SANTA ANITA : Saturday’s 55th Running of Big ‘Cap Will Answer Plenty of Questions

The line forms on the right for questions leading up to Saturday’s running of the 55th Santa Anita Handicap:

--Will Best Pal’s hoof injury compromise his chances of winning for the third time in a $1-million race?

--Will a possible off track eliminate Fanatic Boy and Defensive Play and set up an upset by either Ibero or Algenib, two mud-loving runners from Argentina?

--Will Twilight Agenda and In Excess, two of the favorites, find the 1 1/4-mile distance too demanding?

--Will Gary Stevens win the race aboard In Excess, becoming the first jockey in Big ‘Cap history to win the stake three years in a row?

--Will trainer Wayne Lukas regret that he didn’t prep Twilight Agenda for Saturday with a run in the San Antonio Handicap three weeks ago?

By Big ‘Cap standards, the seven-horse field is small. Only three times have fewer gone to the post. But the best older horses in the country are present, perhaps with the exception of Dinard, who is sitting this one out after running three tough races, including a second behind Best Pal in the Strub Stakes on Feb. 9. Two of California’s handicap horses will be in Florida on Saturday, presumably for easier pickings in a $300,000 race, the Gulfstream Park Handicap. Sea Cadet and Cobra Classic are the 1-2 morning-line favorites.

On Thursday, Fanatic Boy drew the No. 1 post position for the Big ‘Cap. Posts should be of little import in a small field traveling two turns, but historically No. 1 is not the place to be at the start of this race. Only Mr. Right, a 19-1 shot running on an off track in 1968, won the stake from the inside.

Fanatic Boy will be ridden by Eddie Delahoussaye, carries 115 pounds and has been installed at 8-1 by Jeff Tufts, the Santa Anita linemaker. Next comes Ibero, Pat Valenzuela, 117 pounds, 10-1; Defensive Play, David Flores, 115, 15-1; Best Pal, Kent Desormeaux, 124, 7-5; Twilight Agenda, Chris McCarron, 124, 5-2; Algenib, Laffit Pincay, 117, 6-1; and In Excess, Gary Stevens, 123, 5-1. Ibero has been supplemented into the race at a cost of $25,000.

The Big ‘Cap will be the fifth race on the card because of a national telecast, with post time for the first race at 12:15.

The Santa Anita Handicap is Round 2 in the nine-race American Championship Racing Series, which offers $1.5 million in bonus money to the four horses that accumulate the most points via high finishes. The series opener, the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park, was won by Sea Cadet. The series began last year, when Farma Way and Festin, the one-two finishers in the Big ‘Cap, went on to finish that way for the bonuses.

Best Pal, a status-seeker from the 3-year-old ranks, dropped in on the championship series at Del Mar last August and beat Twilight Agenda by a length in the Pacific Classic.

Since then, Twilight Agenda has won four of six starts, never running a dull race, but the two defeats were both at 1 1/4 miles, Saturday’s distance. Lukas withheld Twilight Agenda from the San Antonio--the race Ibero won in the mud--because he didn’t like the weight assignment. Best Pal went on a three-race losing streak after Del Mar but this year has won the San Fernando and the Strub at Santa Anita, the last start his third at 1 1/4 miles.

Last Sunday, after a workout at Hollywood Park, a three-eighths-inch crack was discovered in Best Pal’s left hind hoof. The foot was poulticed to reduce heat, and the next day an acrylic patch was applied and six screws were inserted to keep the crack from deepening. Trainer Gary Jones estimated that it will take from two to three months for the crack to heal.

A crack in a horse’s rear hoof is not considered as serious as a crack in front, and horses frequently run well despite that injury. Slew O’ Gold suffered from two quarter cracks before the 1984 Breeders’ Cup, had them patched and then ran a knockout race, missing by less than a length beating Wild Again in the Classic. One of Jones’ grass standouts, Classic Fame, who will run Saturday in the $150,000 Arcadia Handicap on the Big ‘Cap card, has won stakes despite a quarter crack.

“Quarter cracks and patches are pretty common,” Jones said. “But the hoof is still of some concern. This has been a flawless horse (this year), and now he has a flaw. So we’re going to run him with a cloud over his head. There’s been a little blood in the crack since the injury, but that could be a good sign. I was worried about infection, and that blood could flush out the injury.”

In Excess, who lost to Ibero in the San Antonio, will try to copy such horses as Seabiscuit and Cougar II, who lost the Big ‘Cap before winning the race. In Excess conceded eight pounds and lost by three-quarters of a length to Ibero in the San Antonio.

A year ago, In Excess was a soundly beaten fourth in the stake, which prompted trainer Bruce Jackson to move the horse to New York, where he won four major races.

One of those four, the Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park, was 1 1/4 miles, but Jackson isn’t deluding himself, conceding that In Excess isn’t a genuine 10-furlong runner.

“I think Wayne (Lukas) and I are alike,” Jackson said Thursday. “We’d feel better if this race was a mile and a sixteenth, or a mile and an eighth. But where else are you going to run?”

Horse Racing Notes

Gary Stevens rode Santa Anita Handicap winners Ruhlmann in 1990 and Farma Way last year. Stevens almost won the race in 1989, finishing second with Triteamtri at 40-1. The winner, Martial Law, paid $130.60 for $2. . . . Bill Shoemaker, who won a record 11 Big ‘Caps, had back-to-back winners twice and Johnny Longden also won two in a row. . . . Steve Wood, the track superintendent, said that if any rain stops by noon today, he can probably have the track fast for the Big ‘Cap.

Since being voted male-grass champion for 1990, Itsallgreektome has run 11 times, winning twice and finishing second five times. On Saturday, the 5- year-old gray gelding tries again, facing 11 turf rivals in the $150,000 Arcadia Handicap at one mile. Itsallgreektome will have the No. 5 post, high weight of 123 pounds and Pat Valenzuela, his sixth jockey in the last 11 starts. . . . Eddie Delahoussaye, winning jockey in the last four runnings of the Arcadia, will ride Classic Fame, who will carry 121 pounds from the No. 9 spot as he seeks his third consecutive victory. . . . Also running are Repriced, Qathif, Dominion Gold, Blaze O’Brien, Hollywood Reporter, Leger Cat, Apollo, Fly Till Dawn, Eternity Star and Notorious Pleasure.

Twelve horses have entered Saturday’s $100,000 Las Flores Breeders’ Cup Handicap, for older fillies and mares at six furlongs on dirt. Middlefork Rapids, high weight at 118 pounds, and D’or Ruckus, both stakes winners at the meet, are in the field, along with Spirited Susan, Brazen, Forest Fealty, Casey’s Romance, Streamer, Mahaska, Distant Dawn, Phil’s Illusion, Briar’s Irish Rose and Appreciada. . . . Thursday’s Ack Ack Handicap, named after the 1971 winner of the Big ‘Cap, went to Perfectly Proud, who overcame the outside post to beat favored Mr. Integrity by one length.

A horsemen’s dispute with the Florida state legislature has resulted in the cancellation of racing at Gulfstream Park today, with not enough horses being entered to conduct a program. For Saturday, 133 horses were entered for 11 races, horsemen saying that they were obligated to run because of trainers who had shipped in for the Gulfstream Park Handicap. Sea Cadet is 4-5 in the race, Cobra Classic 3-1. Others entered are Strike the Gold, winless in 10 tries since winning the Kentucky Derby, along with Sunny Sunrise, Manlove and Honest Ensign. Sea Cadet is in at 119 pounds, four more than Strike the Gold.