DEL MAR : 16 Years Later, Mena Will Go After Second Victory in Futurity

Francisco (Paco) Mena won the Del Mar Futurity in 1975 with Telly’s Pop, and today, 16 years later, will try for an encore aboard Scherando in the $288,500 race.

Scherando will race nine rivals, some of which couldn’t beat Mena’s mount in the Balboa Stakes here in August.

Scherando, who has three victories and a second for Mena after running fourth in his debut for jockey Alex Solis at Hollywood Park in May, has helped the native Mexican with his comeback. Mena, who will be 44 next month, suffered a severe back injury when one of his mounts clipped the heels of another horse on the last turn of a race at Pomona in 1987.

“I was paralyzed . . . for about four or five months,” Mena said. “I got very depressed. I didn’t have the surgery because there were no guarantees that it would work.”

The accident occurred at Fairplex Park, where Mena has enjoyed the most success. Four times Mena has been the riding champion at the Los Angeles County Fair, and his 38 victories there in 1981 are still the record. Despite the time lost because of injuries, Mena has won 247 races at Pomona, 62 more than the next jockey in the track standings.

His success with Scherando, though, hasn’t catapulted Mena into the limelight. There are too many Hall of Fame jockeys and potential Hall of Famers on the Hollywood-Santa Anita-Del Mar circuit for that to happen. Going into today’s program, the windup of the 43-day Del Mar season, Mena has averaged fewer than three mounts a program and has won only five races besides Scherando’s victory in the Balboa.

Scherando, trained by Richard Mulhall, hasn’t been favored in any of his races and was 16-1 when he won the Hollywood Juvenile in July. Today, Scherando carries 120 pounds, making him co-high weight with Big Sur, a $400,000 Alydar yearling who will be trying to give trainer Wayne Lukas his fourth victory in the Futurity.

Big Sur, winner of two of four starts, has done all his racing in the East, winning the Sapling at Monmouth Park and then getting off to a poor start before finishing seventh in the Hopeful at Saratoga.

Neither Big Sur nor Scherando has run the Futurity distance of a mile. There are some starters today who have, among them Enter the Player and Turbulent Kris. Both have won at that distance at the meet, though not in fast times. Laffit Pincay, a four-time Futurity winner, will ride Enter the Player, a $300,000 son of Roberto who broke his maiden in his fourth start.

Horse Racing Notes

Pat Valenzuela, trying to win his third Del Mar riding title and his second in a row, leads Kent Desormeaux in winners, 52-50. Both jockeys could ride all nine races today, although Desormeaux’s mount in the Futurity, Roan Shark, needs a scratch in order to draw in off the also-eligible list. . . . Desormeaux will be in Toronto Sunday to ride General Meeting in the Molson Export Million at Woodbine.