DEL MAR : Stewards Are Having Busy Meeting

These are the busiest of times for the three stewards at Del Mar. Through the first 19 days of the meeting, there were 15 claims of foul by jockeys and seven inquiries by the stewards, resulting in six disqualifications and two rider suspensions.

The stewards are automatically on the spot any time there is an objection, but two of their recent decisions were especially ticklish:

--In last week’s De Anza Stakes, a four-horse race, they had to determine whether Burnished Bronze, a 2-year-old colt owned by John Mabee, Del Mar’s board chairman, had wiped out the two horses inside him just after the start.

--Three days later, in the Eddie Read Handicap, there was a partial rerun of last year’s Pier 6 brawl, the Del Mar Derby, and once again a victory by Tight Spot was in the stewards’ hands.

The stewards didn’t disqualify Mabee’s colt, certainly not an unpopular decision with most of the bettors since Burnished Bronze was odds-on and more than $80,000 had been laid on his nose.

In the Eddie Read, the stewards disallowed jockey Corey Nakatani’s foul claim against Tight Spot. A year ago, they had gone the other way; the stewards took Tight Spot’s number down, before the California Horse Racing Board and a court judge concurred that their judgment was faulty.

The De Anza required the stewards to make a call on a horse owned by someone in the executive suite, which quickly reminded some horsemen of the 1975 Santa Anita Handicap, in which Stardust Mel, owned by Marje Everett, survived a hard-fought stretch duel and a stewards’ inquiry to take the $105,500 winner’s share of the purse.

Lingering speculation over that outcome led to a change in the way stewards are hired at California tracks. Before that Big ‘Cap, the race track hired one steward, the racing board picked another and the panel was completed by a judge recommended by the other two stewards. All three stewards were paid by the track.

The 1975 Big ‘Cap was run a few weeks before the start of a meeting at Hollywood Park, where Everett was in charge. The same Santa Anita stewards would be working at Hollywood. The perception that they might have made the decision out of a need for job security prompted the state to take over the complete hiring and paying of stewards.

Noble Threewitt, the trainer of Out Of The East, the horse who finished second to Stardust Mel in the Big ‘Cap, was saddling a horse for the second race at Del Mar Thursday. Remembering that day did not help Threewitt’s digestion.

“It was a rodeo,” Threewitt said. “Every time my horse would try to pass Stardust Mel, (Bill) Shoemaker would come out a little farther and bump him. But what chance did I have of the number coming down? It was me against a horse owned by Marje, trained by Charlie (Whittingham) and ridden by Shoemaker. But while we’re talking about it, is it too late to appeal?”

Out Of The East was ridden by Raoul Ramirez, now a jockeys’ valet here. “That race was so ridiculous,” Ramirez said. “The stewards told me that they couldn’t do anything to Shoemaker’s horse because it was a muddy track.”

The current Del Mar stewards are Mort Lipton, Dave Samuel and Ingrid Fermin. Lipton blanched at the suggestion that a Mabee horse might get extra consideration over a foul claim.

“I say this unequivocally, unquestionably and uncontradictorily,” Lipton said. “When we look at a foul, the only things on our minds are the numbers and the horses. After we make the decision, we might notice who the owner is. But otherwise we’re not even interested.”

Lipton was asked if the stewards might have been thinking about last year’s Del Mar Derby when they reviewed Nakatani’s foul claim against Tight Spot in the Eddie Read. Nakatani, aboard Algenib last Sunday, also rode Itsallgreektome, the other horse involved in the Del Mar Derby, and both horses are trained by Wally Dollase.

“No, sir,” Lipton said. “Oh, we were aware Tight Spot was breaking from the outside, just as he had in the race a year ago, but that was the only connection.

“The Eddie Read was an easy one. We didn’t hang the inquiry sign because we knew we wouldn’t be taking the number down. Nakatani’s horse was at fault, too, and he had been a problem in his previous race, at Hollywood Park. He blew the turn that day.”

At Del Mar Thursday, the stewards lit the inquiry sign after the fifth race, and for the 23rd time at the meeting they went into postrace deliberations. Slew’s Crown, a 3-year-old gelding, became the seventh victim, being disqualified from third to fifth place.

They still have 23 days to go.

Julio Garcia, who abruptly quit riding here 10 days ago and returned temporarily to his native Puerto Rico, has been named on horses for Saturday’s card, including Campagnarde in the $300,000 Ramona Handicap.

“We allowed him to be named on horses, but he won’t be able to ride until after we’ve talked to him,” Lipton said. “We want to talk to him about why he left, and there are some other things to be discussed, things I’d rather not get in to.”

Ten horses are entered in the Ramona, which is at 1 1/8 miles on grass. The high weights at 118 pounds each are Somethingmerry, winner of a division of the Palomar Handicap on July 28, and Bequest, whose last race was a victory in the Santa Barbara Handicap at Santa Anita on March 31.

The field from the rail out, with jockeys and weights: Guiza, Gary Stevens, 116 pounds; Annual Reunion, Kent Desormeaux, 115; Somethingmerry, Laffit Pincay, 118; Campagnarde, Garcia, 115; Bequest, Eddie Delahoussaye, 118; Countus In, Nakatani, 117; Appealing Missy, Pat Valenzuela, 116; Agirlfromars, Alex Solis, 114; Sun Brandy, Luis Ortega, 113, and Sweet Roberta, Rafael Meza, 114.

Horse Racing Notes

After riding Deposit Ticket in today’s Windy Sands Handicap at Del Mar, Chris McCarron will head for Saratoga, where he will be aboard Corporate Report Saturday in the $1-million Travers Stakes. The Travers has drawn six horses, with Strike The Gold, the Kentucky Derby winner, favored at 2-1. Hansel, the winner of the Preakness and Belmont, is 5-2. No Derby winner has won the Travers since Shut Out in 1942. Other Travers starters are Lost Mountain, Fly So Free and Tong Po. Angel Cordero has replaced Chris Antley as the rider of Strike The Gold, and Antley has picked up the mount on Tong Po.

Act Decided, a first-time starter, paid $110 for winning the fourth race Thursday, the highest win price of the season at Del Mar. . . . According to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, Corey Nakatani will ride Lite Light if his filly runs in the Chula Vista Handicap at Del Mar on Sept. 1. On the same day, Itsallgreektome, another of Nakatani’s mounts, is scheduled to run in the Arlington Million.