SANTA ANITA : Classic Fame Perfectly Fit in San Marcos

Classic Fame’s career has been so troubled that the 6-year-old has run only 16 races.

As a 3-year-old, Classic Fame caught the colic and underwent surgery. At 4, he suffered a broken cannon bone during the Arlington Million and didn’t run for almost a year. Then in his first race back, he suffered a hoof injury and missed another two months.

Now, Classic Fame’s problems are behind him. Since November, he has won three of four starts--more races than he ran in all of 1991--and the latest victory, in Monday’s $158,100 San Marcos Handicap at Santa Anita, was the most impressive.

With Eddie Delahoussaye waiting until they passed the sixteenth pole to apply the whip, Classic Fame overtook Fly Till Dawn, the winner of last year’s San Marcos, and scored a half-length victory before 33,966 and 24,745 others who did their betting at satellite locations.

Classic Fame, favored in the six-horse field and paying $6.60 to win, ran 1 1/4 miles on the grass in 1:58, breaking by a fifth of a second the stakes record set by Royal Derby II in 1977 and equaled by Putting in 1990.

Fly Till Dawn, who finished fourth when Classic Fame won the San Gabriel Handicap on Jan. 1, was 1 1/4 lengths ahead of French Seventyfive, with Golden Pheasant another 2 1/4 lengths back in fourth place. Golden Pheasant, another physically troubled horse, won the Arlington Million during which Classic Fame was injured, and hadn’t run since winning the Japan Cup last November.

Classic Fame, earning $90,600 of the purse, completed one of the best weeks ever for trainer Gary Jones. Jones saddled Best Pal, who won Saturday’s San Fernando, and last Wednesday his Alpine Queen won the filly division of the California Breeders’ Champion Stakes.

“This race (the San Marcos) looked like a replay of the other day (Best Pal’s victory),” Jones said. “I couldn’t have drawn it up any better.”

Classic Fame was in fourth place much of the way. He was seven lengths behind the pace-setting Super May as the half-mile went by in a swift :45 2/5, and he was still fourth, more than 4 1/2 lengths behind the new leader, Fly Till Dawn, as the mile time came up a quick 1:33 4/5.

“I loved the pace,” Delahoussaye said. “I was just hoping he’d kick on. He dug in and caught that horse. I thought Fly Till Dawn would stop sooner. Laffit (Pincay) got him relaxed on the backside, then he pulled off again in the turn. I hoped the second move would do him in, and it did finally. I don’t know how far he’ll go. They were concerned about a mile and a quarter, but he did it today.”

Kostroma, who set a world record for 1 1/8 miles on grass in a race at Santa Anita last fall, would have been Jones’ first choice for the San Marcos, but she has had sore hoofs and is only back to galloping again.

Jones watched the San Marcos replay on a monitor near the tunnel that leads from the walking ring to the track.

“Mr. Cool (Delahoussaye) sat back there cool,” Jones said. “He rode him absolutely perfect. Then when he hit the horse, he really took off.”

Fly Till Dawn misled Pincay, acting as though he would relax all the way.

“If he relaxes, he wins by three lengths,” Pincay said. “He was relaxing the first eighth and wouldn’t stay there. I said, ‘Beautiful, he’s going to stay here,’ but then, in the stretch, he wouldn’t wait. He’s just a feisty little horse. He really wants to go.”

Early on, Golden Pheasant was even farther back than Classic Fame, trailing by as many as 15 1/2 lengths. At the eighth pole, jockey Gary Stevens said, he had to snatch up to avoid clipping heels with another horse. But by then, Stevens added, third place was the best they could have hoped for.

Classic Fame, a $750,000 yearling, is a son of Nijinsky II who is now owned by a three-way partnership.

“He’s a rarity in that he was a brilliant 2-year-old and today he’s a top-class horse,” said William DeBurgh, one of the owners.

Classic Fame is still running only because of the depressed bloodstock market.

“Stallion market?” Gary Jones said. “There is none.”

Horse Racing Notes

Chris McCarron and Martin Pedroza didn’t ride Monday because of flu. . . . Kent Desormeaux picked up a victory, replacing McCarron on Alleged Stardom in the sixth race. . . . Nine 3-year-olds are entered in Wednesday’s Santa Ysabel Stakes, including Looie Capote, runner-up at 30-1 to Magical Maiden in the Hollywood Starlet. The others are Golden Treat, Crownette, Wakiland, Red Bandana, Fantastic Kim, Over The Mamoon, Pinochle and Wariness.