Arlington Million : Steinlen Bides His Time, Surges to Victory

Under a jockey who had ridden him only once before, and running because his trainers finally were convinced that he had the stamina to win, Steinlen scored a half-length victory over Lady in Silver in the ninth Arlington Million before a crowd of 30,129 Sunday.

Steinlen, a 6-year-old English-bred owned by Daniel Wildenstein, a Paris art dealer, ran a masterpiece. He came through on the rail under Jose Santos with three-sixteenths of a mile to go to overtake Frosty the Snowman and then held off Lady in Silver and Yankee Affair for a victory worth $600,000.

French import Lady in Silver, ridden by Laffit Pincay and trying to become the first 3-year-old filly to win the Million, finished a half-length ahead of Yankee Affair in a race that was surprisingly devoid of much traffic trouble considering the 13-horse field.

Yankee Affair, with Pat Day aboard, was a head better than El Senor, the fourth-place finisher. The rest of the order of finish was Kefaah, Frosty the Snowman, Pleasant Variety, Great Communicator, Fijar Tango, Nasr el Arab, River Warden, Pay the Butler and Shady Heights. Frankly Perfect, who had suffered from a cough and a slight temperature since arriving here from California a week ago, was scratched.

Despite having been the morning-line favorite, Steinlen was the third choice in the betting and paid $12.60, $7 and $4.60. Lady in Silver, who went off at 23-1, paid $18.60 and $9, and Yankee Affair, at 13-1, returned $7.60. The $2 perfecta on Steinlen and Lady in Silver paid $342.20 and a $2 bet for those who picked the first three finishers in order was worth $2,338.40.

The grass at Arlington International Racecourse was listed as firm, but the rain earlier in the weekend still made the going slightly spongy. Steinlen’s time of 2:03 3/5 for the 1 1/4 miles was the second slowest in the history of the race.

None of the first three finishers was originally eligible for the race, according to the list of invitees issued by an international board of handicappers 10 days ago, but they moved up from an also-eligible list when there were several defections.

Steinlen wasn’t nominated to run in the Million, costing Wildenstein a $50,000 penalty for the privilege of running and becoming the first supplementary nomination to win the stake. Yankee Affair was also a $50,000 supplementary. Horses originally nominated and kept eligible by their owners through a series of payments were able to run for a fee of $18,000 apiece.

The Million was the first time Steinlen had ever been extended to 1 1/4 miles. All of his 14 victories in 32 previous starts had been at shorter distances. He ran second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs last year and was being pointed for the same race this year, in November at Gulfstream Park.

But at Saratoga three weeks ago, Steinlen was rated off the pace in the 1 1/8-mile Bernard Baruch Handicap and he rallied in the stretch for an impressive five-length victory.

“He was more relaxed in that race and showed us he might be able to get the extra distance,” assistant trainer Jeff Lukas said after the Million. Lukas won two races while saddling Steinlen at Saratoga for his father, Wayne, and Jeff also handled the assignment here while Wayne was winning Sunday’s Del Mar Debutante with Rue de Palm.

Santos rode Steinlen for the first time in the Baruch. Angel Cordero, who had ridden Steinlen in his previous race, was committed to ride Dancing Spree, and Santos was freed to ride Steinlen when his regular mount, Equalize, didn’t run in the Baruch.

Equalize, second in last year’s Million, was one of the horses from the invited list who didn’t run Sunday, enabling Steinlen to participate.

“We were surprised that we weren’t invited originally,” Jeff Lukas said. “I think a lot of people were surprised, because this horse has had excellent form for the last two years. I think the consensus was that he should have been included, and his performance emphasized that today.”

There was not an abundance of early speed in the Million. Steinlen broke on top, but Santos got him to relax and after about 40 yards Jorge Velasquez reluctantly went to the front with Frosty the Snowman, the second betting choice behind the entry of Nasr el Arab and River Warden, who went off at 3- 1.

Down the backstretch, setting slow fractions, Frosty the Snowman continued to lead by about three lengths, with Great Communicator, Steinlen and Lady in Silver staying within striking distance.

On the far turn, Frosty the Snowman continued to lead, and then he and Lady in Silver twice exchanged positions, with the filly gaining a fleeting lead at the top of the stretch. All the while, Santos kept Steinlen on the fence, content with his position.

“I knew No. 10 (Frosty the Snowman) gets out, that he tires,” Santos said. “I was pretty sure I’d be able to get inside or outside of him when I wanted to. At the half-mile pole, I had said to myself that I wouldn’t move, because I was in the short part of the track where I could win the race.”

Frosty the Snowman did move off the fence as Steinlen moved through, and the head-on tape of the stretch run showed that the winner had more room to accelerate than it appeared from the stands.

“I hit my horse twice left-handed and he opened up about a three-quarter-length lead,” Santos said.

Velasquez thought he would be sitting slightly off Steinlen’s pace in the early going, instead of the other way around.

“It’s hard to go wire to wire on this kind of surface,” Velasquez said. “It was soft. But I think my horse could have led all the way if he just relaxed, but he didn’t. He wouldn’t come to me the way horses do when they get the lead and then relax. He fought me, and used himself up.”

Pincay, riding Lady in Silver for the first time, felt good through the stretch.

“She just flew in the stretch,” he said. “I thought she would win. She never quit and just kept on running.”

Lady in Silver earned $200,000 for second and Yankee Affair, a $10,000 purchase ridden by Pat Day, earned $110,000. Day had won a couple of stakes with Yankee Affair in New Jersey earlier this summer.

Yankee Affair appeared to hang in the final yards, although Day didn’t think so. “We were going the fastest of all at the end, but we just ran out of ground,” Day said. “We got floated wide at the top of the stretch, and that cost us some ground.”

Pat Valenzuela rode Nasr el Arab, winner of the Strub and the San Juan Capistrano at Santa Anita this year. Nasr el Arab made his first start since a fifth-place finish in the Hollywood Gold Cup nine weeks ago.

“We definitely had trouble,” Valenzuela said. “I checked (restrained) him (because of traffic) the first time past the stands and then we had to check again on the last turn.”

Wildenstein sent Steinlen to the Lukas barn in December of 1987. The son of Habitat and Southern Seas, a Jim French mare, seldom runs a dull race. Last year, he had six wins, four seconds and a third in 13 starts and this year he has five wins, four seconds and a third in nine tries, with Sunday’s performance increasing his earnings to $1.8 million.

Going into the race, Jeff Lukas was confident that Steinlen would be among the first three.

“This horse is a tryer,” Lukas said. “When he gets hooked, he seldom gets beat. Once there was room for him to get through, I knew he would get by Frosty the Snowman.”