SANTA ANITA : Weight Edge and Mud Are Enough to Help Ibero Win San Antonio

With Twilight Agenda on the sidelines and the track muddy, trainer Ron McAnally was brimming with confidence before Saturday’s $324,750 San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita.

“Ibero is a superior mud horse,” McAnally said. “When it kept raining Friday, I thought we would be sitting pretty.”

Adding to Ibero’s advantage was an eight-pound weight concession that the 5-year-old Argentine-bred received from In Excess, the 11-10 favorite in the San Antonio. Ibero stayed ahead of In Excess all of the way, then withstood his challenge in a long stretch drive and reached the wire three-quarters of a length in front. The rest of the field, reduced to eight starters after five scratches, was never in the hunt, with Cobra Classic finishing third, two lengths behind In Excess.

Rain--seven inches in the last week at Santa Anita--has been a direct factor in two of McAnally’s five stakes victories at the meeting. When his Paseana, another Argentine horse, won the San Gorgonio Handicap last month, it was after rain had forced the grass stake on to the dirt, eliminating much of the competition. McAnally wouldn’t even mind another grass-to-dirt switch Monday in the $250,000 San Luis Obispo Handicap, because his Fanatic Boy, also from Argentina, is another mud lover.

“I was talking with Charlie (Whittingham) the other day, and we agreed that just about every horse from Argentina likes the mud,” McAnally said. “I don’t why that is, but it is.”

McAnally’s Argentine pipeline peaked with Bayakoa, the mare who in 1989-90 won two Breeders’ Cup races and two national divisional titles.

McAnally agreed with trainer Wayne Lukas, who didn’t run Twilight Agenda on Saturday because he was displeased with the weight assignments, which would have given In Excess a three-pound advantage. As it was, In Excess, winner of four major races last year, carried high weight of 123 pounds in making his first start since a ninth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs about 3 1/2 months ago.

In his two previous starts, the Native Diver Handicap at Hollywood Park and the San Pasqual Handicap at Santa Anita, Ibero had run well, but he finished second, 3 1/2 lengths behind Twilight Agenda, both times.

Bruce Jackson, In Excess’ trainer, didn’t use the weights as an excuse after the San Antonio. “We just got outrun,” he said. “My horse ran good, he ran perfect, but he didn’t win.”

A crowd of 13,795 at Santa Anita and another 18,299 at other betting locations made Ibero the second choice Saturday and he paid $9 to win. Hed ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:47, the fastest time for the San Antonio since Bates Motel had the same time in 1983. Ibero earned $189,750 for his owners, Frank Whitham and Ignacio Pavlovsky, the Argentine veterinarian who has examined most of the South American horses that McAnally imported.

Whitham, who raced Bayakoa, bought 50% of Ibero on a contingency, paying $150,000 originally and adding another $100,000 after the horse won a graded race in the United States. Ibero has won seven of 16 starts and earned $419,683.

Alex Solis, who won four races on Thursday, won two more Saturday besides the San Antonio. Ibero was the first stakes winner of the Santa Anita season for Solis, who went to Gulfstream Park two weeks ago to win the Donn Handicap with the McAnally-trained Sea Cadet.

Remembering how In Excess had run on an off track in winning the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga in August, McAnally told Solis to get ahead of Jackson’s 5-year-old and slow down the pace. Solis was able to do that, running the first half-mile in :47 1/5.

“This horse runs good, anywhere with anybody,” Solis said. “He’s a gutsy son of a gun. He’s a very small horse, but he feels like he’s a big horse. He has lots of heart. He tried hard to beat Twilight Agenda both times. He can come from off the pace, but his advantage today was the light weight and making his own pace.”

Santa Anita’s track has stayed firm, producing fast times and stinging the hoofs of horses such as In Excess and Qathif.

“He warmed up good, but he didn’t really want to run on the hard track,” said Gary Stevens, who has been In Excess’ regular rider. “It was a good comeback race for him. I’m just happy he has come back to where he was last year. He was starting to labor a little at the head of the stretch. I figured if he could blow by Alex’s horse, he’d go on to win. But Alex’s horse put up enough of a fight.”

McAnally said that Ibero is a possibility for the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap on March 7. Of McAnally’s other horses, Sea Cadet will return to Florida, running in the Gulfstream Handicap on March 7, and Olympio is scheduled for a rest.

Horse Racing Notes

Jeff Tufts, the Santa Anita linemaker, had made Fluttery Danseur a 3-1 favorite over Pleasant Stage, last year’s champion 2-year-old filly, for today’s Las Virgenes Stakes before Pleasant Stage was scratched because of the off track. That will make Magical Maiden, the Hollywood Starlet winner, the second choice. Fluttery Danseur, undefeated in four starts, returned from a six-month layoff with a six-furlong victory on Jan. 30. The one-mile Las Virgenes will be her first start beyond six furlongs.

With the proviso that the race stay on the grass, trainer Charlie Whittingham entered Miss Alleged, last year’s female grass champion, for Monday’s San Luis Obispo Handicap. Miss Alleged would have been weighted at 126 pounds, but she will get a five-pound concession against male horses. She has drawn the rail in an 11-horse field for the 1 1/2-mile race. The others, in order, are Choice Is Clear, My Style, Military Shot, Secret Witness, Fanatic Boy, Missionary Ridge, French Seventyfive, Quest For Fame, Cool Gold Mood and Capel Meister. Quest For Fame, winner of the Epsom Derby in 1990, will also carry 121 pounds.