HORSE RACING : San Rafael Key Test for Flying Reb

Never having won an Eclipse Award for best trainer, Chuck Marikian can at least take comfort in the company he keeps.

Lately, that company has included Charlie Whittingham, who became a three-time winner of the national training award when he was voted an Eclipse for 1989.

On Jan. 7, Marikian ran Flying Reb in a maiden race at Santa Anita and, at 14-1, they beat Whittingham’s Sir Beaufort, who went off at 4-5. Last Sunday, Whittingham ran Warcraft, a 3-year-old colt who had won easily the first time he was asked to run around two turns, and at 9-10 he finished seventh as Flying Reb won the mile allowance race by 8 1/2 lengths over a sloppy track.

“Whittingham again,” Marikian said in the upstairs grandstand as he watched the rerun minutes after Flying Reb’s latest win. “Maybe we’re the giant killers.”

Whittingham would like to see if Flying Reb can do it again, on a fast track, when the colts run March 3 in the mile San Rafael Stakes, one of the important prep races for the Santa Anita Derby.

“People are calling Flying Reb a mud horse now,” said Marikian, 50, who has never had a Santa Anita Derby starter. “But I don’t think so. His breeding (Flying Paster and Gladdie’s Reb) might say that, but he beat Sir Beaufort on a fast track.”

Flying Reb was 4-1, the second choice, last Sunday, about the same price he was while running fifth, beating only one horse, in the Santa Catalina on Feb. 7.

“The track was real cuppy that day,” Marikian said. “Other horses had trouble, too. Tsu’s Dawning was odds-on (3-10) and he ran third. He was blowing like a choo-choo train coming back.”

If Flying Reb runs in the Santa Anita Derby on April 7, he will have a chance to win the same race that his sire, Flying Paster, won in 1979. Marikian doesn’t believe that the Kentucky Derby distance of 1 1/4 miles is beyond the scope of either Flying Reb or A. Sir Dancer, another 3-year-old that he trains for George Arakelian.

A. Sir Dancer, a son of Sir Dancer, the winner of a division of the Norfolk as a 2-year-old in 1980, hasn’t run since he was injured in the Del Mar Futurity, and although he’s training sharply, Marikian says he’s about a month away from a race.

There is no revolving door of stakes horses in Marikian’s barn. The most accomplished he trained was Swing Till Dawn, who won the Strub--at 38-1--and the Widener Handicap at Hialeah in 1983.

Flying Reb and A. Sir Dancer were raised on Arakelian’s farm in Blythe, Calif., a town of about 7,000 on the Arizona border.

“It’s about 127 degrees in the shade in Blythe,” Marikian said. “If either one of these horses ever did anything, they’d be the biggest thing there since the last chrome-plated 10-wheeler went through town.”

Flying Reb was ridden by Kent Desormeaux, the two-time Eclipse Award winner from Maryland who is hoping to make California his new headquarters.

Desormeaux, who will ride Flying Reb in the San Rafael, got the mount last Sunday. Of the jockeys who had ridden the colt before, Laffit Pincay was out with a broken collarbone and Chris McCarron was riding Warcraft for Whittingham. Eddie Delahoussaye, who had ridden Flying Reb in the Santa Catalina, could have had the mount again, but Marikian said that there was a mixup with his agent, Terry Lipham, opening the way for Desormeaux.

Desormeaux won three races Thursday, giving him eight in eight days.

Two of the three future-book favorites for the Kentucky Derby--Rhythm and Yonder--were beaten in their last races. Nevertheless, they are 6-1 in Las Vegas, along with Slavic, a top 2-year-old who won his debut this year at Gulfstream Park.

At 8-1 in the future book is Secret Hello, even though he hasn’t run since winning the Arlington-Washington Futurity last October and who has yet to have a recorded workout in Florida.

Secret Hello, trained by Frank Brothers, was a $360,000 Private Account yearling who won three of four starts last year, all at Arlington Park.

Red Ransom and Summer Squall, both undefeated as 2-year-olds, were scheduled to run Saturday at Gulfstream Park, but Summer Squall won’t make an appearance because he bled from the lungs during a workout. Summer Squall will be treated with an anti-bleeding medication, and under Florida rules will not be permitted to run for two weeks.

Red Ransom, who raced only twice last year, will take on an undistinguished field that includes older horses going seven furlongs.

Polish Numbers, who, rather than Rhythm, might wind up as trainer Shug McGaughey’s best Kentucky Derby candidate, is also running at Gulfstream Saturday, in a 1 1/16-mile allowance race.

When Red Ransom worked the other day, dozens of trainers were trackside with their stopwatches. Red Ransom gave them something to time, running fractions of :33 1/5 and :46 1/5 before he finished five furlongs in :59 while practically being pulled up by his exercise rider.

Horse Racing Notes

Ben Felton, the referee who officiated at last Friday’s hearing regarding Golden Gate Fields’ ban of jockey Ron Hansen, will not be able to present an opinion to the California Horse Racing Board today. Felton did not receive the transcript of the seven-hour hearing until Thursday. Hansen, accused of bribing other jockeys by Golden Gate attorneys, has also been prevented from riding at Santa Anita.

Cheval Volant, one of the favorites in Saturday’s $125,000 Las Virgenes at Santa Anita, drew the outside post in a field of 10 3-year-old fillies going a mile. Others entered are the Wayne Lukas-trained entry of Bright Candles and Hail Atlantis, plus Brought to Mind, Fit to Scout, For My Mom, Heaven for Bid, Materco, Naser’s Pride and Orrefor. . . . Cryptoclearance, the 6-year-old who earned $3.3 million, good for 11th place on the lifetime money list, has been retired to stud after suffering a training injury at Gulfstream. Cryptoclearance won only 12 of 44 starts but made a lot of purse money with high finishes in many rich stakes races.

Hollywood Park has changed the Premiere Handicap to the Bill Shoemaker Handicap, which will be run April 29. Shoemaker, who retired from riding Feb. 3, notched his 1,000th stake win in last year’s Premiere with Peace. That was the sixth time he had won the stake. . . . Diablo is among the horses nominated for the Triple Crown races. That’s a slightly different spelling from Diabolo, who won the 1975 California Derby. In the Kentucky Derby, Diabolo finished third, after bumping Avatar in the stretch and probably costing him the victory. Avatar finished second to Foolish Pleasure.