SANTA ANITA : Natural Nine Gives His Trainer Start on What Could Be a Big Week

Trainer Lewis Cenicola hopes Wednesday was merely the start of a big week for the best 3-year-olds in his barn.

Making his second start of the year, Natural Nine wore down favored Al Sabin by a head to win the $82,125 Bradbury Stakes at Santa Anita. Tonight, Cenicola will head to Florida where he will saddle El Camino Real Derby runner-up Seahawk Gold in the Fountain Of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

Impressive when beating maidens by 6 1/2 lengths at Del Mar last September, Natural Nine didn’t race again until Jan. 26, when he finished second to Lyphard Legend in an allowance race.

Cenicola, the former jockey and John Henry’s longtime exercise rider, was happy with the effort and was happy with the way he trained before the Bradbury.

“We had to stop on him (last year) because his ankles got puffy,” Cenicola said. “We had to take a chip out of one ankle. He’s sound right now.

“This was a good race for him. He’s a little green, yet. He’s such a big colt and he hasn’t run a lot of races (four starts). He’s running in spots. He doesn’t really know how to run yet. He’s just got to mature. He’s taking time to come around. Sometimes, you’d put blinkers on, but I want to let him have a chance to find his own way.”

There is a chance Cenicola may not start Natural Nine again until the Santa Anita Derby on April 4. Seeing how the final time Wednesday was ordinary (1:49 1/5 for 1 1/8 miles), he is going to have to improve to handle the likes of A.P. Indy and Bertrando.

“I think he can improve some more,” jockey David Flores said of Natural Nine. “When he got to the lead inside the last sixteenth, he started goofing around. I knew I had a lot of horse passing the three-eighths pole. I just tried to stay in the clear outside. When I made my move in the stretch, he started to go by, but he’s a little lazy.”

Never far back, Al Sabin slipped through along the inside to take the lead before the field reached the stretch, drew clear, but couldn’t quite last.

“He got to gawking around in the stretch,” jockey Gary Stevens said of Al Sabin. “He was looking in the infield and in the grandstand and everywhere, but where he was supposed to. He really responded to the stick the first two times I hit him, then the next time he sulked from it. He’s one of those slow learners.

“He’s got all the ability in the world; it’s just a question of when he’s going to put it all together. He’s his own worst enemy at this point. He’ll get it figured out one of these days and he’ll be tough to outrun.”

Chain Of Life, 2 1/2 lengths behind the winner, finished third. Solid Truth was fourth, then came Caviar ‘N Dreams, pacesetter Hammer Man, Slews Hour and Aly Flight.

Turbulent Kris, the runner-up in the Santa Catalina last month and one of the favorites Wednesday, was scratched in the post parade.

“He was sore,” veterinarian Ray Baran said. “I thought he was off in both of his (front) legs.”

Corey Black, who rode in France for a few months in 1987, has signed a contract to ride there and will head for Chantilly a week from today.

Black, 23, will ride for owner Jacques Wertheimer, who has a large stable with trainer Criquette Head, the daughter of Alec Head.

After spending several months in Kentucky and New York last year, Black returned to California in December and, through the first 43 days of the meeting, he won with 11 of his 186 mounts.

Horse Racing Notes

Avatar, who won the race in 1975, is the only winner of the Bradbury Stakes who went on to win the Santa Anita Derby. . . . Trainer Wayne Lukas, who broke three ribs in a morning mishap Feb. 4, was back at his barn for the first time Wednesday morning. “I’m still sore, but I’m feeling better,” Lukas said. . . . Before he heads for Europe, Corey Black will ride Vying Victor in the Fountain Of Youth and Stevens will handle Seahawk Gold.

Frost Free, who won the 1990 El Conejo, will be the 119-pound high weight for Saturday’s renewal of the 5 1/2-furlong race. Others likely to go are Anjiz, Apollo, Thirty Slews, Gray Slewpy and Cardmania. . . . Chris McCarron, who had been mired in a 3-for-58 slump, won twice Wednesday--longshots Title Bought in the seventh and Chimmy Rock in the ninth.