SANTA ANITA : Hawkster Given High Weight of 123 Pounds for the Big ‘Cap

Trainer Ron McAnally will be saddling the high weight in the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap next Sunday.

But the horse probably won’t be Bayakoa, the 6-year-old mare who would be favored if she ran.

McAnally’s only definite starter is Hawkster, the 4-year-old colt who was assigned 123 pounds by Santa Anita racing secretary Tom Robbins, even though he hasn’t won a race on dirt since he was a 2-year-old.

Robbins rated Bayakoa at 127 pounds, three pounds more than anyone else, but because of a sex allowance the McAnally runner would actually have to carry 122 pounds.

“If it’s a day like it is today, Bayakoa won’t run,” McAnally said from his box seat near the finish line Sunday.

The weather was dry and the track was fast Sunday. In other words, McAnally will enter Bayakoa on Friday, but only run her in the Big ‘Cap if there’s an off track. Bayakoa, who has handled all kinds of tracks, is even more effective in the mud. Last year’s champion female has won her first two races this year and is victorious in 10 of her last 11 starts. A filly or mare has never won the Big ‘Cap, which was first run in 1935.

The weight for Bayakoa doesn’t bother McAnally, although Hawkster’s assignment is another matter.

“Actually, I had heard that the mare might get one pound more than what she got,” McAnally said. “But the weight for Hawkster is very unfair. They’ve weighted him based on his grass record rather than what he’s done on dirt.”

In Eclipse Awards voting, Hawkster was voted the third best turf horse in the country last year, behind Steinlen and Yankee Affair. Hawkster has won four of five starts on grass, but is two for 14 on dirt. The Big ‘Cap is 1 1/4 miles on the main track.

Frankly Perfect and Prized were weighted at 124 pounds, three pounds less than Bayakoa’s theoretical weight, but neither is expected to run. Frankly Perfect won the San Luis Obispo Handicap on the grass a week ago and Prized will run Sunday, but in the Arcadia Handicap, a $100,000 turf race at a mile. Steinlen, who would have carried 123 had he run in the Big ‘Cap, is also a probable starter for the Arcadia.

Of the horses expected to run in the Big ‘Cap, these are the weights:

Hawkster, 123 pounds; Lively One, 122; Flying Continental and Ruhlmann, 121 apiece; Criminal Type and Present Value, both 119; Quiet American, 116; Stylish Winner, 113; and Santangelo, 111.

In another Big ‘Cap development, McAnally announced that Pat Valenzuela would regain the mount on Hawkster. The change from Russell Baze is believed to be the decision of Shelly Meredith, who owns Hawkster.

Baze rode Hawkster for the first time in the Oak Tree Invitational at Santa Anita last October when Valenzuela, who has been bothered by drug problems, was a no-show and didn’t bother to notify McAnally. Valenzuela’s long-time agent, Jerry Ingordo, quit the rider over the incident.

Under Baze, Hawkster won the 1 1/2-mile Oak Tree in 2:22 4/5, a world- record time. Baze has also ridden Hawkster in his two races since then, a fifth-place finish in the Japan Cup and a third-place finish in the Strub on Feb. 4.

Unless rain next weekend puts Bayakoa in the ‘Big Cap field, the mare will head for Oaklawn Park, to run in either the Oaklawn Handicap on April 14 or the Apple Blossom Handicap four days later. Bayakoa won the Apple Blossom last year. She would have to face male horses in the Oaklawn.

“We’ve got to get some weight off or she’ll be way up there by the end of the year,” McAnally said. “The difference between running against colts then or in the Big ‘Cap is that the Big ‘Cap would be her third race in four weeks. She’s been doing great, though, since her last race (the Santa Margarita Handicap on Feb. 18). The race didn’t take anything out of her.”

When Frankly Perfect won the Hollywood Turf Cup last December, Sylvester Stallone, having bought a piece of the horse from Bruce McNall and Wayne Gretzky just days before, represented the owners in the winner’s circle.

“This could be very addictive,” said Stallone, who has owned polo ponies but who had never been to a race track before.

The addiction was among the shortest on record, because when Frankly Perfect won the San Luis Obispo Handicap at Santa Anita last Monday--in his first start since the Turf Cup--only McNall, the owner of the Kings, and Gretzky, his highest salaried employee, were listed as owners.

“Stallone’s interest in the horse, and another one that he was partners in, was bought out,” said Steve Nessenblatt, who manages McNall’s racing interests. “I don’t think the decision was made by Stallone alone, it came from his circle of advisers, and the others weren’t as wild about racing as he was. Stallone has also been busy with his latest ‘Rocky’ picture and left the decision to the others.”

The next time Frankly Perfect runs, however, he will have still another celebrity owner--Jerry Buss, the owner of the Lakers, and McNall’s former partner with the Kings. Buss is also becoming a partner with McNall and Larry Robinson, another member of the Kings, in Down Again, the 6-year-old mare who ran ninth Sunday in the $100,000 Buena Vista Handicap.

The Buena Vista was won by Earl Scheib’s Saros Brig, who led all the way under Pat Valenzuela to beat favored Royal Touch by 1 3/4 lengths in the mile grass race before a crowd of 33,917.

Saros Brig has won four times, twice in stakes, since Dominick Manzi began training him. Joe Manzi, Dominick’s father, died of a heart attack last April and some of Scheib’s horses were left with the son.

Saros Brig was timed in 1:34 1/5, paid $21 and earned $68,100.

Horse Racing Notes

Laffit Pincay had back-to-back winners Sunday, giving him 2,545 and breaking Bill Shoemaker’s record for Santa Anita. Pincay resumed riding Saturday after being out about a month with a broken collarbone. . . . Under a substitute rider, Olympic Prospect ran fifth as the 3-10 favorite Sunday in the $100,000 Phoenix Gold Cup at Turf Paradise. Master Dad won the stake, paying $86.20. Alex Solis, scheduled to ride Olympic Prospect, had airline difficulties from Los Angeles and was replaced by Craig McGurn.

Tsu’s Dawning, who ran third as the 3-10 favorite in the Santa Catalina on Feb. 7, is one of six horses entered for the $75,000 Bradbury Stakes for 3-year-olds on Wednesday at Santa Anita. Tsu’s Dawning’s sire, Tsunami Slew, won the Bradbury in 1984. Others running in the 1 1/8-mile race are expected to be Video Ranger, Assyrian Pirate, Senegalaise, Heisman and T.V. Rebel. . . . Two of Florida’s top 3-year-olds, Red Ransom and Polish Numbers, didn’t run Saturday in races at Gulfstream Park. Polish Numbers was bothered by a cough.