Weekend Racing at Del Mar : To McAnally, Trainer of Bayakoa, There’s No Place Like Home

Rather than fly Bayakoa 3,000 miles to run in New York, trainer Ron McAnally and owner Frank Whitham will keep the mare at Del Mar for today’s $133,700 Chula Vista Handicap.

In passing up the Sept. 9 Maskette Handicap at Belmont Park, McAnally is using the rationale employed by Shug McGaughey, trainer of leading horse-of-the-year candidate Easy Goer. Faced with a choice of shipping his colt or staying in New York, McGaughey has chosen the local race.

“I’d rather lead my horse a hundred yards down the road to run rather than put him on a plane,” McGaughey has said.

McAnally could not agree more. And since Bayakoa is already a favorite for an Eclipse Award, the trainer is grateful for the chance to stay home.

“You always take the worst of it when you ship,” McAnally said. “And sometimes it doesn’t matter if you think you’ve got the best horse. Just look at Easy Goer. Every time they ship out of state, he gets beat.

“This is a crucial point in Bayakoa’s season,” McAnally added. “We’ve got to be extra careful to do the right thing.”

Bayakoa’s first trip outside California is a painful memory for the McAnally stable. Fresh from a victory in her American debut at Hollywood Park in May of 1988, the Argentine mare was sent to Minneapolis to run in the Lady Canterbury Handicap at Canterbury Downs. She led to the stretch, staggered home sixth, and then nearly collapsed from heat exhaustion.

“It was awful,” said Whitham, a rancher-banker from Western Kansas. “The real lowpoint of our time with her.”

Bayakoa is a different mare these days. She has won six of seven starts in 1989, including her last five in a row. One of those was the Apple Blossom Handicap in Arkansas, where the only distraction was the sight of a dogwood in bloom.

“She spooked when saw that big white-blossomed tree in the infield as she came out of the paddock before the race,” McAnally said. “She certainly keeps us on our toes.”

Bayakoa will carry 127 pounds in the 1 1/16-mile Chula Vista, a large impost by today’s lenient standards. More significantly, Bayakoa must spot rival Goodbye Halo seven pounds, and she will be giving the speedy 3-year-old Kool Arrival up to 12 pounds.

Rosadora, Flying Julia and Super Avie complete the field.

On Sunday, McAnally will try to play spoiler with Jack Kent Cooke’s Pay Bird in the Del Mar Debutante for 2-year-old fillies. Ten K, Dominant Dancer, and three from the Wayne Lukas stable head a field of nine going a mile on the main track for a purse of $310,800, richest in Debutante history.

“At least we’ve got a filly who’s won going a mile,” McAnally said. “That’s always an advantage.”

Dominant Dancer might not have competed at a mile, but her Aug. 24 exercise at the Debutante distance was considerably faster than Pay Bird’s winning race. With Laffit Pincay in the saddle, she was timed in 1:36 3/5.

“That’s as fast as I’ve ever seen a 2-year-old filly work,” said veteran clocker and official linemaker Jeff Tufts. “And Laffit wasn’t really asking her to run.”

With five starts and two stakes victories to her credit, Dominant Dancer is a seasoned pro compared to a filly like Ten K. But Ten K has been so compelling in her two lifetime starts that she might be the favorite in the Debutante.

Bred and owned by Leonard Lavin’s Glen Hill Farm, Ten K will be running for the third time in 29 days.

Patches, A Wild Ride and Rue de Palm will try to give Lukas his seventh Debutante in the last eight years. The others in the field are Cheval Volant, Tanya’s Tuition and Annual Reunion.

Don Miller, the Maryland-based jockey who won the 1983 Preakness on Deputed Testamony, got Dominant Dancer for the Debutante when both Delahoussaye and Pincay took mounts the same day in the Arlington Million. Miller has been on a working vacation in Southern California, exploring the possibilities of riding here full time.

In addition to causing jockey shake-ups, the Million also decimated the field for the $300,000 Del Mar Invitational Handicap on Monday. Million participants Frankly Perfect, Nasr el Arab, Pay the Butler and Pleasant Variety all would have run in the local Labor Day race had there been no seven-figure purse luring them to Chicago.

The Invitational, at 1 3/8 miles on the turf, has been left with a field headed by Eddie Read Handicap winner Saratoga Passage and Escondido Handicap winner Brisque. Delahoussaye, who had been riding both, chose Brisque, an Australian gelding trained by Donn Luby.