SANTA ANITA : Nakatani Fares Well as Journeyman

Two days into his career as a journeyman, Corey Nakatani is doing just fine.

The 19-year-old jockey lost his five-pound apprentice allowance after Thursday’s races, and that has spelled the beginning of the end for more than a few local riders over the years.

Nakatani, who earned more than $2 million in purses in 1989, backed into a victory Friday in his first race without the apprentice allowance, then came up with two more Saturday, including a 17-1 upset aboard Sugarplum Gal in the $81,975 Santa Lucia Handicap at Santa Anita.

Able to take the lead without any pressure, Nakatani and the 5-year-old Bold Forbes mare held on for a neck victory after it appeared Tis Juliet, another longshot, was going to get by her approaching the wire. Dearly Loved, the 7-5 favorite, was third, another 1 3/4-lengths back.

Covering the 1 1/16 miles in a mediocre 1:43 4/5, Sugarplum Gal earned her first stakes victory and continued trainer Laz Barrera’s resurgence.

“She made an easy lead today,” said Barrera, who will leave for Kentucky Friday to oversee Mister Frisky’s preparation for the Derby.

“I told Corey, ‘If you make an easy lead, go on with her and nurse the pace because a lot of people aren’t going to take her seriously.’ At 17-1, some of the others don’t think you’re tough. That mare’s tough.”

Nakatani wasn’t about to argue.

“She’s game,” he said. “It feels good to get rolling right off. You hear this and that after you lose the bug (apprentice allowance) and it makes you feel like you have to prove yourself over again.

“It makes me work harder. I’ve got to prove to people I can ride with the colony here. I thank Laz for letting me ride. I put her on the lead and let her relax. Turning for home, I asked her for what she had and she gave me everything.”

Kent Desormeaux, the rider of the runner-up, thinks things would have been different had he not lost his whip in the final yards.

“I did everything right until the last 70 yards,” he said. “Corey got the stick out of my hand. He swung his and I swung mine. He hit it and sent it airborne.”

After a series of sharp recent works, Dearly Loved was the Santa Lucia disappointment in her California debut.

“She was real nervous and that was her problem back East,” jockey Gary Stevens said. “She had been so settled in the morning, but my heart fell when I went to the paddock and saw her. She was nervous coming out of the paddock, then broke a step slow and was wide.

“She was still digging (into the stretch), but I was out of horse at the three-eighths pole. She was real rank warming up and tried to run off with me in the post parade. She wasn’t settled at all.”

Plenty else went right for Stevens Saturday. He won four consecutive races--Barronette, Sugar Ray, Nimes and Fashionable Flair--and he now has 108 victories at the meeting, 25 more than Chris McCarron.

Add Barronette to the ever-growing list of talented 3-year-old fillies in the Wayne Lukas barn.

The daughter of Track Barron picked up her second consecutive victory, toying with her five allowance rivals. Barronette won by 7 1/2 lengths and completed the six furlongs in 1:09 2/5.

Nine lengths better than maidens in her previous start March 31, Barronette didn’t begin her career auspiciously. She broke slowly, then was pulled up shortly after the start by Chris McCarron after being ignored (14-1) in the betting.

Three weeks later, she opened up four lengths early, then tired late, finishing third, 3 1/2-lengths back of Charming Lassie.

Since then, Barronette has made no mistakes.

“She’s a real nice filly,” Stevens said, “and she’s pretty intelligent. She hadn’t been running against the kind of speed she was running with today, but she relaxed well and I when I asked her, she exploded.”

Stevens also had an explanation for Barronette’s debut.

“She was real nervous and spooky when I rode her in her second race and she propped with me,” he said. “She kind of crow hopped and it felt like she broke down. After that race, I talked to Chris and he said she had done the same thing with him.

“Wayne liked her breeding and the way she had trained, so he was real confused about what happened the first time. After she did that with me, I cracked her a few times with the whip to get her mind on running and she cut with me.”

Horse Racing Notes

Apprentice Omar Berrio, who was disqualified aboard longshot Fit To Run in Friday’s first race, was handed a five-racing-day suspension by the stewards, starting today and continuing through Saturday. . . . A field of at least six is likely for the $500,000 San Juan Capistrano a week from today. Besides highweight Frankly Perfect, who was third in last month’s San Luis Rey Stakes, the other scheduled participants are Hawkster, El Senor, Live The Dream, Delegant and Valdali.

Tight Spot, who bled in the Jim Beam Stakes on March 31 at Turfway Park, worked six furlongs in 1:11 4/5 Saturday morning for trainer Ron McAnally. Second to Mister Frisky in the San Rafael, Tight Spot will start next in the California Derby on Saturday at Golden Gate. . . . Rafael Meza, who broke a hand in a training spill last month, will be back this week, according to agent Rich Silverstein.