Opening Day Proves Full of Surprises : Santa Anita: Record crowd of 50,605 sees Pat Valenzuela’s apparent winner disqualified. In feature, Music Merci strikes an unexpected high note.

In his return from a 60-day suspension for a positive drug test, Pat Valenzuela appears on the verge of additional unwanted leave.

Riding for the first time since mid-October, Valenzuela was first under the wire with Flom Tuesday in the opening race of Santa Anita’s 53rd season.

Despite Valenzuela’s triumphant wave of his whip, this was a victory that clearly wasn’t going to stand.

The “Inquiry” sign became lit soon after Flom, the 2-1 favorite, had weaved through the stretch, taking the path of runner-up Ms. Leroy not once, but twice.

After a surprisingly lengthy deliberation by the stewards, Flom was disqualified and placed second. Valenzuela will meet with the stewards Thursday and is expected to get a five-day suspension, beginning Sunday.

Extremely busy on his return--he rode in seven of the nine races--Valenzuela won the fourth, going wire-to-wire on 13-1 shot Mythical Being.

“I feel great,” he said after his last race. “I’m not tired at all. I think I could ride another couple of races.

“I might have got a little excited (on Flom). I didn’t know the filly that well. I didn’t realize (Alex Solis on Ms. Leroy) was in there. Unfortunately, those things happen. I’m just so happy and so excited. It feels good to be back and riding and here every day. I hope the stewards will be a little lenient with a person who’s been away two months and is a little rusty. I know they’ll use their best judgment.”

Valenzuela wasn’t the only one glad to be back. Obviously, horseplayers were also delighted that the scene had shifted from Hollywood Park.

Two days after Hollywood Park closed with a whimper, 50,605 fans showed up at Santa Anita, setting an opening-day record for a non-holiday weekday. The previous high was 49,776 on a Wednesday in 1984.

“It’s really startling,” said Cliff Goodrich, president and chief operating officer of Santa Anita. “It’s a tremendous start. We were expecting in the low 40s and we don’t miss by this much too often. I bet nobody expected us to get 50,000.”

Another 9,407 attended the nine intertrack sites, and the total combined handle was $9,962,791.

After being idle since finishing last in the Del Mar Derby on Aug. 20, Music Merci continued his tradition of running well when fresh, coming on in the final quarter-mile to win the $112,300 Malibu Stakes.

Ridden by Laffit Pincay, the Stop The Music gelding began his rally while wide, took the lead from a tiring Premium Award shortly before the sixteenth pole and won easier than the margin of 1 1/2 lengths would indicate.

By winning for the eighth time in 18 starts, the 2-1 second choice increased his earnings to $1,321,460. The victory should prepare him for the 1 1/8-mile San Fernando Stakes, the middle leg of the Charles H. Strub series.

Music Merci covered the seven furlongs in 1:21 3/5 and might have fooled his trainer, Craig Lewis, who had said he didn’t have Music Merci “fully cranked up.”

Even if he wasn’t at his best, Music Merci was good enough to handle a Malibu field that wasn’t among the finest in race history. Exemplary Leader, a 20-1 shot who also was far back early, rallied for second place, almost two lengths ahead of 34-1 outsider Doncareer.

Bruho, the 2-1 favorite ridden by Corey Black, didn’t make any mistakes but faltered and finished eighth.

“(Music Merci) is such a quality horse that he’s subject to a gigantic effort at any time,” Lewis said. “After the Del Mar Derby, he mostly just needed rest after a rigorous campaign. He’s been at Santa Anita since then.

“We shipped him here from Del Mar, walked him a month, then grazed him in the afternoon, then jogged him and gradually built him up. He’s a little stronger, there’s more muscle to him and he’s a little more relaxed.”

Pincay, who has committed to ride Music Merci for the remainder of the Strub series, was impressed with the mount he picked up after Gary Stevens had switched to Navajo Storm, who was held out of the Malibu by trainer Jack Van Berg.

“He’s got a lot of class,” Pincay said of Music Merci. “He broke real well. There wasn’t a lot of speed to worry about, so I didn’t want to rush him. I sat still, and he dropped back. When he made his move, I knew he would get there.

“The last sixteenth, I wasn’t getting into him. I knew he had it won and I never had to ask him. It was a good race for him.”

Bruho, fitted with blinkers again after throwing Pincay in the On Trust Handicap last month, was well-positioned in the Malibu but had nothing left in the stretch.

“He didn’t run his best race,” Black said. “The (No. 1 post position) didn’t do him any good because he had to stand there a long time. He got in a little tight down the backstretch. Once I got through, he grabbed the bit and started moving sooner than I wanted and got in tight again.

“I had to slow him down, and then he never took the bit again. It’s disappointing.”

Horse Racing Notes

Steward Pete Pedersen, on Flom’s disqualification: “It was clear-cut. He wasn’t clear in either instance, and the rules of racing are a rider is supposed to keep a straight course. It’s just that simple. If we can blame it on the horse, we’ll blame it on the horse. If not, the blame goes on the jockey.”

Trainer Juan Gonzalez spent the night in Arcadia Methodist Hospital after being unseated by one of his horses, an unraced 2-year-old, Tuesday morning. Gonzalez, 44, had X-rays taken after complaining of pain in his upper back and shoulder area and also suffered bone chips in both hands, which will be treated by an orthopedic surgeon.

Because of a series of longshots on opening day, there will be a Pick Six carryover of $118,284 when racing resumes Thursday. . . . Next to Music Merci, the most impressive winner Tuesday was Oeilladine, who accelerated late to take the seventh, a $60,000 classified allowance race. A 3-year-old, she had won nine of 15 in her native France against less-than-top grade competition. Trained by Jude Feld and ridden by Gary Stevens in her U.S. debut, she ran the mile on turf in 1:33 4/5.

The nightly race replay show will air at 7:30 p.m. on KSCI . . . Davie’s Lamb, who was claimed for $32,000 by Julio Canani and became a stakes-winner, has been retired, and the hope is to breed her to Gulch. The 5-year-old Unpredictable mare won nine of 30 on the turf after being taken by Canani and earned more than $520,000.