SANTA ANITA : As Meeting Closes, Ending Comes With Silver Lining for McCarron

Santa Anita wrapped up nicely for Chris McCarron.

Not only did he win the $110,400 San Jacinto Handicap with Royal Reach--his meeting-high 14th stakes success--McCarron picked up a mount in the Kentucky Derby. He’ll ride Silver Ending, who was impressive in winning last Saturday’s Arkansas Derby.

Gary Stevens, who has been Silver Ending’s regular rider, will be aboard Mister Frisky May 5 at Churchill Downs.

“Scotty (McClellan) had talked to (trainer) Ron (McAnally) about a month ago, and he said we’d be in the running if the mount came open,” McCarron said. “I saw Silver Ending’s race when I came back from New York the other day and it was very impressive.”

In addition to his stakes victories, McCarron finished second in the jockey standings with 95 victories, but the meeting belonged to Stevens.

For the third time, Stevens, 27, was the Santa Anita leader. He had two victories on closing day to finish with 111, including two memorable ones. There was his second Santa Anita Derby with Mister Frisky and his first Santa Anita Handicap atop Ruhlmann. What’s more, he set a meeting record with $4,579,937 in earnings.

“(Being the leader) is something you try to do every meeting that you ride,” he said. “You have to have some kind of goals. This is the toughest colony in the country, so to be able to be the leading rider is a big accomplishment and it makes me feel good.

“The whole Mister Frisky deal going on right now is the highlight of the meeting and the season. The win with Ruhlmann was a big thrill, because I’d never won a million dollar race before. It feels like I’ve gotten a monkey off my back.

“Hopefully, we can keep the momentum we’ve got right now and go like this for the whole year. I don’t know if that’s asking too much, because riders go through ups and downs, like major league batters.”

Trainer David Hofmans is on a roll himself. Royal Reach’s wire-to-wire, 3 1/2-length win in the San Jacinto gave him four successive stakes victories.

Previously, in a matter of seven days, he’d won at Golden Gate with Perforce, For My Mom and His Legacy.

Risked for a $32,000 tag last November, Royal Reach really blossomed after coming to Hofmans this winter.

“The more we trained him, the better he got,” said Hofmans, who finished with 18 winners from only 85 starts. “I think he likes the warmer weather down here and he loves this grass course.

“The plan was to be on the lead after I saw those three scratches (Crimson Slew, Kaboi and Glaros), but I didn’t realize he was going as fast as he was. I thought we were in trouble when I saw that :22 2/5 first quarter, but Stevens taking back (on Just As Lucky) saved us.”

Santa Anita showed mild gains in total pari-mutuel handle and set a record for a daily average handle, but attendance and daily average attendance were down.

Total on-track attendance for the 90-day season was 2,157,583, down 5.9%, and the average crowd of 25,463 also decreased almost 6%.

The total handle of $663,745,999 was a California and Santa Anita record, and the daily average of $7,391,136 was a California, Santa Anita and North American record. On-track, the total and average handle was down 2.4%.

Frankly Perfect, who fractured the cannon bone in his left foreleg in Sunday’s San Juan Capistrano, underwent surgery Monday. Two screws were inserted by veterinarian Dr. Greg Ferraro, and the 6-year-old later returned to his stall in the Charlie Whittingham barn.

A multiple-stakes winning son of Perrault owned by Bruce McNall, Wayne Gretzky and Jerry Buss, Frankly Perfect apparently stepped in a hole near the quarter pole and was pulled up in the stretch by Chris McCarron.

Fernando Toro, who announced his retirement a couple of weeks ago, was honored in a winner’s circle ceremony Monday between the fourth and fifth races.

Toro will ride in Chile later this week and is scheduled to have his final mount in a turf race at Hollywood Park in the latter part of May.

In his last race at Santa Anita, he finished fourth on maiden Rag King in the sixth race.

The winners in the Bests of the Meeting balloting, selected by media members who cover Santa Anita: Ruhlmann (older horse), Mister Frisky (3-year-old, best development and top achievement), Bill Spawr (trainer), Olympic Prospect (sprinter), Hail Atlantis (3-year-old filly), Gary Stevens (jockey), Santa Barbara Handicap (race), Bayakoa (older filly or mare), Prized (grass champion), Brown Bess (grass filly or mare), Corey Nakatani (apprentice) and Do You Mind (claiming horse).

Wayne Lukas led the trainer standings with 38 wins, 14 more than Brian Mayberry and Spawr. Richard Mandella was next with 23 victories and Sandy Shulman completed the top five with 22.

The person who hit the Pick Nine on Saturday for $487,963 did so on a $64 ticket.

The man, who asked not to be identified, bought the ticket, left the track and didn’t know he had won until he saw the results in the newspaper Sunday.

Putting, who won the fifth race Monday, is still a member of Julio Canani’s barn only because trainer Herbert Bacorn, who was going to claim the 7-year-old gelding for $62,500, put a claim slip in a minute too late.

The claim has to be in the box 16 minutes before post time.

Gary Stevens and Trevor Denman will be Roy Firestone’s guests on ESPN’s “Sportslook” Thursday. The program airs at 3:30 p.m., then is repeated at midnight.