SANTA ANITA : Denial of Foul Gives Victory to Irish Twist

Irish Twist, a 3-year-old gelding claimed for $50,000 about a month ago, beat a field that mostly came from the claiming ranks Sunday, winning the $139,500 California Breeders’ Champion Stakes by a head.

Irish Twist’s trainer, Al Klayman, and his owner, Brian Hosking, stood trackside for about 10 minutes after the seven-furlong race for California-breds, not sure of their $83,250 victory until the stewards had disallowed a foul claim by Laffit Pincay, rider of the second-place finisher, Megan’s Interco.

Fax News made up a lot of ground in the stretch, but couldn’t overtake the first two horses and finished third, beaten by about a half-length.

Frank Alvarado, a substitute for the ailing Chris McCarron, rode Irish Twist, who was claimed from trainer Henry Moreno on Dec. 19 at Hollywood Park before he scored a 3 1/2-length victory in his first start. He hadn’t run since then.

“I had seen this horse in the mornings before I claimed him,” Klayman said. “He was very good in the way he moved.”

Irish Twist is the only horse ever owned by Hosking, a veterinarian from San Marcos. Growing up in Detroit, Hosking was introduced to racing by a neighborhood pal, Lenny Frazzitta, who became a jockey. Hosking choked up after the race Sunday, recalling Frazzitta’s death in an automobile accident several years ago.

Faced with the Super Bowl competition, Santa Anita ran Sunday’s first race at 11 a.m. and the nine-race program was completed before the opening kickoff. A crowd of 15,536 was at the track and another 15,626 did their betting at off-track sites.

“We were disappointed, but who knows what we would have done with a normal post,” said Cliff Goodrich, Santa Anita’s president. “If we had run at the regular time, I think we might have drawn 17,000 at the track.”

McCarron was named to ride Irish Twist, but he has been sidelined for the last six days of racing because of flu. Another of McCarron’s mounts, Twilight Agenda, won Saturday’s San Pasqual Handicap under Kent Desormeaux.

Irish Twist took the lead at the quarter pole. Megan’s Interco, on the outside, edged ahead in mid-stretch, but Irish Twist came on again at the sixteenth pole. Irish Twist and Megan’s Interco brushed through the stretch.

“How can they (the stewards) say that both horses contributed (to the brushing)?” Pincay said. “My horse ran a good race. I don’t know if he got tired or pulled himself up. The last time, he did the same thing.”

Alvarado learned on Saturday that he would ride Irish Twist. “When the other horse took the lead, I switched my stick and hit my horse left-handed, and he started running again,” Alvarado said.

Irish Twist, paying $9.40 as the third betting choice, was timed in 1:23 2/5. Fabulous Champ, stakes-placed three times, ran sixth in the 10-horse field as the 2-1 favorite.

Klayman, 26, has been training for six years. The biggest race he had won before Sunday was with Northern Provider in the 1988 C.F. Afflerbaugh Stakes at Fairplex Park. The first horse Klayman ever saddled won a claiming race at Fairplex.

Twilight Agenda’s next race is scheduled to be the San Antonio Handicap on Feb. 13, followed by the Santa Anita Handicap on March 7.

Trainer Ron McAnally said that he had no plans for Ibero, who was second in the San Pasqual. “Twilight Agenda was just too much horse,” McAnally said. Algenib, who was fourth in his first race on dirt, is still headed for the Big ‘Cap.

Mane Minister, winner of last year’s Santa Catalina Stakes, went on to finish third in all three Triple Crown races. Wednesday’s 11-horse Santa Catalina field includes Al Sabin and Novelty Hill.

The others are Aly Flight, Turbulent Kris, Vying Victor, Dolly’s Fortune, Solid Truth, Buck Ogygian, Silent Raj, Chain of Life and Anonymouslew.

Chris McCarron, expected to return to action, has the mount on Dolly’s Fortune.

The Pick Nine rules require that there be a payoff Wednesday, with the pool having reached $535,000.

If no one has all nine winners, half the pool will go to the bettors with the most winners and half to the players with the next highest number of winners.