SANTA ANITA : Record at Stake for McCarron

The way Chris McCarron is going, Laffit Pincay’s record of 19 stakes victories in a Santa Anita meeting is in jeopardy.

McCarron made it three consecutive stakes victories and five of the first 11 offered at Santa Anita with a wire-to-wire win aboard A Wild Ride in the $108,500 El Encino Stakes Saturday.

In winning for the fifth time in 16 starts, the 4-year-old Wild Again filly staved off 13-1 shot Highland Tide to win by a neck in 1:42 2/5 for the 1 1/16 miles.

Brought To Mind, the 8-5 favorite who beat A Wild Ride by 5 1/2 lengths two weeks earlier in the La Brea Stakes, finished last in the field of seven, but with excuses. She was nervous in the paddock and going to the post, then reared in the starting gate and had to be reloaded.

When Brought To Mind acted up, she pinned jockey Alex Solis’ left leg against the gate, which kept him from Well Aware, his mount in the ninth race.

“The back of my leg’s real sore,” he said. “She just did it, without any warning. She’s always a little nervous and likes to play around, and I thought she was just on the muscle.

“She got bumped a little bit leaving the gate and she wasn’t reaching out the way she usually does. She ran to the three-eighths pole and just quit.”

A two-time stakes winner last year, A Wild Ride, the 2-1 second choice while coupled with Chandelier, disposed of Spanish Dior after a 1:11 1/5 six furlongs, then withstood Highland Tide’s challenge. Somethingmerry, a 16-1 shot, was another half-length back in third.

“This one’s got a hell of a schedule,” said Wayne Lukas, A Wild Ride’s trainer. “She gets on an airplane at 4 a.m. Monday to go to Keeneland where she sells on Tuesday in the Calumet reduction. Of all the Calumet horses in the sale, she’s the only one that I have. I hope something positive happens and they get her back to us.

“She was supposed to leave Friday or this morning, but I called (Calumet) and said, ‘Why don’t we roll the dice.’ I didn’t think she’d embarrass herself. This could make a difference of the purse, $100,000, in her sale price--the fact she beat these fillies and with the La Canada (Jan. 26) right in front of her, the buyer has a chance to get part of the money back in two weeks.

“I’m going to be there. I’d like to get her back. She’s in form right now.”

The 122-pound highweight, A Wild Ride pushed her earnings to $329,404, even if the tactics weren’t exactly what McCarron had in mind.

“I didn’t plan to be on the lead, but she’s been showing more speed this year,” he said. “She finished with everything she had. She dug in when I hit her left-handed in the stretch.”

A winner over allowance fillies and mares on the grass Dec. 30, Highland Tide has a knack for finishing second. The El Encino was the sixth time in 15 starts she’s been second.

“I thought I was going to win easy, but McCarron had some more horse left,” said Julio Garcia, Highland Tide’s rider. “She had no excuses.”

Two months after being badly bruised in a spill at Hollywood Park, Gary Stevens went down again Saturday at Santa Anita.

Stevens, who was tied with Chris McCarron for the local riding lead through the first 13 days, had X-rays taken of his left shoulder area at Arcadia Methodist Hospital not long after Deceptive Operator, the filly he was aboard in the third race, broke down inside the sixteenth pole.

The X-rays showed no fractures and Stevens, who complained of soreness in the shoulder, was told by doctors to keep the area immobilized and in ice. Reached later at home, Stevens said he’s “90% certain” he’ll be able to ride this afternoon.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a bruise,” he said. “I feel pretty comfortable. I’m going to go out and work some horses in the morning, and if I don’t feel 100% comfortable, I’ll just wait and go see Dr. (Robert) Kerlan on Monday.”

The nation’s top money-winning jockey in 1990, Stevens was injured Nov. 14 at Hollywood Park when Rotation Speed broke down, triggering a five-horse spill. In addition to deep bruises on his lower back, he also suffered a minor fracture of his right elbow.

Deceptive Operator, a 3-year-old daughter of Phone Trick, fractured the cannon bone in her left foreleg and was destroyed.

Unbeaten in six starts on the Santa Anita main track, Frost Free will try to extend his streak to seven in today’s $108,500 San Carlos Handicap at seven furlongs.

Successful at 7-10 odds in the Palos Verdes 15 days ago, the 6-year-old It’s Freezing gelding is the 121-pound highweight, meaning he’ll be spotting from 3-7 pounds to his six rivals. McCarron rides for trainer John Sadler.

Making his second start for Lukas, Farma Way was very impressive beating weaker horses the day after Frost Free’s Palos Verdes victory. He won by seven lengths under Stevens, covering 6 1/2 furlongs in a solid 1:15.

Others in the field include Earn Your Stripes, who defeated Frost Free in the Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Handicap last September at Bay Meadows, Due To The King, the late-running Yes I’m Blue, Gum and Tanker Port.

Horse Racing Notes

Julio Garcia was fined $100 for failure to fulfill his jockey agreement. Named on just one horse Thursday--Pay Bird in the seventh race--Garcia was a no-show. . . . Stakes winners Raise A Stanza and Corwyn Bay have been retired. Raise A Stanza aggravated a suspensory injury in his last start; and Corwyn Bay, who finished eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in his final appearance, recently bowed a tendon. . . . Olympio, a distant second as the 7-10 favorite in Friday’s Los Feliz Stakes, bled in the race. “He bled slightly and he had some mucus in his throat,” trainer Ron McAnally said. . . . A field of nine is probable for next Sunday’s $200,000-added San Fernando Stakes. The middle leg of the Strub Series, which goes at 1 1/8 miles, figures to attract Go And Go, Warcraft, Pleasant Tap, Silver Ending, In Excess, Bedeviled, Restless Con, Defensive Play and My Boy Adam. . . . Variety Road rallied from far back to beat longshot Coax Me Clyde and win the $100,000 William P. Kyne Handicap at Bay Meadows. The Kyne was simulcast at Santa Anita.