HOLLYWOOD PARK : Patches Wins, Doubles Stevens’ Pleasure

Gary Stevens was on a double high going into Sunday’s $163,600 Hollywood Oaks.

The 27-year-old jockey, trying to win the national money title that eluded him by less than $30,000 in 1986, found out that trainer Wayne Lukas had named him to ride Criminal Type in the $1-million Arlington Challenge Cup on Aug. 4.

Jose Santos won’t be able to ride Criminal Type that day because he will be required to serve a five-day New York suspension that has been in abeyance since last year. Criminal Type’s opposition is expected to include Sunday Silence and Easy Goer.

And Stevens had the ride on Patches, another Lukas runner, in the Oaks. Stevens had ridden Patches as well as Jefforee and A Wild Ride, whom Lukas was also running in the 1 1/8-mile stake.

Patches sped past Golden Reef to take the lead approaching the far turn, got a breather on the turn itself and then had barely enough left to beat Jefforee by a head. Patches earned $96,100 for her owner and breeder, William T. Young of Lexington, Ky.

Jefforee, running for the sixth time in less than two months, finished four lengths ahead of Pampered Star in the field of eight, and it was 3 1/2 lengths farther back to Let Fly, a 51-1 shot.

The other Lukas entrant, A Wild Ride, finished fifth, and the John Mabee-owned entry of Annual Reunion and Fields of Gold, sent off as the 2-1 favorite by the crowd of 22,105, ran sixth and seventh, respectively. Golden Reef finished last.

Because she had a different owner than the Calumet Farm duo of Jefforee and A Wild Ride, Patches was separated in the betting and paid $7.60 to win as the second choice. Her winning time was 1:49 4/5.

Stevens has liked Patches since he won a couple of allowance races with the Majestic Light-Miss Betty filly during an eight-day stretch at Santa Anita early this year.

Patches was sent to Churchill Downs after that for a small stake a couple of days before the Kentucky Derby. Patches was 1-9 when she dumped Stevens in the post parade, ran off and had to be scratched by the stewards.

“That would have been one of the easiest races I ever had to win,” Stevens said. “What happened was that the pony boy dropped his reins, and the strap hit my filly in the head.”

Startled, Patches dropped Stevens, banged into the fence and took off. “I had a couple of sore legs, and it could have been worse than that,” Stevens said.

“When she stepped on me, she just missed my face by a couple of inches, and there’s no telling how serious it could have been if she had hit me.

“Craig Perret, who was on another horse right behind us, saw it all and told me how close she’d come.”

Patches ran at Churchill Downs about a week later, with Keith Allen, a local rider, and won a minor stake, but when she returned to Hollywood Park, the filly was ridden by Pat Valenzuela twice and finished second in the Railbird June 9 and third in the Princess June 24.

Lukas said that Stevens didn’t have any choice when he rode Hail Atlantis, another of the trainer’s top fillies, in the Princess.

“I had won the Santa Anita Oaks with Hail Atlantis, so I owed it to the owners to ride her,” Stevens said of the filly’s far-back finish in the Princess.

Lukas says that Stevens and Patches make a good team. “He really seems to fit her, and he was really anxious to get back on her,” the trainer said.

“He came up to me right after that last race and requested to get on her.”

Eddie Delahoussaye, who won the Oaks last year with Gorgeous, sent Golden Reef, the second-place finisher in the Princess behind A Wild Ride, to the lead Sunday, but she ran a slow opening half-mile in 47 seconds.

Stevens had Patches on the fence, in second place. “Eddie’s filly was lugging out all the way down the backside, so I decided to go on with mine,” Stevens said.

“That was a winning move, because then she got some rest coming around the turn. She needed that, because I don’t think she could have run any farther, she was (tiring) at the end. With about 100 yards to go, I could hear Jefforee coming, and we had just enough left to hold her off.”

Lukas, whose strength through the years has been fillies, had come close but never won the Oaks, one of the few major filly races to escape him. Since running last about a year ago at Hollywood Park in her first race, Patches has five victories, one second and two thirds in eight starts.

Horse Racing Notes

Bayakoa, who carries more weight than the country’s top male horses, has been assigned 128 pounds, the heaviest impost of her career, for next Sunday’s $200,000 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park. Next on the list is Gorgeous at 124 pounds, and then there’s a drop to Beautiful Melody at 116 and Fantastic Look at 112. . . . Trainer Bill Shoemaker saddled his second winner in as many days, and third overall, when Profit System, a filly making her first start, won the third race.

In another race Sunday, Stone God, a $60,000 auction buy, beat 2-year-old colts as Warfield, a $700,000 purchase, ran last. . . . Elusive Road, winner of the seventh race, was claimed for the fourth time in his last eight races. . . . On Saturday, Gin Rummy Judy won the seventh race from the seventh post position on the seventh day of the seventh month. The 4-year-old filly is owned by the Seven Star Stable.

Gary Stevens has reached the $7-million mark in purses and leads Jose Santos by about $900,000. . . . Don Alexander, who started the season as the track announcer at Hollywood Park, is now calling the races at a small track near San Antonio, Tex. . . . A total of $48,960 was raised for the Don MacBeth Memorial Jockey Fund Saturday at Hollywood, where many jockeys gave up their mount fees. The fund is used to aid disabled riders.