San Bernardino Handicap : Pincay Picks Up Ruhlmann, Wins Stakes Race

The feeling was mutual--and, after the running of the $320,600 San Bernardino Handicap, it also was mutuel. Trainer Charlie Whittingham was as happy about obtaining Laffit Pincay for one of his horses as Pincay was to be riding Ruhlmann in a rich stakes race.

With Pincay replacing the ailing Pat Valenzuela, Ruhlmann showed Sunday that he is more than a miler by winning the 1 1/8-mile San Bernardino by 1 1/4 lengths, with Whittingham’s other starter in the six-horse field, Lively One, finishing second before a crowd of 45,322.

Ruhlmann broke the track record in his last start, running a mile in 1:33 2/5, but the 4-year-old colt had won only once in his career beyond a mile, so the bettors sent him off the 5-2 second choice, with Lively One favored at 7-5.

Lively One, carrying high weight of 120 pounds, a pound more than Ruhlmann, finished ahead of Saratoga Passage, the third-place horse, by 3 1/2 lengths. The mutuel payoffs were $7, $3.40 and $3.20 for Ruhlmann, $2.60 and $2.40 for Lively One and $3.40 for Saratoga Passage.

Robbie Davis rode Lively One for Whittingham for the second straight race, after winning with the colt on March 18, another day when Valenzuela called in sick and missed a winning mount.

“Pat was at the track and left when he said he started throwing up,” steward Pete Pedersen said Sunday. “We’ll take a look at a doctor’s report regarding this absence. He seems to be getting sick at the worst time, on days when he’s scheduled to ride important horses.”

Valenzuela has been riding well. Going into late March, his mounts had earned $1.5 million this year, which ranked him eighth nationally.

Whittingham’s barn is bulging with stakes horses and Valenzuela is scheduled to ride Sunday Silence, another of the trainer’s talented colts, who will be one of the favorites in next Sunday’s Santa Anita Derby.

Before the San Bernardino, Whittingham said that Valenzuela was still the rider for Sunday Silence, but added: “If he doesn’t ride him, there are plenty of other good riders around. He’s got the call on the horse, but then he had the call for me last time (with Lively One) and wasn’t here, just like today.”

When Pincay’s agent, Tony Matos, heard that Valenzuela was sick Sunday, he called Whittingham and got the mount that gave the jockey his 14th stakes victory of the season, one more than Eddie Delahoussaye.

“Nice pickup,” Pincay said of Ruhlmann. “I found out that I’d ride him about the sixth race (an hour before the San Bernardino).”

Pincay had never ridden Ruhlmann before. The colt, who began his career in France before record executive Jerry Moss bought him, won the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows early last year, then didn’t run another good race for almost seven months. He bled while running eighth as the favorite in the Florida Derby, then was eighth in the Santa Anita Derby before clipping another horse’s heels and falling in the California Derby.

“He never had a serious problem as bleeder,” Moss said. “We ran him twice in New York (where anti-bleeding medication is prohibited) and he won both races there last fall.”

Shortly after a ninth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs in November, Moss transferred Ruhlmann from Bobby Frankel’s barn to Whittingham. Pay the Butler, winner of last year’s Japan Cup for Moss, also went from Frankel to Whittingham.

“My operation has gotten a lot bigger,” Moss said. “For example, I’ve got 18 or 19 mares that I’m breeding now. Bobby was the titular head of all that, and he did a good job. But I was looking for different ideas, different information.”

Ruhlmann’s record mile came in his first start for Whittingham.

“I brought him along slowly,” Whittingham said. “A lot of horses improve when they turn four. He wasn’t overly campaigned at three and with age, I think he settled down a lot.”

Ruhlmann was wet in the paddock, which is not unusual. He broke on top and raced comfortably ahead of Good Taste for three-quarters of a mile, with Triteamtri, the second-place finisher in the Santa Anita Handicap, in third. Good Taste finished fourth and Triteamtri finished last with his jockey, Gary Stevens, suspecting that he bled from the lungs. Frankel trains both Saratoga Passage and Triteamtri.

Lively One was about 10 lengths back going down the backstretch, but by the time the field reached the eighth pole, Whittingham could head for the winner’s circle, because one of his two horses was certain to be represented there. Lively One came rolling out of the far turn, but his stablemate had too big of a lead.

“This is a strong, strong horse,” Davis said of Lively One. “He must be one of the best in the country.”

Ruhlmann was clocked in 1:47 1/5. The Mr. Leader-Indian Maiden colt gave Whittingham his 10th win in the San Bernardino and the latest victory kind of figured. Whittingham won the stake in every odd-numbered year of this decade.

Horse Racing Notes

Besides Sunday Silence, other probables for the Santa Anita Derby are Houston, Music Merci, Hawkster, Flying Continental and Mr. Bolg, who won his second race in eight starts against allowance company on March 10. . . . Barmera, another horse Pat Valenzuela was scheduled to ride Sunday, won the fifth race under Martin Pedroza. . . . James Corral left Santa Anita on crutches after a horse reared in the paddock before the fourth race and fell on him. X-rays of his right knee were negative and the jockey will be examined again Tuesday.

Trainer Wayne Lukas won his fifth stake in three days Sunday when Surging captured the Comely for 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct. . . . Lukas’ other winners were Imaginary Lady and Manastash Ridge at Oaklawn Park, Open Mind at Laurel and Seattle Smooth at Golden Gate Fields. . . . At the Fair Grounds Sunday, Exclusive Partner, trained by Richard Mandella and ridden by Fernando Toro, won the Gold Cup Handicap.

Alyone, considered the best prospect owners Dorothy and Clarence Scharbauer and trainer Jack Van Berg had for the Kentucky Derby, is no longer a contender after running eighth and fifth at Santa Anita in his only two starts. The Scharbauers, who won the 1987 Derby with Alysheba, another son of Alydar, did have a winner Sunday when Prince Colony, another 3-year-old, made his second start and beat maidens in the sixth race. . . . Belle Poitrine, who had to be pulled up by Pedroza in Saturday’s Santa Barbara Handicap, suffered a minor knee injury when she hit the rail.