OAK TREE : With Big-Name Riders Gone, Flores Enjoys a Successful Day

With the more prominent members of the Santa Anita jockey colony occupied at Belmont Park in New York, David Flores was the primary beneficiary Saturday.

The 22-year-old rider won three races, including a 7-1 surprise aboard Yes I’m Blue in the $83,850 Morvich Handicap.

Also successful on Exbourne and Recitation Spin, the Tijuana-born Flores hasn’t exactly been struggling at Oak Tree even when Gary Stevens, Laffit Pincay, Eddie Delahoussaye, Chris McCarron, Pat Valenzuela, Kent Desormeaux and Alex Solis are around. His three winners Saturday gave him 17 for the meeting, moving him into a second-place tie with Stevens in the standings. They are three behind Delahoussaye going into the final seven days. Previously, Flores was the leading rider at Los Alamitos and Fairplex.

The Morvich also provided Flores and trainer Vladimir Cerin with their first stakes victory at Santa Anita, and it came in Yes I’m Blue’s first try on the turf.

A gray son of Marfa who had been selected Fairplex Park’s horse of the meeting after winning the Aprisa and Governor’s Cup, Yes I’m Blue sat well off the fast pace early, rallied wide into the stretch and was up to beat 16-1 longshot Waterscape in the final yards.

A winner of seven of 18 lifetime starts, the 4-year-old went 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:12 2/5, a fifth of a second off Basic Rate’s stakes record and three-fifths slower than Baffle’s 20-year course mark.

“I tried to break slow with him because he runs from behind,” Flores said. “On the turn, I had to take a hold of him with both hands. When he crossed the dirt, he started to run well.

“He’s never raced on turf, but I galloped him down the hill here a few days ago. He handles the turf and the dirt the same.”

Cerin, always high on the Kentucky-bred, decided after Yes I’m Blue’s victory in the Governor’s Cup he was going to try him in the Morvich.

“I thought he could last longer on a softer surface,” he said. “The first time he ran at (Fairplex), it wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t like seeing him going 21 and change into the turn there, so I decided to rate him to save him more than as a winning strategy.

“It turned out that’s just what he wanted. The horse made the determination. I can’t say it was a stroke of genius in the middle of the night.”

Waterscape, a former claimer, easily cleared speedsters Snipledo, Oraibi and Frost Free down the hillside through some torrid fractions (21 and 42 4/5), but couldn’t quite last.

“At the quarter pole, I thought he was going to win it,” jockey Adalberto Lopez said of Waterscape. “He just got tired the last part.”

Oraibi, the 13-10 favorite, was a no-excuse third, a length behind Waterscape. Then came Frost Free, Sam Who, Snipledo, Robyn Dancer, Go On In and Doyouseewhatisee.

Making his first start since May 6, 1989, Exbourne overcame some early problems to win his U.S. debut in the 10th race at Santa Anita.

A four-year-old son of Explodent, Exbourne had a victory and two seconds in three English starts last year, including a runner-up try behind Nashwan in the 2000 Guineas.

The 4-5 favorite off the strength of his form and some sharp local works, he was reluctant to go into the starting gate, broke a step slowly, was hard for Flores to handle going into the first turn and had some traffic trouble down the backstretch.

However, Flores was able to get him to the outside, and the Bobby Frankel-trained colt asserted his superiority in the final sixteenth, running past 28-1 shot Bet Mehmet to win by three-quarters of a length. Owned by Juddmonte Farms, Exbourne completed the mile in 1:34 2/5.

Petite Ile, who beat males in the Sunset and Golden Gate handicaps earlier this year, heads the list of invitees to the $400,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes, which will be run a week from today.

Idle since July because of a shin problem, Petite Ile has been training well for her return for trainer Ed Gregson. The 4-year-old Ile de Bourbon miss is scheduled to work a mile this morning.

Like all the other older fillies and mares in the race, Petite Ile was assigned 123 pounds for the Yellow Ribbon, which goes at 1 1/4 miles on the turf.

Thirteen others were extended invitations, including Baldomero, a multiple-stakes winner for Bill Shoemaker; Little Brianne, the upset wire-to-wire winner of the recent Las Palmas Handicap; Reluctant Guest, who has had a huge year for Richard Mandella; Double Wedge and Europeans Kostroma, Colour Chart, Kostroma, Air de Rien and Ruby Tiger. Bequest, Coolawin, Foresta, Native Twine and Royal Touch were also invited, and provisional invitations were given, in order, to Sweet Roberta, Gaelic Bird and Freya Stark.

Air de Rien, Colour Chart, Native Twine and Ruby Tiger are all 3-year-olds and were given 119 pounds.

Horse Racing Notes

Post time moves to 12:30 p.m today. . . The total handle on the 14 races Saturday--seven at the Breeders’ Cup and the seven run here locally--was $12,066,809. This is the third-largest handle in Oak Tree history, but was down from last year, when $14.1 million was bet at Santa Anita on Breeders’ Cup Day. . . For the second day in a row, day, nobody swept the Pick Six, so there is a carryover of more than $181,000 for today.