Haskell Handicap : Record Start Helps King Glorious Win Easily Despite Inglorious Finish

Asked if King Glorious can carry his speed farther than 1 1/8 miles, jockey Chris McCarron said that he isn’t sure.

King Glorious, absent from the Triple Crown races because of a healing knee, added to his near-perfect record Saturday, winning the $500,000 Haskell Invitational Handicap by three lengths before a Monmouth Park crowd of 26,740.

Nine 3-year-olds chased King Glorious around the track, in much the way nine horses pursued him in the Ohio Derby--also at 1 1/8 miles--at Thistledown six weeks ago.

Music Merci, another California-based horse who finished second to King Glorious in last December’s Hollywood Juvenile, was second again, by a neck over Shy Tom. Rampart Road ran fourth, another 1 1/4 lengths back. Next were Le Voyageur, Arcadia Falls, Mercedes Won, Bio, Halo Hansom and Seattle Glow.

King Glorious, who has been favored in every race he has run, won for the eighth time in nine starts and earned $300,000 for his owners, Ted Aroney of Carlsbad and Alan Magerman of Philadelphia. Aroney bought King Glorious’ dam, Glorious Natalie, for $6,700 when she was in foal to Naevus, and the owner bought King Glorious back for $6,500 when bidding stopped on the colt at a California yearling sale.

King Glorious’ earnings now are nearly $1.2 million. His only loss came in May at Golden Gate Fields, where Avenging Force beat him by 1 1/4 lengths going 1 1/16 miles.

While King Glorious only toyed with his opponents Saturday, his winning time was a dull 1:49 4/5, the slowest Haskell in 11 years despite sunny weather. The time was three seconds slower than Spend a Buck’s track record.

King Glorious’ owners and his trainer, Jerry Hollendorfer, left open the prospect of challenging Easy Goer, the winner of the Belmont and leading 3- year-old in the country, in the 1 1/4-mile Travers at Saratoga on Aug. 19. McCarron said that he would like to see King Glorious try to stretch out another eighth of a mile in the Travers.

After running the fastest opening half-mile (:45 2/5) and the second-fastest opening six furlongs (1:09 3/5) in Haskell history, King Glorious lost half of a six-length lead by running the final eighth of a mile in :13 4/5.

McCarron hit King Glorious four times right-handed and once left-handed through the stretch.

“I was surprised he slowed down,” McCarron said. “He was getting late toward the end. But that really doesn’t tell me anything about the horse. I’ve compared this horse to Precisionist a lot, and I remember what he did in 1984.

“In the Silver Screen (a 1 1/8-mile race at Hollywood Park), Precisionist just stopped (and finished third). I thought Ross Fenstermaker (Precisionist’s trainer) was nuts to run him back at 1 1/4 miles in the Swaps a couple of weeks later, but then he won the race by 12 lengths (actually, it was 10). So what I’m saying is that you never know with horses.”

Leaving the gate, Music Merci made the lead under Gary Stevens. King Glorious, breaking from the No. 7 post, was outside in third place, also behind Mercedes Won, going around the clubhouse turn. Leaving the turn, however, King Glorious pushed McCarron to the lead, a lead that was one or two lengths down the backside until they opened up on the far turn.

“The race track is speed biased, and I wanted to stay in the race,” Stevens said. “I rushed him pretty good out of the gate, whereas I usually just let him settle into a race. He never really seemed comfortable down the backstretch, never settled into stride, because he didn’t like me pushing on him like that. At the end, I saw Chris let out a notch, and I knew there was no chance of catching his horse.”

King Glorious, carrying high weight of 123 pounds, three more than Music Merci, paid $3.40, $2.60 and $2.20. Music Merci returned $3.80 and $3.20 and Shy Tom paid $3.40. A $2 exacta on King Glorious and Music Merci was worth $9.60.

The French-based Le Voyageur ran a creditable third behind Easy Goer and Sunday Silence in the Belmont. But as the 2-1 second choice Saturday, the son of Seattle Slew and Davona Dale was beaten by almost seven lengths.

His trainer, Patrick-Louis Biancone, took the blame. “I didn’t have him fit for this race,” Biancone said. “He had too much rest. He had not too much rest for the Belmont, but too much for this race. But of course, I really brought him here with the idea of getting him ready for the next one (the Travers).”

McCarron rode seven other races on the Haskell program and won two. In the $35,000 Ocean Hotel Stakes, the race that preceded the Haskell, McCarron rode Brown Rice to victory by a neck.

Earlier, McCarron lost the $35,000 Battlefield Stakes by a neck as Crystal Moment edged out My Babys Fast. Stevens rode Crystal Moment.