Dinard Is Back in Malibu Run : Horse racing: Olympio is also in the field for first race of Strub series on opening day at Santa Anita.

Dinard, a gelding who caused his owner to dream of a Derby, and Olympio, a colt who has won four of them, are the major names in an intriguing group of Strub series hopefuls today as Santa Anita opens its 55th season with the $100,000 Malibu Stakes.

Opening-day crowds at Santa Anita are traditionally large--turnouts of 60,000 and more were commonplace in the 1980s--but the game has changed, and for the first time the Arcadia track’s main meeting will be supplemented by betting opportunities at Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos. Last year, with the satellite betting network not including those two sites, the overall fan count was 54,668.

Dinard made his debut a year ago today, winning a maiden race by five lengths. He immediately graduated into stakes company, winning the Los Feliz by six and running a mile in 1:35 3/5.

Three weeks later, going seven furlongs--the same distance as today’s Malibu--Dinard sustained his only loss when Olympio nosed him out in the San Vicente. Dinard rebounded from that defeat to become the leading West Coast 3-year-old with another cracking-good mile, 1:35 4/5, on a drying-out track in the San Rafael and a half-length victory over favored Best Pal in the Santa Anita Derby on April 6.

The probable favorite for the Kentucky Derby, Dinard was training at Churchill Downs when he was sidelined 10 days before the race because of a torn suspensory ligament.

The setback hit owner Allen Paulson hard, because the aerospace executive had bred Dinard through a mating of Daring Bidder with Strawberry Road, a stallion he raced and owns.

Now, however, Paulson has the best of a couple of worlds, with Dinard returning to the races and Arazi, the best juvenile to race in both Europe and the United States this year, resting in France before beginning a campaign designed to lead to the 1992 Kentucky Derby.

“Dinard is a gelding,” Paulson said, using a declarative sentence that still must sting a little. “We think he’s still got a big racing career ahead of him, so we didn’t want to push him following that injury.”

Before Dinard raced, trainer Dick Lundy had him gelded. “We wouldn’t have been able to get him to train otherwise,” Lundy said.

Trainer Ron McAnally had two promising 3-year-olds, both owned by Verne Winchell, in Olympio and Sea Cadet, so while Sea Cadet finished third in the Santa Anita Derby, Olympio was sent on to Oaklawn Park, winning the Arkansas Derby. Olympio, skipping the Kentucky Derby and finishing fourth in the Preakness, began collecting Derbys after that. He won the Minnesota Derby at Canterbury Downs in July, the American Derby at Arlington International in August and last month, switching to grass, he won a division of the Hollywood Derby. This year, Olympio has six victories, three seconds and that Preakness fourth in 10 starts for winnings totaling $1.1 million.

Chris McCarron, who has ridden Dinard in all of his races, gives way today to Pat Valenzuela, who becomes Paulson’s contract rider under a one-year deal that begins next Wednesday. Valenzuela, scheduled to start a five-day suspension today after a mount of his was disqualified from second to third in a race last Saturday at Hollywood Park, has obtained a court stay of that ruling and will be able to ride until the California Horse Racing Board hears his appeal.

“I think it was vital that I ride Dinard in his first race back,” Valenzuela said. “I wouldn’t want to be riding him cold in the rest of the Strub races.”

The Strub series, named after the late founder of Santa Anita and restricted to foals of 1988, continues with the 1 1/8-mile San Fernando Stakes on Jan. 18 and the 1 1/4-mile Charles H. Strub Stakes on Feb. 9. Round Table, Hillsdale, Ancient Title, Spectacular Bid and Precisionist are the horses that have swept the series.

Valenzuela has been introduced to Dinard these mornings at Santa Anita. The other day, he galloped the horse 1 3/4 miles. “He was tough to handle,” Valenzuela said. “He’s acting like he’s anxious to get back racing.”

The 11-horse Malibu is not a Dinard-Olympio match race. Among the others running are Charmonnier, looking to be a spoiler again after defeating Best Pal in the California Cup Classic on Nov. 9; Letthebighossroll, a tough sprinter who is undefeated in three starts at Santa Anita, and Apollo, who missed beating Dinard by a head in the San Rafael. Bob Baffert trains both Charmonnier and Letthebighossroll, who will be ridden by McCarron. When Precisionist swept the Strub series in 1984-84, McCarron was the jockey.

Horse Racing Notes

Pat Valenzuela is expected to ride the seven horses that Chris Antley, the New York-based rider, was chosen for today and Friday. Entries for the two days were taken before the court order that is enabling Valenzuela to ride. . . . Post time for the first race is noon. It will be 12:30 after that, moving to 1 p.m. on Feb. 19. . . . The 94-day season ends April 27. . . . Bill Spawr and Gary Jones were the leading trainers at the last winter meet, Spawr with 36 wins and Jones with seven stakes victories. . . . Chris McCarron led the jockeys in both departments, with 112 victories, 18 of them in stakes. . . . A year ago, 31% of the favorites won, the highest percentage since 1985.

Santa Anita’s regular racing week is Wednesday through Sunday, but there are exceptions, including next week, when there will be a program for New Year’s Eve. . . . Quintana is another horse running in the Malibu off a long layoff. His last race was a sixth-place finish in the Belmont Stakes in June. He was sixth in the Kentucky Derby. . . . The market being what it is, the stud fee on Alysheba has dropped from $75,000 to $60,000. The 1988 horse of the year, who is still owned by Clarence and Dorothy Scharbauer and their daughter, Pam, stands at Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Ky., and has been bred to 206 mares in his first three seasons as a stallion.