SANTA ANITA : Rain Doesn’t Dampen Effort of Cardmania

The horses ran in the mud Sunday for the 21st day during Santa Anita’s meeting, and one of the most untested on an off track splashed home with a one-length victory in the $102,700 Potrero Grande Handicap.

Cardmania, fresh from his first American victory two weeks ago, has now outfinished Frost Free in both of his victories at Santa Anita. The 6-year-old gelding was a neck better than Frost Free on March 7 in the Zooron Handicap, at the same 6 1/2-furlong distance as Sunday’s stake.

In the Potrero Grande, both carried 117 pounds, with Frost Free leading until Cardmania and jockey Eddie Delahoussaye overtook him in mid-stretch. Frost Free finished 3 1/2 lengths ahead of Answer Do, with Individualist, the only other starter, losing his chance when he was left standing as the gate opened. Gray Slewpy, who set the track record for 5 1/2 furlongs while beating Frost Free and Cardmania the last time he raced, was scratched, along with Rushmore.

The first 40 races of Cardmania’s 45-race career were on grass. Introduced to dirt at Hollywood Park last December, all four of his starts before Sunday had been on fast tracks.

Cardmania’s record showed no workouts since his loss to Gray Slewpy on Feb. 22. This inactivity resulted in part because of an abscess on a hind leg, but even at 100% the horse will not have many workouts, because he won’t cooperate.

“He hates to work,” said Myriam Bollack, the French trainer who claimed Cardmania for about $20,000 three years ago. “That would have been difficult to explain to an American trainer, who would have been standing there with his stopwatch, waiting for him to do something. A normal American trainer would have destroyed him.”

Instead, Bollack turned Cardmania over to Derek Meredith and his wife, Helen, who once worked in France. The Merediths have eight other horses in their barn at Hollywood Park. “This horse gave us our first stakes win, now he’s given us our first win in a $100,000 race,” Derek Meredith said.

Cardmania was timed in 1:17 on a track labeled sloppy, paying $8.40 to win and earning $60,200 for his owner, Jean Couvercelle, an executive with sports newspapers in France.

There was no thought about scratching Cardmania. Bollack had flown to Los Angeles from France on Saturday night to be here for the race, and she left Sunday night on the return trip.

“The horse’s breeding (by Cox’s Ridge) said mud, but we really didn’t know whether he’d like it,” Derek Meredith said.

Frost Free, who thrives on off tracks, won his first six starts at Santa Anita, but now has been beaten six out of the last seven in Arcadia.

“He never got a breather the whole race,” jockey Pat Valenzuela said. “He ran a great three-quarters, then the other horse went by and he couldn’t go with him. The winner’s good right now. My horse keeps hooking monsters.”

The scratches in the stake were typical of the rain-swept weekend. Sunday’s fifth race was reduced to three horses because of scratches, with only win betting offered. Cliff Goodrich, president of Santa Anita, said that more than 20 inches of rain has hit the track during the season’s first 68 days.

“I don’t know what the record is,” Goodrich said, “but it might be the rainiest year we’ve had since 1978.”

In 1978, 38 of the 78 race days had off tracks, the mud record for the track that opened in 1934. One more off track this season and Santa Anita will have had its muddiest season in nine years.

Despite continuing rain, Sunday’s on-track attendance was 25,430.

“We had a promotion today, which helped a lot,” Goodrich said. “The crowd that surprised me was Saturday’s (18,880), which was very good for a miserable day. I’m very pleased with the meet. Overall, counting off-track, we’re up about 10% in attendance. The handle’s up about 1%, which is because money is short. But compared to a lot of other businesses in this recession, I think we’re doing all right.”

This is the first winter season that Santa Anita has benefited from the expanded off-track betting network, which includes a location at Hollywood Park. On Sunday, 6,396 of the off-track total of 23,874 was at Hollywood.

Horse Racing Notes

Jockey Eddie Delahoussaye scored his 10th stakes victory of the meeting. . . . Natural Nine, who has missed some training because of a fever, won’t run in the Santa Anita Derby on April 4. . . . Trainer Ron McAnally said that Sea Cadet will probably be his only starter in the Oaklawn Handicap in Arkansas on April 11. Fanatic Boy is scheduled to run on grass Sunday in the San Luis Rey Stakes at Santa Anita and McAnally has no plans for his Saturday stakes winners, Tight Spot and Tokatee.

Dennis Batteate is a 37-year-old exercise rider and former rodeo performer who, encouraged by trainer Bill Shoemaker, occasionally rides in a race at Santa Anita. On Saturday, in his eighth race, Batteate won for the first time, aboard Dance For Saros at 21-1. Some of his rodeo rides may have been easier. Dance For Saros unseated the jockey twice in the paddock, tried to bolt on the turn for home and then Batteate dropped his whip in the stretch. “She’s really a goofy filly,” Batteate said. “I’m just glad she was goofy enough to win.”