Defensive Play Answers Call, Holds On to Win Strub by Head : Santa Anita: After finishing last in the San Fernando, he goes on Lasix and beats longshot My Boy Adam.

On Saturday, trainer Shug McGaughey remained at his Florida headquarters, Gulfstream Park, where his heavily favored Rhythm ran eighth in the $500,000 Donn Handicap.

On Sunday, McGaughey called Allison Jessop, his exercise rider and surrogate trainer at Santa Anita, to give her the instructions that she passed on to jockey Jose Santos. Santos then went out and won the $500,000 Charles H. Strub Stakes aboard Defensive Play, which put away favored In Excess in the stretch and then outlasted longshot My Boy Adam by a head.

My Boy Adam, who went off at 24-1 and came from next to last in the seven-horse field, finished 1 1/4 lengths ahead of In Excess, the 4-5 favorite of the crowd of 37,781. In Excess finished 4 1/2 lengths ahead of Bedeviled, the fourth-place finisher, with Pleasant Tap, Greydar and Warcraft rounding out the order of finish.

Carrying 122 pounds, the high weight in the field, Defensive Play earned $275,000 after running 1 1/4 miles in 2:00 4/5. He paid $13.60 as the fourth betting choice.

The powers of Lasix, the diuretic that is given to horses who bleed from the lungs because of stress, were in evidence Sunday. Both Defensive Play and Olympio, who won the $106,075 San Vicente Breeders’ Cup Stakes earlier in the program, had bled in their previous starts and were running with Lasix for the first time.

Defensive Play’s most recent race was a last-place finish in a field of nine in the San Fernando Feb. 10. In Excess won that stake, beating Defensive Play by 18 1/4 lengths, but McGaughey, who trains the son of Fappiano and Safe Play for Prince Khalid Abdullah, the Saudi Arabian who breeds horses in Kentucky, figured the bleeding was enough of an excuse to pay a $20,000 supplementary fee to run in the Strub.

“Shug and I talk every day,” said Jessop, who has been with Defensive Play at trainer Willard Proctor’s barn at Santa Anita. “He told me to tell Jose to get him up there behind the pace-setters.”

Bruce Jackson, who trains In Excess, would have preferred his 4-year-old running slightly off the pace, and before the race he had hoped that Greydar would be the front-runner. But Greydar was third in the run past the stands the first time, with In Excess and Warcraft ahead of him. Defensive Play, who broke from the No. 3 post, was in fourth place along the rail.

The early fractions were moderate. “My horse made the lead easy and he was going easy,” said Gary Stevens, who was riding In Excess.

Down the backstretch, In Excess remained slightly outside of Defensive Play, who was third with Warcraft trying to keep up on In Excess’ other flank. On the turn for home, In Excess still held the lead, but Defensive Play moved quickly, eating up about half of the leader’s advantage.

At the eighth pole, Santos told Jessop later, he knew he was going to win. Defensive Play passed a tiring In Excess, with Santos hitting him six times with a sweeping left hand. Now their race was with My Boy Adam, an inexperienced stakes runner who was rolling under Laffit Pincay.

The wire barely came up in time. “Laffit surprised me,” Santos said after the race. “He was almost too quick for me.”

Pincay hadn’t ridden My Boy Adam before Sunday and hadn’t won the Strub since riding Affirmed in 1979.

“I almost got there,” Pincay said.”I thought we had a real good chance, because this horse has been training real well in the mornings. He has a tendency to lug in, and he really started lugging in badly. I don’t know if it cost me the race.”

Horse Racing Notes

Defensive Play had a record of three victories in six tries on the grass courses of England before he was brought to Belmont Park last fall. He won his American debut, the Man o’ War, in September, then went back to England with trainer Guy Harwood. . . . Trainer Jerry Fanning indicated that My Boy Adam will run in the Santa Anita Handicap. In his only other stake race, the colt was fourth at 28-1 in the San Fernando. . . . Jockey Gary Stevens said that In Excess didn’t have enough left in the stretch. It was the first time the Irish-bred had been stretched out to the Strub distance, after four American wins victories at 1 1/8 miles or less. . . . Warfield, a $750,000 Roberto yearling, won the sixth race Sunday after finishing last at Hollywood Park last July in his only other start. . . . Another winner was Magical Mile, who won his second straight six-furlong allowance after finishing fifth in the Malibu.