SANTA ANITA : In Excess Faces Old Foes in Strub

In a remarkable performance, In Excess won the San Fernando Stakes by four lengths the first time he ever ran on dirt, but the trainers of six of the horses he beat are acting as though they are from Missouri, the “Show Me” State. They’re not convinced that the 4-year-old Irish-bred colt can run that well again.

Consequently, the $500,000 Charles H. Strub Sunday at Santa Anita basically will be a reprise of the San Fernando as far as the field is concerned, although the distance is 1 1/4 miles instead of 1 1/8 miles and the weights are significantly different than they were three weeks ago.

In Excess actually will start Sunday with a bonus instead of a penalty. The San Fernando conditions were based on $100,000 races won, which meant In Excess was the co-high weight at 126 pounds. For the Strub, In Excess will drop five pounds because the weights are based on earnings. He will carry one pound less than the top-weighted Defensive Play, who ran last, beaten by more than 18 lengths, in the San Fernando.

Pleasant Tap, who had the worst of trips in the San Fernando, has the inside post for the Strub, with a weight of 116 pounds and Eddie Delahoussaye riding. The rest of the eight-horse starting lineup, in order: In Excess, 121 pounds, Gary Stevens; Defensive Play, 122, Jose Santos; Jovial, 118, Danny Sorenson; Bedeviled, 121, Julio Garcia; My Boy Adam, 115, Laffit Pincay; Warcraft, 117, Chris McCarron, and Greydar, 116, Alex Solis.

In Excess and Jovial are both owned by Jack Munari and trained by Bruce Jackson and would be coupled in the betting, but Jackson said he entered Jovial only in the event something prevents In Excess from running.

Besides Defensive Play, four other horses not up to In Excess in the San Fernando are back for the Strub: Warcraft, who placed second three weeks ago; My Boy Adam, who ran fourth; Pleasant Tap, who finished fifth, and Bedeviled, who was sixth. Trainer Wayne Lukas, who was third with Go And Go in the San Fernando, has lost last year’s Belmont winner to injury but will try to beat In Excess with Greydar in the Strub.

Pleasant Tap and Defensive Play had valid reasons for not winning the San Fernando. Defensive Play bled from the lungs in the race and will be able to run on an anti-bleeder medication Sunday.

Pleasant Tap was jostled leaving the gate, and then things got worse. “I got shut off at the start,” said Solis, who rode the Malibu Stakes winner that day. “Then on the first turn, I was taken way out and had to take hold and go inside. On the next turn, I was forced wide again because the horses in front of me were dead on the rail. It’s hard for a horse to do anything when you have a trip like that.”

Dinard, a 3-year-old gelding, will shorten up to seven furlongs for the $100,000 San Vicente Breeders’ Cup Stakes Sunday after running a 1:35 3/5 mile in the Los Feliz Jan. 11.

Of the other five 3-year-olds in the field, the most intriguing is Scan, who will be making his 1991 debut. Scan raced all last year in New York, winning the Cowden and the Remsen. In the Experimental Handicap, a ranking of horses based on their performances as 2-year-olds, he was listed behind only Fly So Free, Best Pal and Eastern Echo.

Fly So Free and Scan are both trained by Scotty Schulhofer. Fly So Free began his 3-year-old year by winning the Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park and is the early favorite to win the Kentucky Derby.

Schulhofer is not particularly fond of running horses in California, but to separate Fly So Free and Scan, who have different owners, he has isolated the colts.

Schulhofer, who winters in Florida, is in San Francisco, ready to accept Fly So Free’s Eclipse Award as 2-year-old of the year tonight.

“I don’t know how Scan will run,” Schulhofer said. “You need to have speed on California tracks, and he might not be quick enough now at this distance. The race we’re really shooting for is the San Rafael (at Santa Anita) on March 3, and we’ve got to get him ready for this. I’ll be happy just to get a race into him.”

Dinard, who came from off the pace to win the Los Feliz, has drawn the rail Sunday, which leaves his jockey, Chris McCarron, with choices to make coming out of the gate. The other San Vicente starters are Roman Envoy, Distinctly North, Olympio and Keen Line.

Winners of all the Eclipse Awards, including horse of the year, will be announced today, and one of the candidates for the trainer award, Carl Nafzger, was honored by turf publicists at a luncheon in San Francisco Friday.

“I was told that I could talk for 30 seconds, or as long as I want,” Nafzger said in accepting the award. “So now that I have your attention, I’d like to talk about Lasix . . . “

Only kidding, Nafzger said thank you and sat down. Most of last year, he wasn’t permitted to be that brief. He talked patiently and endlessly in response to endless questions about Lasix, the anti-bleeding medication, and how its use or lack of use would affect Unbridled, a candidate for horse of the year and a cinch to be voted champion 3-year-old colt.

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Scotty Schulhofer is running a horse in the $500,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park today, but he doesn’t like Rubiano’s outside post in a 12-horse field. . . . Excavate, about a week away from a race at Santa Anita, had a 1:25 2/5 seven-furlong workout. . . . Bayakoa will drop two pounds, to 126, for the Santa Margarita Handicap at Santa Anita a week from today. Last year’s champion older filly or mare was last in the Santa Maria Handicap under 128 pounds. . . . Little Brianne, who won the Santa Maria, is weighted at 119 pounds for the Santa Margarita, the same as stablemate Fit to Scout and Buy the Firm and A Wild Ride.