SANTA ANITA : Riders to Start New Year on Track

Anybody who had been hoping to see Rhonda Nalley, Al Cortez, Mark Munoz and other assorted less-than-household names ride today at Santa Anita will be disappointed.

The Thoroughbred Racing Assns. and the Jockeys’ Guild have agreed in principle on a new contract, so there won’t be a walkout by the riders.

When a strike was threatened Sunday, today’s entries were taken at Santa Anita with replacement riders named. After a settlement was reached, the regular jockeys were put back on their mounts Tuesday.

The new contract will guarantee insurance coverage for the jockeys for three years.

The agreement provides for a one-time increase in mount fees of 50 cents across the board for the first two years of the contract, resulting in a $5.50, $3.50 or $2.50 schedule of payments depending upon track classification. In the third year, mount fees will increase an additional 25 cents if the aggregate health care insurance costs exceed 1991 levels by 10% or more. In the contract, there is also a call for the establishment of a committee comprised of horsemen’s groups, Guild and TRA representatives that will seek long-term solutions to providing insurance coverage.

Agreement was also reached to settle the television rights issue in the courts, and a provision was included that prohibited either side from using the current contract against the other in any litigation.

Three months before he turned 17, Corey Black won his first race on Filiation, a filly trained by Danny Velasquez.

More than six years later, Black and Velasquez combined again, this time with 9-1 shot Wicked Wit in Tuesday’s $84,400 Pasadena Stakes at Santa Anita. Gary Stevens was to ride the Pirate’s Bounty filly, but he took off his final two mounts because of a cold, so Black got the call.

Picking up his first stakes victory since returning to California in early December, Black slipped Wicked Wit along the rail down the backstretch, took the lead with about a furlong to run and won by 2 1/4 lengths in 1:10 for six furlongs.

Meadow Flyer, a 10-1 shot making only her second start, and first in California, came from last to second, two lengths ahead of 9-5 favorite Top Bank.

“Coming out (of the gate), she was climbing from the dirt hitting her,” Black said. “I got to the fence and got away from the dirt, because everyone was racing away from the rail. I’d never seen this filly before. I’d never even heard of her, to tell the truth, because I was away when she was running this summer. The first time I knew I was on her was in the post parade of the seventh race, when I heard the announcement.”

With the rain having ended at least for the time being, today’s $100,000 San Gabriel Handicap will be run on the turf.

The first grass stakes of the Santa Anita meeting--and first stakes race of 1992--will have 11 starters after seven of the original 18 entrants were scratched Tuesday.

Fly Till Dawn, who won the second division of Hollywood Park’s Citation Handicap in his first start in more than 11 months, is the 3-1 morning line favorite. Laffit Pincay again will ride the 6-year-old son of Swing Till Dawn for trainer Darrell Vienna, carrying top weight of 121 pounds.

In the race before the San Gabriel, the $60,000-added Run for the Roses at a mile, Sacramentada will be heavily favored to win for the second time in as many starts.

After winning 10 of 16 starts in South America, Sacramentada burst through in her American debut on Dec. 7 and won by 3 1/2 lengths. She worked six furlongs in 1:12 flat on Dec. 24 at Santa Anita and will again be ridden by Eddie Delahoussaye. Her opponents are Venturilla, Mydadskleven, Luna Elegante, Slip With Me, Spirited Susan, Vie and Grand Girlfriend.

Horse Racing Notes

For the second consecutive day, there were no winners of the Pick Six, so there’s a carryover of $241,883 for today. . . . Chris McCarron, who wrapped up the national money title Sunday, finished 1991 with an unofficial purse total of $14,441,083. . . . Pat Valenzuela won three races Tuesday--on Lyphing Dancer in the first, Cajmeluv in the sixth and heavily favored Media Plan in the seventh. The victory by Media Plan was the first for the Relaunch gelding since he was bought for a reported $450,000 by the Oaktown Stable of rapper Hammer and family early in 1991.