HOLLYWOOD PARK : Brought To Mind Shows McAnally Price Is Right

When the owner-breeder of Brought To Mind first offered her for sale, trainer Ron McAnally thought the $250,000 asking price might be too high. Now the 4-year-old pewter-gray filly looks like a bargain at any price.

The field for Sunday’s $200,000 Vanity Handicap was nothing stellar, McAnally readily acknowledged, but neither the trainer nor the filly’s owner, Tadahiro Hotehama, will return the $110,000 winner’s share of the purse after Brought To Mind romped to a wire-to-wire, 2 3/4-length victory before 22,490 at Hollywood Park. Brought To Mind scored her third victory in less than two months and has McAnally thinking about the Breeders’ Cup Distaff again, a fall race that he won the last two years with the now-retired Bayakoa.

Bayakoa also won the 1989 Vanity, running 1 1/8 miles under 125 pounds in 1:47 1/5. Brought To Mind carried 120 pounds, three to six pounds more than any of the other five starters, and was clocked in 1:48 2/5, giving Pat Valenzuela a sweep of the three weekend stakes. On Saturday, Valenzuela took over for the flu-weakened Corey Nakatani, who sat out his third consecutive day card Sunday, and rode Twilight Agenda to victory in the Bel Air Handicap. On Friday, Valenzuela was aboard for Appealing Missy’s victory in the Sangue Handicap.

Favored Brought To Mind paid $3.40 to win, the same price as Bayakoa two years ago. Fit To Scout ran second, a length better than Luna Elegante, and it was two lengths back to Summer Matinee in fourth place. Four of the Vanity starters had never won a stake in this country and Summer Matinee, the second betting choice, was making her stakes debut.

Hotehama, who makes lenses for television and still cameras in Japan and the United States, has received more than $300,000 in purses since he bought Brought To Mind through McAnally last December.

McAnally was training Brought To Mind all along for Lindsay Semple, a Vancouver, Canada, gold investor who bred the filly. Brought To Mind is by Ruthie’s Native out of Eliza Blue, an Icecapade mare. Ruthie’s Native was injured in a farm accident last November and had to be destroyed.

“The gold market had turned bad, and Lindsay said that he had his back to the wall and needed to sell some of his horses,” McAnally said. “This filly was his favorite, and he thought he could get $250,000 for her.”

At the time, Brought To Mind had won four of 11 starts and was running locally in allowance company on grass. “Isn’t that too much to ask?” McAnally said to Semple, an old client.

“No, I think it’s a good price,” Semple said. “I’ve got two or three other people willing to pay it if your man (Hotehama) doesn’t want her.”

McAnally needed another opinion and he called Rollin Baugh, a California bloodstock agent.

“If she wins that race at Hollywood Park, then she could be worth it,” Baugh said.

The race, a 1 1/16-mile dirt allowance, went to Brought To Mind by 3 1/2 lengths and Hotehama closed the deal.

The first time she ran in her new silks, Brought To Mind won the La Brea Stakes at Santa Anita by 5 1/2 lengths Dec. 30. Two weeks later, though, she was in for a horrible experience in the El Encino. Brought To Mind got agitated in the gate and one of the assistant starters bit her on the ear, something that is sometimes done to get a horse’s attention.

Brought To Mind tried to jump out of her skin, thrashed herself against the inside of the stall and suffered cuts and a hip injury.

“I thought they were going to scratch her,” McAnally said. “They probably should have.”

Brought To Mind ran last as the 8-5 favorite and McAnally had a very nervous horse on his hands. She looked at the starting gate as though she was facing a machine gun.

“A week at a time, we’d take her back to the gate to get her used to it,” McAnally said. “She’s still frightened of it a little bit, and breaks out in a sweat.”

Brought To Mind ran two more dull races at Santa Anita last winter before she threw in a third-place run, beaten by less than two lengths, in the A Gleam Handicap at Hollywood on April 27. Since then, she’s been perfect, winning the Hawthorne and Milady Handicaps before the Vanity.

Horse Racing Notes

Pat Valenzuela won the Vanity for the second time in six tries. His other victory came aboard Track Robbery in 1981. Valenzuela’s uncles, Milo and Angel, rode in the stake 12 times without winning it. . . . Ron McAnally said Brought To Mind’s next race probably will be at the Del Mar meeting, which opens a week from Wednesday.

McAnally, second to Wayne Lukas in the national trainer standings with purses of more than $3.7 million, worked Festin a mile in 1:37 at Hollywood Park. The horse was flown East Sunday night, to run in the New England Classic at Rockingham Park next Saturday. . . . Algenib, a champion in Argentina, returned from his victory Saturday in good shape and the long-range plan is for him and Itsallgreektome, another Wally Dollase trainee, to run in the Arlington Million on Sept. 1.

Laffit Pincay rode three winners Sunday--the first race and the last two races--to move into the lead in the jockey standings with 57 victories, two more than Gary Stevens.