SANTA ANITA : Lukas Has Two More Possibilities With Hail Atlantis and Real Cash

A few weeks ago, trainer Wayne Lukas, the former basketball coach, said that this year’s 3-year-old division reminded him of the NCAA basketball teams.

“There’s a new horse every week, just like there’s a new team,” Lukas said. “Missouri, Syracuse and several others have all been taking their turns.”

Lukas had already lost Grand Canyon, one of the early Kentucky Derby favorites, to injury, and the only 3-year-old colt in his barn worth talking about was Land Rush.

Land Rush is still No. 1 on Lukas’ list, but after the weekend the trainer who has started at least one horse in the Derby every year since 1981 now has two surprise prospects. Lukas won his only Derby with the filly, Winning Colors, in 1988, and on Saturday, Hail Atlantis, another filly, won the Santa Anita Oaks just in time to be a late nominee--at a cost of $3,000--for the Triple Crown races.

When Lukas called in Hail Atlantis’ nomination, about three hours before the deadline, he tacked on Real Cash’s name for another $3,000. On Sunday, Real Cash made the investment look shrewd. Running farther than six furlongs for the first time, the Tank’s Prospect-Magnificent Dawn colt won the $170,100 San Rafael Handicap by 5 1/2 lengths, soundly beating his stablemate, Land Rush, and several other of California’s better 3-year-olds.

The Santa Anita crowd of 35,295 had difficulty pinpointing a favorite in the 1 1/16-mile San Rafael, finally sending off Pleasant Tap as the mild 5-2 choice. Pleasant Tap was never a factor, finishing sixth. Land Rush ran fifth. Silver Ending, who started the day with purses of $338,900, more than any horse in the field, finished ninth, and Tsu’s Dawning, already a winner at 1 1/8 miles, ran 10th, beating only two opponents.

Warcraft, making his first stakes appearance, finished second, three-fourths of a length better than Music Prospector, who had three lengths on Farma Way. French Seventyfive was scratched.

The 3-year-old races in the East are also doing little to clarify the Kentucky Derby situation, Churchill Downs’ big race is less than seven weeks away and many trainers all over the country still don’t know what they have.

“Every time you get closer to the water, it gets muddier,” Chris McCarron said Sunday, after Tsu’s Dawning’s disappointing effort.

Mister Frisky stayed in the barn Sunday, waiting until the Santa Anita Derby on April 7 to risk his 15-race winning streak. He is still the most prominent 3-year-old in California, but in Real Cash, Lukas now feels that he has a front-running colt who has the dimension to challenge Mister Frisky.

Real Cash, ridden by Alex Solis for the first time, paid $10 to win, but his price would have been much higher if he hadn’t been coupled with Land Rush in the betting. Real Cash, whose sire gave Lukas his first Triple Crown win, in the 1985 Preakness, was timed in 1:42, four-fifths of a second off the stakes record and a good time considering the way the Santa Anita track has been playing. Carrying 113 pounds, Real Cash was the light weight in the field and had eight pounds less of a burden than the top-weighted Silver Ending.

Real Cash broke his maiden in his first race, last June at Hollywood Park, and was immediately thrown into stakes competition, finishing fourth in the Hollywood Juvenile Championship a month later. Then he showed little in races at Del Mar and Hollywood Park, but popped up in his 3-year-old debut and won going six furlongs at Santa Anita in February. Less than three weeks after that, though, he was fourth in the Bolsa Chica, another six-furlong race.

“I’ve been dying to stretch him out,” Lukas said. “He ran well for about a quarter of a mile in that last race, but he did it at the wrong time. He’s always had a ton of ability, and looks like a sprinter, but we kept saying that we’ve been managing him wrong. He wasn’t being used as a rabbit in this race. Nothing could be farther from the truth.”

Real Cash earned $102,600 for Lukas and William T. Young, the trainer’s Lexington, Ky., client who after the Bolsa Chica bought 50% of the colt from Buddy Johnston of Old English Rancho in Ontario and Fresno. Lukas, who owns the other half, bred Real Cash in partnership with Johnston.

While Land Rush broke poorly, Real Cash was away alertly and had the lead after a half-mile in :46 3/5. Farma Way, who was running second, fell back on the turn, and at the top of the stretch the San Felipe turned into an unlikely three-horse finish among Real Cash, Warcraft and Music Prospector.

“Wayne just told me to get out of there and be second or third or go to the lead if nobody wanted it,” Solis said. “The faster I rode him, the harder he ran. I was surprised at how easily he won.”

Trainer Chris Speckert thought that Pleasant Tap didn’t react favorably to having dirt kicked in his face, but the colt’s jockey, Eddie Delahoussaye, didn’t feel that this was much of a factor.

“He just never kicked in,” Delahoussaye said. “The horse had worked well, and I thought he had a strong chance. But the winner got in front and just kept on truckin’.”

Besides breaking from the outside post, Silver Ending was running on a track that has been favoring speed.

“We had thought about not running, but then I thought the track changed some earlier in the week,” trainer Ron McAnally said. “But today it was back to favoring speed again. The horse took some dirt in his face going into the first turn and he acted like he was afraid to run after that.”

Retreating from the muddy waters, McCarron took the time to analyze Real Cash’s race. “It was a big race,” McCarron said. “And when you consider that it was the horse’s first time around two turns, it was a really big race.”

Horse Racing Notes

The Wayne Lukas barn won another stake Sunday when Train Robbery captured the Remington Park Oaks. . . . Lukas trains another 3-year-old colt, Power Lunch, who was a late nominee for the Triple Crown races. . . . With Lukas and William T. Young owning both Real Cash and Land Rush, they will be split up after the Santa Anita Derby, with the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct a possibility for Land Rush.

Corey Black and Pat Valenzuela scuffled in the jockeys’ room after the seventh race, in a dispute over how Valenzuela should have been riding J.T.’s Pet, who finished second. Black rode Putting, the favorite who finished far back. “I saw the fight (Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Meldrick Taylor) Saturday night on television and got some pointers,” Valenzuela said. “This didn’t last long. Just long enough for them to pull me off of him.” The stewards will interview both jockeys Wednesday, with fines likely.

Champagneforashley, who won all three of his starts as a 2-year-old, captured his fourth in a row Sunday, with a 1 1/2-length win over Slew of Angels in the Tampa Bay Derby. . . . Heaven Again, ridden by Corey Nakatani, won the Louisiana Derby. Heaven Again is trained by Vincent Timphony, who won the 1984 Breeders’ Cup Classic with Wild Again.