HORSE RACING SANTA ANITA - McAnally Has Shot at Three-Bagger

Laz Barrera and Wayne Lukas share honors for the best one-day performances by a thoroughbred trainer.

In 1976, Barrera won the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs with Bold Forbes, and on the same day he had assistant trainers scattered across the country winning the Carter Handicap with Due Diligence at Aqueduct and the Illinois Derby with Life’s Hope at Sportsman’s Park.

Last year, Lukas pulled a major-race training triple at Churchill Downs in the Breeders’ Cup, winning the Sprint with Gulch, the Juvenile Fillies with Open Mind and the Juvenile with Is It True.

Ron McAnally won’t be able to match Barrera and Lukas today, but before the weekend is over, the 57-year-old trainer could come pretty close to a record of his own.

Today, McAnally is running Hawkster at Santa Anita in the $500,000 Oak Tree Invitational and Bayakoa at Keeneland in the $250,000 Spinster, which has been a popular springboard for fillies and mares that wind up winning the Breeders’ Cup.

Sunday at Santa Anita, McAnally fires a couple of shots in the $200,000 Norfolk for 2-year-olds, running Single Dawn and Hero Worker against five opponents.

McAnally hasn’t been happier since his days with John Henry, the durable gelding who won two horse-of-the-year titles and three consecutive Oak Tree Invitationals starting in 1980.

In Hawkster, he has the winner of last year’s Norfolk and a horse trying to become only the third 3-year-old to win the Oak Tree since it was first run in 1969.

Hawkster had the look of a horse who would never win another race--he failed in six tries on dirt as a 3-year-old--when McAnally converted him to grass this summer at Del Mar. He won two stakes at the seaside track, then went to Arlington to win by a nose over Chenin Blanc, who had a nine-pound weight advantage, in the Secretariat Stakes. The Secretariat was 1 1/4 miles, a quarter-mile shorter than today’s stake.

Although Drag Race, the winner of the Del Mar Futurity, is also running in the Norfolk, there is a growing suspicion that Single Dawn is the best 2-year-old in training in California now, and the Jack Kent Cooke-owned entry of Single Dawn and Hero Worker may go off the favorite Sunday. Single Dawn ran third, about 2 1/2 lengths behind Drag Race, at Del Mar, but the son of Grey Dawn II would have needed a kamikaze pilot, not a jockey, to get through the traffic.

Here’s the Norfolk field with jockeys: Single Dawn, Laffit Pincay; Express It, Gary Stevens; Grand Canyon, Chris McCarron; Ash Hap, Alex Solis; Drag Race, Martin Pedroza; Due to the King, Corey Nakatani, and Hero Worker, Eddie Delahoussaye.

All will carry 118 pounds. A supplementary fee of $10,000 had to be paid to make Express It eligible for the 1 1/16-mile race.

In a six-horse field at Keeneland, the attention will be on the California rivals, Bayakoa and Goodbye Halo, who have met five times, with Bayakoa winning four. The last time, however, Goodbye Halo was the winner at Del Mar, with Bayakoa finishing last as the 7-10 favorite.

Horse Racing Notes

Dominant Dancer, winner of the Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita last Monday, suffered a shin injury in the race, eliminating her from the Breeders’ Cup. There’s an outside chance she might run in the Hollywood Starlet on Dec. 3. . . . Bill Shoemaker, who has won the Invitational eight times, rides Pasakos today.

Brown Bess, winner of the California Jockey Club Handicap at Bay Meadows, is skipping the Breeders’ Cup and may run in the Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita Nov. 12. . . . Jim Peden, director of publicity at Hollywood Park, is joining the Jockey Club in Lexington, Ky., and will be replaced by Jack Disney, a sportswriter with the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.