Drag Race Finally Gets a Break : Long Shot Rallies in Stretch to Win Del Mar Futurity

Halfway through Wednesday’s $372,100 Del Mar Futurity, Drag Race was in trouble again.

It was nothing new for the dark brown gelding, whose recent races had been marked by one disaster after another. His trainer, Steve Miyadi, was up in the stands, thinking to himself, “Oh no. Not again.”

“I had run out of excuses,” said Miyadi, who was 0 for 12 at the beginning of Del Mar’s closing day. “No one was going to believe me anymore about this horse.”

This time, however, Drag Race proved good enough to overcome even his own bad luck. With Futurity long-shot specialist Frank Olivares in the saddle, Drag Race ran down the tenacious filly Rue de Palm to win the one-mile event by 2 1/2 lengths at odds of 13-1.

Rue de Palm held on for second, a neck ahead of the fast-closing Single Dawn, who had enough trouble of his own to keep jockey Alex Solis up nights for a week.

But if any horse deserved a break, it was Drag Race. The Kentucky-bred son of Darby Creek Road had run in five races before the Futurity, winning once for a $50,000 claiming price and running in the money in three stakes, most recently a second in the Aug. 23 Balboa Stakes.

In each of those stakes placings, fraught with traffic problems, Miyadi became more and more convinced that not only did he have a very nice young horse, he was also the only one left who believed it.

“Just me and Frankie kept the faith,” said Miyadi, a former assistant to Mike Mitchell. “I had people asking, ‘Where you running him next? For $50,000?’ I’d tell them I was pointing for the Futurity and they’d just look at me.”

Drag Race and seven other Futurity entrants were supplemented at a late fee of $10,000, making its total purse the largest ever offered at Del Mar. With 12 running, the winner stood to earn $241,600.

Although the race appeared wide open, fans went for the Wayne Lukas-trained entry of Rue de Palm, Sanford Stakes winner Bite the Bullet and the $1.25-million Nevada, sending them off at 4-5. Jack Kent Cooke’s Single Dawn, making only the third start of his career, was second choice at 4-1.

Graduation Stakes winner Chime Song broke quickly from his No. 11 post and led the field into the first turn. Rue de Palm cruised along in second, getting a trip reminiscent of her impressive score in the Sept. 3 Del Mar Debutante. After a quarter of a mile, Drag Race had only two horses beaten.

Olivares began his move on the backstretch, but he found himself behind a wall of horses at the half-mile marker.

“The last thing I wanted to do was drive him up in there and then get stopped again,” said Olivares, who won the 1977 Futurity aboard the 71-1 shot Go West Young Man.

“So I just eased him back a little and went around,” the jockey went on. “He never broke stride.”

Of course, it looked a lot worse to Miyadi.

“Looking back, Frank made the right move,” he said. “But my first reaction was, ‘Well, maybe everyone will see his trouble today.’ ”

Olivares let Single Dawn sweep past on the outside and then followed the tall chestnut into the final turn. With three furlongs remaining, Drag Race took off and swung around Single Dawn, setting his sights on the leaders.

As Drag Race rambled past, Single Dawn was stopped cold by retreating horses who had been burned out on the pace.

“I tried to go between horses and was shut off,” Solis said. “He’s such a big horse, it took him a sixteenth of a mile to get in gear again.”

Single Dawn did well to make it close for second, but he was no threat to Drag Race.

“I get on this horse in the mornings when he works,” Olivares said of the winner. “He’s always shown me a lot. It was just a matter of finally getting lucky.”

Drag Race paid $28.80, $7.40 and $5.20. The Lukas entry returned $2.80 and $2.40, and Single Dawn paid $3.40. Drag Race ran the mile in 1:35 2/5, the same as Music Merci’s clocking last year.

“I was the underbidder on Music Merci,” noted Miyadi, who purchased Drag Race at California’s 2-year-old sale in March for $21,000. “Of course, people don’t usually believe you when you say that.”

Miyadi bought Drag Race for Kazumasa Yano, a Japanese bloodstock agent and thoroughbred farm manager.

“He’s my kind of owner,” Miyadi said. “First he let me buy this horse, then he let me geld him the next day. We weren’t after a stallion for that kind of money. We wanted a racehorse.”

They got one, but it took awhile for Drag Race’s luck to catch up with his ability.

Horse Racing Notes

Ron McAnally wrapped up his second Del Mar training title early Wednesday when Flippable won the third race. McAnally edged Wayne Lukas and Charlie Whittingham with a total of 17 wins. . . . The percentage leaders of the meeting were Bill Spawr (11 for 43) and Dave Hofmans (8 for 30), both at 26%. . . . Eddie Delahoussaye won two races closing day to win his first Del Mar title, 44-42, edging Laffit Pincay. . . . Survive won the $60,750 June Darling Stakes, the closing-day supporting feature. . . . Jack Wood, who has been Chris McCarron’s valet for the last 10 years, has polished his last boot. Wood retired at the end of the Del Mar meet, but he will stay active by training a few horses. . . . Also retiring was color man Frank Smothers, who has kept thousands of racing silks straight for the past 20 years. Smothers’ most cherished souvenir is the cap Bill Shoemaker wore when he broke John Longden’s record for most winners in 1970. . . . Del Mar became the first meeting of the inter-track betting era to post an increase in on-site attendance, up almost 3% over 1987 figures. . . . Overall handle was up 9% at $7.3 million a day. On the Line, winner of two stakes, was voted horse of the meeting.