Racing at Woodbine : Top Prize in Million to California’s Prized

All day long in the Woodbine turf club, Jonathan Block, 9, buried his head in the Daily Racing Form, picking a decent share of winners for his father, who was celebrating his 61st birthday.

When Sunday’s ninth race at Woodbine rolled around, however, Lou Block’s son didn’t need the Form. Naturally his pick would be Prized, the 3-year-old California invader that his father, an importer/exporter from Rancho Santa Fe, was running with Barbara LaCroix, a 50% owner, and several other partners.

The Form would have told young Jonathan that Clever Trevor, the Oklahoma gelding running his 10th race of the year at his eighth track, was the horse that figured in the second running of the Molson Export Million.

The crowd of 15,143 made Clever Trevor about a 1-2 favorite, but he was badly beaten, and at the finish Prized had captured the top prize--about $510,000 American--for overtaking Charlie Barley in the final strides and scoring a half-length victory.

Charlie Barley finished 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Domasca Dan, a former $32,000 claimer who beat Clever Trevor, the fourth-place horse, by 4 1/2 lengths. Mercedes Won ran fifth, beating Doc’s Leader, Pause Again and Toledo Salamanca in the eight-horse field.

Prized carried 123 pounds, three less than the top-weighted Clever Trevor and Mercedes Won, and as the second choice paid $6.90, $5.10 and $6.50 for running 1 1/4 miles in an excellent 2:02, fourth-fifths of a second slower than the track record. Charlie Barley paid $9.30 and $7.20 and Domasca Dan paid $5.50.

For Eddie Delahoussaye, who has been knocking around airports for the last week or so without getting a stakes horse to ride, Prized was his first win in a $1-million race since his victory with Princess Rooney, another Neil Drysdale trainee, in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Hollywood Park in 1984.

“It was good not to have made the long trip for nothing,” Delahoussaye said. He flew into Chicago last weekend, only to learn that Frankly Perfect, his mount in the Arlington Million, was too sick to run, and after hurrying back to Del Mar the same day, he was stuck with another stakes horse that was scratched. Delahoussaye was also handed a week-long suspension by the Del Mar stewards and Sunday was his first day back.

Prized and Delahoussaye didn’t have a picture trip in the Molson. They broke from the inside post, Prized was tentative going into the first turn and going down the backstretch they were in fifth place, about six or seven lengths off the lead and pinned against the rail. Delahoussaye would have preferred a spot on the outside.

Don Pettinger, as expected, had Clever Trevor on the lead, but Domasca Dan, under Sandy Hawley, was at his throat with every step. The fractions were: 46 2/5 for the half-mile and and 1:10 3/5 for three-quarters.

On the far turn, Prized was full of run but still trapped. There were horses in front of him and just to the right was Charlie Barley, ridden by Robin Platts. At the top of the stretch, Delahoussaye tried to squeeze Prized through a small opening between Clever Trevor and Charlie Barley, but the hole was too tight, too fleeting.

“Platts had me trapped for a while,” Delahoussaye said. “But I think he used up his horse some in doing that. There was no foul, he was just race riding and he had me legitimate. Before I got too far into that hole, I eased back and got out. Then I came around and the colt kicked in.”

Charlie Barley, fourth after a mile, took the lead in mid-stretch. Prized gradually wore him down inside the sixteenth pole, then loafed a bit after he made the lead, making the finish deceptively close.

Clever Trevor had won the St. Paul Derby and the Arlington Classic and was second to Easy Goer in the Travers in his three races before Sunday.

“If he ran any of his last three races back, he should have won,” Pettinger said. “He didn’t have to go that hard (early) for him to tire the way he did.”

Prized, a son of Kris S. and My Turbulent Miss, a stakes-winning mare by My Dad George, had run two seconds and beat maidens at Calder before the Clover Racing Stables bought half of him from LaCroix and syndicated him among several partners for $200,000. Three of the partners also own an interest in Martial Law, who won this year’s $1-million Santa Anita Handicap. Clover is believed to be the first stable to win two $1-million races in the same year, with the exception of Breeders’ Cup races. The Molson victory was Prized’s fifth in nine starts, along with two seconds and two thirds, and increased his earnings to $944,000.

The Molson was Prized’s first start since he upset Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Sunday Silence in the Swaps at Hollywood Park six weeks ago. Sunday Silence stopped running the last sixteenth of a mile and his trainer, Charlie Whittingham, blamed jockey Pat Valenzuela for an ill-timed ride. It was widely perceived that Sunday Silence had lost a race rather than Prized winning one.

“Charlie’s a great guy, but he’s a pretty good crybaby when he loses,” said Barry Irwin, one of the managers of Clover racing. “I think the Swaps was a combination of him running Sunday Silence back too soon (after the Triple Crown) and our horse being ready to win.”

Irwin said that the $1-million Super Derby at Louisiana Downs on Sept. 24 is a possibility, although Drysdale is leaning toward running in the $1- million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Oct. 7.