SANTA ANITA : Shoemaker Won’t Bet on Himself

Bill Shoemaker says he won’t make a bet on Patchy Groundfog, the 7-year-old chestnut he’ll ride Saturday in the race that ends Little Big Man’s extraordinary 42-year career.

Lack of confidence? Hardly. Shoemaker, who had his pick of any horse that ran according to the unusual conditions of the race, let his agent, Bill (Bear) Barisoff, choose his mount, and Patchy Groundfog, who will run coupled with Ofanto, has been established as the 2-1 favorite by Jeff Tufts, the Santa Anita linemaker. Bob Mieszerski, the handicapper for The Times, is picking Patchy Groundfog, the stronger part of the entry, to win.

Racing rules permit jockeys to bet on their own horses, but someone else--his wife Cindy, probably--will be collecting souvenir tickets for Shoemaker.

“Whenever I’ve bet on a horse I’m riding, I haven’t done too well,” Shoemaker said. “I haven’t won those races too many times.”

The Shoemaker finale will be the first and last running of the Legend’s Last Ride Handicap, a $100,000 mile race on the grass for 4-year-olds and up. To accommodate ABC, which is televising the race--on a delayed basis in Los Angeles--the stake will be the fifth race, with a post time of about 2:45 p.m. The program begins at 12:15.

The oldest jockey in the Last Ride will be riding the oldest horse in the race. Shoemaker, 58, has never ridden Patchy Groundfog, a New York-bred who has won 14 of 47 starts and earned $540,855. Patchy Groundfog is a grandson of Olden Times, who won the 1962 San Juan Capistrano in one of Shoemaker’s canniest rides. Patchy Groundfog, making his first start this year, had two wins, a second and a third in mile races last year, including a victory in the San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields.

To make sure Shoemaker has a mount Saturday, he was allowed to pick two alternates, and they are Shining Steel and Ofanto. In the event Patchy Groundfog is scratched, the jockey on either of those other horses would have to give up his mount, although the original rider would still share in the purse.

The 12-horse lineup for the Last Ride, with jockey, weight and morning-line odds:

Happy Toss, Fernando Toro, 116 pounds, 8-1; Exemplary Leader, Eddie Delahoussaye, 115, 12-1; Splendor Catch, Gary Stevens, 116, 12-1; Shining Steel, Robbie Davis, 115, 20-1; Ofanto, Martin Pedroza, 116, 2-1; Nediym, Russell Baze, 115, 6-1; River Master, Sandy Hawley, 116, 15-1; Colson, Pat Valenzuela, 116, 10-1; Patchy Groundfog, Bill Shoemaker, 118, 2-1; Oraibi, Corey Black, 117, 8-1; Rampoldi, Gary Boulanger, 115, 20-1, and Bosphorus, Chris McCarron, 115, 5-1. Rambo’s Hall, Tokatee and Hollywood Reporter are on the also-eligible list.

In 1966, when Johnny Longden rode his last race, winning the San Juan Capistrano by a nose with George Royal over Plaque and Bobby Ussery, there was speculation that the eight other jockeys, caught up in the sentimentality of the occasion, didn’t give 100%.

One of the eight was 34-year-old Bill Shoemaker, riding Cedar Key, winner of the San Luis Rey Stakes and the second betting choice to Hill Rise.

“They (other jockeys) don’t give you anything,” Shoemaker said Thursday. “We were trying to beat (Longden). My horse was about fifth or sixth turning for home. When I saw I couldn’t win, I started rooting for John to win.”

Another jockey in the Longden race was Walter Blum, now a steward at Gulfstream Park. Blum’s San Juan mount was Or et Argent, who raced near the pace before finishing seventh, just ahead of Cedar Key.

“We all wanted to see Johnny go out a winner, but when the gates opened, that didn’t make any difference, because we all rode the way we always did,” Blum said Thursday from Florida. “After the race, we were all happy that Johnny had won, except Ussery, I guess. He thought Longden had fouled him. But Johnny had no more fouled him than I’m fouling you right now.”

There has been speculation that Shoemaker’s last race will be a setup.

“I want to win on my own merits and not the other way,” Shoemaker said. “Those other jocks are pros; they know what to do. And it’s not going to be the end of the world if I don’t win. I’m not going to get down on my knees and cry if I don’t win.”

Bayakoa, last year’s champion older filly or mare and a distant second to Sunday Silence in the horse-of-the-year voting, will become the first 1989 Eclipse Award winner to start this year when she runs at Santa Anita Sunday in the $150,000 Santa Maria Handicap at 1 1/16 miles.

Bayakoa could add to a big day for trainer Ron McAnally, who is expected to saddle his grass expert, Hawkster, in the $500,000 Charles H. Strub Stakes, which is at 1 1/4 miles on dirt. Hawkster was zero for six on dirt last year, but he likes off tracks, and McAnally figures there are no standouts in the Strub. Hawkster worked five furlongs Thursday on the main track in a handy :59 3/5.

Bayakoa lost only two of 11 races last year, and one of the defeats was by a half-length to Miss Brio in the Santa Maria.

Gorgeous, who ran a game second to Bayakoa in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, losing by 1 1/2 lengths, faces another formidable opponent Saturday in the $200,000 La Canada, a 1 1/8-mile race for 4-year-old fillies. Also in the six-horse field is Akinemod, who has won six of seven races overall--including two straight this year--and was an 18-length winner in the El Encino on Jan. 15.

Luthier’s Launch drew the inside post and will be ridden by Alex Solis and carry 117 pounds. Outside her, in order, are Kelly, Pat Valenzuela, 114 pounds; Akinemod, Gary Stevens, 122; Excellent Lady, Chris McCarron, 115; Lucky Song, Robbie Davis, 117, and Gorgeous, Eddie Delahoussaye, 125.

Horse Racing Notes

Racing’s narrow-mindedness reached new proportions last Saturday when the Thoroughbred Racing Assns., one of the sponsors of the Eclipse Awards, was reluctant to pay the plane fare for Kent Desormeaux to fly to Los Angeles to participate in the national telecast that announced his selection as the year’s outstanding jockey. The TRA reportedly is paying ABC’s Jim McKay $100,000 to be its national spokesman for a year and is the same organization that sets the price for the annual Eclipse dinner. This year’s affair, at $250 a plate, will be attended by more than 1,000 people a week from tonight in Miami Beach, Fla. . . . Desormeaux is moving from Maryland to Santa Anita, but holdover suspension days from last year will prevent him from riding in California until Feb. 14.

It will be announced today that Rhythm was given high weight of 126 pounds in the New York Jockey Club’s Experimental Handicap, an annual theoretical rating of 3-year-olds based on their 2-year-old careers. Next in the weights was Grand Canyon at 125 pounds, followed by Summer Squall, Adjudicating and Slavic at 124 pounds apiece. Rhythm beat Grand Canyon in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and won the Eclipse Award for 2-year-old colts.

Go for Wand, the champion 2-year-old filly who also won her Breeders’ Cup race, got 123 pounds in a separate Experimental rating, followed by Stella Madrid at 121 and Sweet Roberta at 120. . . . The ratings were compiled by racing secretaries Bruce Lombardi, Howard Battle and Tommy Trotter. . . . The last high-weighted colt to win the Kentucky Derby was Spectacular Bid in 1979.