38-1 Longshot Wins the San Jacinto Handicap

Santa Anita’s controversial season of fitful grass racing came to an end on Monday afternoon with longshot Master Treaty scoring an appropriate 38-1 upset in the featured $111,450 San Jacinto Handicap.

An hour later, the heavy machinery was on the move, scraping the much-maligned course to its base in preparation for a front-lawn project you wouldn’t wish on your worst neighbor.

In the next three months, Santa Anita will spend more than $3 million on 30,000 tons of sand, 7,500 tons of gravel and 10 acres of United States Golf Assn.-approved Bermuda tiff green sod to end the nightmare of the 1989 meeting, when major grass racing became a little too much of an adventure.

Darrell Vienna, trainer of the Canadian-bred gelding Master Treaty, is equally glad the ’89 meeting is history. The San Jacinto was Vienna’s last opportunity to salvage a crumb from the rich stakes schedule, and even he gave his horse a slim chance to win.

“What a surprise,” Vienna said after Master Treaty’s half-length victory over Silent Prince. “I really didn’t have very high hopes going in.”

Three days before the race, Vienna didn’t even have a rider.

“They aren’t exactly lining up for him,” Vienna said.

“Sure they are,” countered Vienna’s assistant, Greg Otteson. “I heard a couple guys got in a fight over him.”

Not likely. In his two California appearances, the son of English star Master Willie was beaten more than 33 lengths. His San Jacinto opposition included such proven stakes runners as The Medic, Delighter, Vallotton and Wait Till Monday.

By process of elimination, Robbie Davis got the mount and made the most of a fast pace and a choppy, tiring course. The winner came from a distant last to win going away.

“That’s fun, a surprise like that,” said Davis, who came to California in February to pick up the pieces of his career. Davis was aboard the horse that trampled New York jockey Mike Venezia to death last November at Belmont Park. He stayed away from the track for about four months, and for a time considered retirement.

Making a fresh start in California, Davis won 28 races at the Santa Anita meeting, good enough for 11th place in the standings behind champion Laffit Pincay, who won 110 to take his 13th local title.

“I’m tickled to death,” Davis said of his success. “I didn’t come here with the intention to ride that many horses. I really thought I’d be scraping to get mounts.”

Vienna had a respectable 19 winners, although the San Jacinto was his first stakes victory at Santa Anita in more than 15 months. He finished nine victories behind the meet’s leading trainer, Gary Jones.

“You would not believe how many horses I’ve had get sick or injured here,” Vienna said. “As for Master Treaty, he bled significantly in his last race, so he got Lasix (a permitted diuretic) today and I’m sure that made most of the difference.”

Master Treaty, owned by Thomas and Cathryn Joy of Pasadena and Austin Taylor of Toronto, ran the 1 1/4 miles in 2:01 3/5 to give Vienna his third San Jacinto victory. He paid $79.40, $23.40 and $7.40, and triggered a $1,425.50 exacta to runner-up Silent Prince, a New Zealander making his first North American start. The Medic, who won the race last year and was favored at 11-10, finished third.

A crowd of 31,595 was on hand for the last Santa Anita program, boosting the final on-site average attendance for the 91-day meeting to 25,463. That figure was 6.8% below last year’s average.

Betting was up, but only by 2%. The average daily take--which includes eight off-track sites--was $7,267,533. A total of $654,077,964 was bet during the meet, a California record.

The handle--and Santa Anita’s prestige--suffered considerably during a siege of cold, wet January weather when the grass course became unusable.

“The problem was drainage,” said plant superintendent Clint Granath. “The water would not penetrate far enough into the sand base, and the grass would only take root as far as the water went.”

Horse Notes

Trainer Thad Ackel reports that Great Communicator emerged unscathed from his disappointing sixth in Sunday’s San Juan Capistrano. “He acted just like he did after his bad race in the Arlington Million last year,” Ackel said Monday. “It was as if he never ran at all.” . . . Bill Shoemaker did not have a mount in the San Jacinto, so he will take up his pursuit of stakes win No. 1,000 on Wednesday at Hollywood Park when he rides Basic Exchange in the Debonair Stakes . . . First post for Hollywood’s opener Wednesday is 1:30 p.m.