SANTA ANITA : Longshot Surges to Win the Ninth; Pick Six Might Reach $2.5 Million

With no disrespect intended for the $164,850 San Marcos Handicap, the most anticipated race of the day Monday at Santa Anita was the ninth race, a mile event for $25,000 claiming horses.

A holiday crowd of 42,435 had come to the track, some lured by a cap giveaway, but most of them attuned to the Pick Six, which hadn’t been hit for four days.

With another 11,865 bettors attending Santa Anita’s 11 off-track satellite betting centers, the overall crowd of 54,300 bet $2.1 million on the Pick Six. Combined with the carry-over from the four previous days, the Pick Six pool totaled $3,096,600, believed to be a record.

Going into the ninth race, it appeared the Pick Six finally would fall. Ten combinations were alive, and only two of the 10 starters--Nora Of Clare at 26-1 and Flying Natalie at 23-1--weren’t covered.

To the glee of Santa Anita officials, Nora Of Clare and jockey Corey Black rallied from last place and won by 3 1/2 lengths, paying $55.80. Mutuel department officials estimate that only one winning ticket on Wednesday’s Pick Six could be worth $2.5 million.

Santa Anita pays half of the Pick Six pool--less commissions of about 20% for the track, the state and horsemen--to bettors who pick the winners in five of the six races, which resulted in 11 tickets being worth $76,626.80 apiece Monday. The carryover going into Wednesday is $1.8 million, a North American record.

A ticket at Del Mar Monday had all the combinations covered in the last race, except for Nora Of Clare and Flying Natalie. There were also two tickets that were alive in the last race with Proclamation and Classic Ice, who finished fourth and eighth, respectively.

Nora Of Clare, who had won her last race but hadn’t run in seven weeks, was one of three horses who passed Proclamation, the 5-2 favorite, in the stretch.

The only favorite to win a Pick Six race was Fly Till Dawn, who beat Vaguely Hidden by a neck in the San Marcos and paid $6.20.

Before Fly Till Dawn, the pick-six race winners were Califorian, paying $52.40; Ideal Union, $18.60; Raisa’s Troupe, $51.80; and Whadjathink, $6.40.

The record Pick Six payoff at Santa Anita is $976,229.60, on Feb. 28, 1986.

When the Pick Six carryover pool neared the $1-million mark after Sunday’s races, Santa Anita’s marketing department scrambled Monday morning trying to buy radio and television time to advertise the potential payoff. The track was told by some stations that there were no spots available because of the backlog of advertisements that had been bought but not aired during increased coverage of the war in the Persian Gulf.

Fly Till Dawn, who won the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar and the Budweiser International at Laurel last year, made his first start since running fourth in the Hollywood Turf Cup Dec. 16.

Fly Till Dawn ran in second behind Rouvignac throughout the San Marcos, then took the lead at the top of the stretch and barely held off Vaguely Hidden.

The victory was the 7,499th of Laffit Pincay’s career. He trails only Bill Shoemaker, who retired last year with 8,833. Shoemaker trains Raisa’s Troupe, the longshot who won Monday’s sixth race.

Fly Till Dawn, a 5-year-old gray son of Swing Till Dawn and Flying Fortress, is a headstrong horse who is difficult to handle.

“He’s a strong son of a gun,” Pincay said. “He would have opened up five lengths, if I hadn’t taken hold of him in the early part. He finally settled down on the backstretch. This was a super race for him.”

Fly Till Dawn, bred and owned by Josephine Gleis of Newport Beach, earned $97,350 for running 1 1/4 miles on grass in 1:58 3/5, which was two-fifths of a second slower than the stakes record. He is trained by Darrell Vienna, who questioned whether Vaguely Hidden ever would have passed his horse.

“This horse has that second effort,” Vienna said. “When our horse saw the other horse, he might have started running again. Besides being talented, my horse also doesn’t ever want to throw in the towel.”

Horse Racing Notes

The stewards ruled that Chris McCarron didn’t deserve a suspension for his role in the disqualification of Classic Value from second to third in Sunday’s Santa Monica Handicap. Devil’s Orchid won the race, and Classic Value interfered with Stormy But Valid, the favorite by coming over toward the rail as she tried to get through in the stretch. “Chris hit his horse once righthanded, but then tried to snatch her up,” steward Pete Pedersen said. “If he had gone to the whip more than that, we might have considered giving him days, but as it was we don’t feel he was to blame.”