa Anita, and the Santa Barbara is getting to be one of his favorites. He won the grass race for the third time, his second victory coming last year with Pen Bal Lady.

According to the Daily Racing Form, Delahoussaye started the week in third place nationally on the money list, behind Pincay and Gary Stevens, and after Saturday, Delahoussaye’s mounts had earned about $2.6 million this year.

Pincay opened up the mount for Delahoussaye on No Review by choosing to ride River Memories, who ran seventh in the eight-horse field. Stevens rode Delighter, the 5-2 favorite, but she finished fifth after running third most of the way.

Galunpe, ridden by Robbie Davis, who had three wins for the day, finished 1 1/4 lengths ahead of Annoconnor, the second betting choice who held the lead until inside the sixteenth pole, where Galunpe and then No Review passed her.

Timed in a slow 2:02 3/5, No Review earned $128,800 for her owner and breeder, Thomas Mellon Evans, and paid $12, $5.40 and $3.40. Galunpe, who was third in last year’s Santa Barbara, paid $5.60 and $3.80 and Annoconnor paid $2.60.

No Review, a 4-year-old filly by Nodouble out of the Northern Dancer mare, Dance Review, started the year on dirt, winning the San Gorgonio Handicap and then finishing fourth in the La Canada and third in the Santa Margarita Handicap. In her last start, she returned to grass and was fourth in the Santa Ana Handicap on March 18.

The win was trainer Chris Speckert’s first in a major race. Both the distance and the running surface agreed with No Review.

“The last race, I didn’t train her too hard because I knew she had to come back in two weeks at her ideal distance,” Speckert said. “There’s no doubt she prefers the turf. I only ran her on dirt because there was nothing else to do with her.”

Flattering News made the early lead, galloping along with Annoconnor in second place. No Review was back in sixth place, having recovered after being slightly bothered by Belle Poitrine, a horse in distress, on the first turn.

Annoconnor looked as though she could go by Flattering News at will, and on the turn, with about a half-mile to go, she did. But Flattering News didn’t quit, and even in the stretch Annoconnor was hard-pressed to open up some daylight. Flattering News finally did tire and finished fourth.

“My horse got pretty late,” Black said of Annoconnor. “She was a little fresh, the pace was slow and down the backstretch she went after Flattering News, which is something you don’t want to do going a mile and a quarter. Maybe she doesn’t want to run this far, but under the right circumstances I think she can.”

No Review carried 116 pounds, five less than the top weights, Annoconnor and Delighter.

“My horse was going real good until the running started,” said Gary Stevens of Delighter. “When the running started, the track started getting away from her. She didn’t handle the turf course. She was bobbling all the way.”

Today, Delahoussaye rides Saratoga Passage in the $300,000 San Bernardino Handicap. Saratoga Passage couldn’t beat Ruhlmann, another San Bernardino starter, at Santa Anita on March 5, and Lively One is the high weight and pre-race favorite.