Bel Air Handicap : Rahy Flirts With World Record, Settles for Win

The world record that has withstood the years has been Dr. Fager’s 1:32 1/5 mile, set when the 4-year-old ran at Arlington Park in 1968.

On Sunday at Hollywood Park, another 4-year-old colt, the expensive, well-bred Rahy, won the $317,200 Bel Air Handicap by 10 lengths, and after they ran the mile in 1:33, jockey Gary Stevens said that Dr. Fager’s record is within reach.

“If I had asked him hard from the quarter pole, I truly believe that he would have broken the world’s record,” Stevens said of Rahy, who cost his owner, Dubai defense minister Mohammed Maktoum, $2 million at the Keeneland auctions in 1986.

Stevens only showed Rahy his whip, he didn’t use it, and under 117 pounds the stocky Blushing Groom-Glorious Song colt dominated the Bel Air, with Hot Operator finishing second in the five-horse field and Ruhlmann, the 9-10 favorite, running third, 13 lengths behind the winner before a crowd of 29,908.

Rahy missed Greinton’s track record, set in 1985, by two-fifths of a second, and Jon White’s chart footnotes for the Daily Racing Form supported Stevens’ world-record speculation. In part, they read: “ . . . (Rahy) continued drawing off in the final furlong, was taken in hand in the last sixteenth (of a mile) when he had a commanding advantage, drifted in to nearly brush the inner rail in deep stretch and most likely could have won by a larger margin.”

Running on his own, Rahy cruised past the leaders, Super Surgeon and Mi Preferido, at the start of the far turn and all Stevens had to do was accompany him the rest of the way. Super Surgeon ran the first half-mile in 44 seconds before finishing last and Rahy’s six-furlong time was 1:08 3/5--three-fifths of a second slower than the track record--before he covered the final quarter of a mile in :24 2/5.

Feeling no pressure from Stevens, Rahy seemed only mildly interested through the stretch.

“He was gawking at the grandstand before we got to the sixteenth pole,” Stevens said. “Then he jumped (the shadow from) the mirror at the first finish line. I had to holler at him to get him running again.”

The second betting choice, Rahy earned $182,200 and paid $4.60, $2.80 and $2.20. Hot Operator paid $4.80 and $2.40 and Ruhlmann, who has two consecutive losses after starting the year with three straight stakes victories, paid $2.10.

This was Rahy’s fourth U.S. start and his third victory. He ran for trainer Neil Drysdale for the first time in May at Hollywood Park and finished fourth the last time he ran on grass. He won at 1 1/16 miles at Golden Gate Fields after that, then returned to Hollywood to win by five lengths with a 1:33 4/5 mile in an overnight handicap two weeks ago.

In England in seven well-spaced races over two years, Rahy won three times at sprinting distances, but seldom ran in top company.

He was flown to the United States on a plane that was filled with coughing horses when it landed, and that accounted for Rahy’s slow start under Drysdale.

Drysdale, who was in Kentucky Sunday looking at horses in the Keeneland sales, doesn’t normally run his horses in races as close together as Rahy’s last start and the Bel Air.

“He came out of that last race well, and he was doing good,” said Erwan Charpy, Drysdale’s assistant trainer. “We had to do very little with him between races. That last race was easy for him, and that’s why we thought he might be ready for this big step.”

Stevens was scheduled to ride another horse in Rahy’s previous race, but he got on the colt after Drysdale approached him.

“Neil just said he was a nice horse,” Stevens said. “Maybe he didn’t know how good he was. But he handled that race like a professional. He got hooked by another horse on the inside, and he still finished fast.”

Horse Racing Notes

Gary Stevens also won the $63,400 Bastille Day Handicap at Hollywood Park Sunday with Art Work, who had only beaten maidens in seven previous races. Art Work, like Rahy, is a grandson of Halo, and he paid $7.60 to win after beating favored Live the Dream by one length. . . . Stevens compares Rahy to a quarter horse. “He’s short, but he’s well put together and has a big rear end,” the jockey said. “He’s got a long stride and a real fluid motion.”

Trainer Charlie Whittingham had no explanation for Ruhlmann’s second straight dull performance, but Laffit Pincay, his jockey, suggested that the colt might be hurting. “When he got to the wire, I had nothing left,” Pincay said. “He wasn’t putting out at all. So, something is bothering him, because that’s not his race. When I let him break, those other horses outran me and I couldn’t get any closer in the first part or I would have.” . . . Pincay won three of the first four races Sunday and has a 14-victory lead over Chris McCarron with six racing days left. . . . Antonio Castanon’s 16-year-old brother, Jesus, rode his first American winner in his fourth mount when Yankee Hostess scored a $45.80 upset in the second race. . . . Chris McCarron is six wins away from his 5,000th career victory.