SANTA ANITA : Weights for Big ‘Cap Anger Fanning

Trainer Jerry Fanning didn’t have to come down off his high horse to complain about the weights in Saturday’s $1-million Santa Anita Handicap.

Fanning was atop his stable pony, about ready to go out to the training track with a set of horses at sun-kissed Santa Anita Thursday morning.

“I don’t get it,” Fanning said. “(Gary) Jones says he’s got the best horse in America (Quiet American). (Wayne) Lukas says he’s got the best horse in America (Farma Way). If this is so, why is my horse (My Boy Adam), who’s won only three races in his life and never won more than an allowance, getting only four pounds from one of them (Quiet American), and only six pounds from the other one (Farma Way)?

“They sure weighted Farma Way to run. He’s in at 120 pounds, and 3-year-old maidens carried 121 pounds here the other day. The last horse to do what Farma Way’s done, win all three of those races (the San Carlos, San Pasqual and San Antonio handicaps), carried 130 pounds in this race.”

With that, Fanning rode off. He was talking about Ack Ack, in 1971, who is one of seven horses to have won the Big ‘Cap at 130 pounds.

Weight like that hasn’t been assigned since John Henry beat Perrault on a foul in 1982. Only one horse weighted at less than 121 pounds--the 50-1 shot, Martial Law, with 113 pounds in 1989--has won the Big ‘Cap in the last seven years.

Lukas, whose stable office is just around the corner from Fanning’s barn, was close enough to hear the rival trainer’s comments about the weights, but in case he missed them, there was more byplay at the post-position draw later in the morning.

“I see where Tom Robbins (Santa Anita’s vice president for racing) has dropped the family horse a couple of pounds,” said Alan Balch, the master of ceremonies. Flying Continental is trained by Jay Robbins, the vice president’s brother.

Fanning couldn’t resist. “I know Jay is related,” he said. “But I don’t know how Wayne is related.”

Lukas, who has won 15 races worth $1 million but is zero for four in the Big ‘Cap, assisted Dave Samuel of the track’s racing department in rolling the numbered pills out of a bottle to determine post positions for the 11 starters.

There were two pills left, one with No. 3 and the other an outside post position. One of the pills got away from Lukas, rolling off the table. When Lukas rolled again, Farma Way came up with No. 3, a good spot for a horse that will be running close to the lead.

“That took some doin’, didn’t it?” trainer Charlie Whittingham said as he twitted Lukas.

Whittingham, 77, beat Lukas’ Criminal Type with Ruhlmann last year in winning his eighth Big ‘Cap, and he’ll run Anshan Saturday--his 62nd starter in the race’s 54th year.

Here’s the way the field lines up, with Jeff Tufts having made the morning line:

Secret Hello, Pat Day riding, 113 pounds, 30-1; In Excess, Jose Santos, 118, 5-1; Farma Way, Gary Stevens, 120, 2-1; Flying Continental, Corey Black, 119, 8-1; Anshan, Angel Cordero, 115, 3-1; Pleasant Tap, Alex Solis, 115, 30-1; My Boy Adam, Laffit Pincay, 114, 10-1; Festin, Eddie Delahoussaye, 114, 12-1; Louis Cyphre, Robbie Davis, 110, 30-1; Quiet American, Chris McCarron, 118, 3-1; and Defensive Play, Chris Antley, 119, 5-1.

Anshan and Quiet American, both owned by Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid al Maktoum of Dubai, will be coupled in the betting. Defensive Play’s owner, Prince Khalid Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, is paying a $25,000 fee to make the winner of the Strub Stakes eligible, trying to win the Big ‘Cap the way a horse named Prince Dantan did in 1974 and Martial Law did in 1989.

Getting back to the weights, Farma Way, who is on a four-race winning streak, is carrying two pounds more than the 118 that the 4-year-old colt shouldered in the San Antonio three weeks ago. He carried 115 pounds in the San Carlos and 116 in the San Pasqual.

His Big ‘Cap impost is the third highest of his 16-race career, topped only by the 122 he carried in his first start and the 121 he had in the 1989 Hollywood Futurity. He finished ninth and second, respectively, in those races, during a period under trainer Neil Boyce when he had a lung infection and a bleeding problem and won only two of 10 starts.

Since going to Lukas late last year, Farma Way has won four of five races and ran fourth in the other.

“I thought we’d pick up a couple of pounds off that last race,” Lukas said. “I would have raised my eyebrows if they had put four extra pounds on us. Most of the other horses dropped, so there’s not much of a spread between top and bottom. I don’t see the top weight as being too significant. It’ll just be a horse race.”

My Boy Adam, Fanning’s trainee, ran the race of his life last time, losing by a head to Defensive Play in the Strub, which was only the second stakes start for the 4-year-old colt.

On Saturday, however, Fanning’s horse won’t even get the six-pound spread he’s entitled to. His jockey is Laffit Pincay, who has been riding at 117 pounds lately. Pincay, who has won the race five times, hasn’t seen 114 pounds in years.

Horse Racing Notes

If Gary Stevens wins the Santa Anita Handicap with Farma Way, he will become the first jockey to win it in consecutive years since Bill Shoemaker won with Lucky Debonair in 1966 and Pretense in ’67. . . . Shoemaker won the Big ‘Cap 11 times.

There have been 103 races worth $1 million or more since the first Arlington Million in 1981, and eight of the jockeys in the Big ‘Cap have won 54 of them. Laffit Pincay heads the list with 11, followed by Jose Santos with 10, Chris McCarron and Pat Day with nine each and Angel Cordero with seven. Stevens and Eddie Delahoussaye have won three apiece and Alex Solis has two.

George Bunn, the Springfield (Ill.) man who owns Farma Way, will see him run for the first time Saturday since hiring Wayne Lukas as his trainer. . . . Another stake on Saturday’s card, the $100,000 Arcadia Handicap at a mile on grass, drew 16 horses, including two on the also-eligible list. The high weights at 118 pounds apiece are Blaze O’Brien and Somethingdifferent. . . . Saturday’s first race will be run shortly after noon, and to accommodate national television the Big ‘Cap is the fifth race, scheduled for about 2:45.

The Big ‘Cap is the second stake in the 10-race American Championship Racing Series, a new program that offers $8.25 million in purses and bonuses. The first series race, the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park, was won by Jolie’s Halo, with Secret Hello finishing third, beaten by more than eight lengths. Horses are awarded points on a 10-7-5-3-1 basis for the first five finishers. The horse with the most points at the end of the series earns a $750,000 bonus, with another $750,000 going to the next three horses in the point standings. After Saturday, the next race in the series is the Oaklawn Handicap on April 13, and there are two more $1-million California races scheduled, the Hollywood Gold Cup on June 29 and the Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 10. The series ends with the Woodward at Belmont Park on Sept. 15.

Santa Anita announced Thursday that the first match race in track history, a half-mile, $100,000, winner-take-all stake between the thoroughbred Sunny Blossom and Griswold, a quarter horse, will be run on April 14, pending approval of the California Horse Racing Board. The track reportedly will pay $90,000, with the owners of the horses making up the difference. Sunny Blossom, who hasn’t run since last August, will need a prep race, probably next Friday, to be ready. The 6-year-old gelding ran a track-record 1:07 1/5 for six furlongs in 1989, covering the first half-mile in :43 2/5. At Los Alamitos in February, Griswold set a world record for 870 yards--10 yards less than a half-mile--with a :43.99 clocking.