DEL MAR : Two Sons of Slewpy Hang On in the Bing Crosby Handicap

Two sons of Slewpy--and grandsons of Seattle Slew--led the way in the $109,900 Bing Crosby Handicap at Del Mar on Sunday, with Thirty Slews beating Slerp by 2 1/4 lengths for his first stakes victory,

The time for the six furlongs was 1:08 1/5, the same time that Bruho ran last year when he won the Crosby by two lengths, with Thirty Slews finishing second.

Since then, Thirty Slews had won only an allowance race in five starts. The Crosby was his first start in more than four months, since surgery for a breathing problem.

Carrying 115 pounds, six less than the high-weighted Southern Justice, favored Thirty Slews earned $64,900 and paid $7.20 to win. The victory, before 22,058 on the first Sunday of the meeting, was his fifth in 12 starts. He has earned more than $200,000.

Slerp, claimed by trainer John Sadler in January for $40,000, has won two stakes and never been worse than fourth in seven starts since then. He finished two lengths ahead of Anjiz, who went off at 40-1, and it was another two lengths back to Letthebighossroll, fourth in the field of 10.

Both Thirty Slews, a gray 5-year-old gelding, and Letthebighossroll are trained by Bob Baffert, who saddled a winner earlier on the card.

“I worked them twice together, and Thirty Slews was always the better of the team,” Baffert said. “But you never know until they come out of the gate.”

Baffert is a former leading quarter horse trainer who broke into the thoroughbred business with the purchase of Thirty Slews for $30,000.

Southern Justice, who went from first to last, was the leader through a 44 2/5 half-mile, with Scherando and Mystery’s Edge stalking him and Eddie Delahoussaye waiting for his chance with Thirty Slews in fourth place.

At the top of the stretch, that chance came and Thirty Slews effortlessly moved past the leaders. Slerp, who was in seventh place under Kent Desormeaux after a half-mile, also came on at the end, but he was never a threat to Thirty Slews.

“We were in the same position on the turn of last year’s race, only my horse couldn’t breathe,” Baffert said. “He’s a big horse and needs lots of oxygen. He always runs better fresh, and hopefully his problems are behind him.”

Delahoussaye won two earlier races Sunday, becoming the fifth jockey in as many racing days to win three on the same program.

“When he made the lead, he started pricking up his ears,” Delahoussaye said of Thirty Slews. “At the eighth pole, he wanted to pull himself up. I had to keep riding him to get him to do it.

“When he’s right, this big sucker can really run. Going down the backside today, he was just wanting to go. I was stalking those horses and I could feel him wanting to cut loose. I got him outside of a tight spot and he went. After I got riding him late, he got back into it and went steady to the wire.”

Delahoussaye rode Slerp the day he ran third at Santa Anita and Sadler claimed him. Desormeaux rode the 3-year-old colt for the first time Sunday.

“I thought I had that son of a gun (Thirty Slews) until Eddie turned him loose,” Desormeaux said. “But my horse can run. I just ran into a horse that was a little too much today. For a 3-year-old, my horse did himself proud.”

Slerp had suffered a hoof injury while running fourth in the Riva Ridge Stakes at Belmont Park two months ago and was making his first start since then.

Anjiz, whose career began in Europe, now has three victories and three thirds in 10 starts in the United States.

“He ran hard,” said the 4-year-old colt’s jockey, Paul Atkinson. “If I’d had a little cleaner trip, I could have been closer. I got hung up outside all the way. He ran a whole lot farther than those other ones.”

Zealous Connection, a 2-year-old filly, is very sick, having been scratched as the odds-on favorite from Saturday’s $200,000 Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park.

“Her temperature was up to 102 (degrees),” said Jeanne Mayberry. She is tending to the stable’s Del Mar division while her husband, Brian, is running several horses at Saratoga.

Zealous Connection was the female juvenile star of the recently completed Hollywood Park meeting, winning the Landaluce Stakes by seven lengths after winning her only other start by four.

“Her temperature has been up and down since it got up to 102,” Jeanne Mayberry said. “Life-threatening? Well, we’re going to have to be more aggressive in treating her. They’re going to have to take some cultures to find out exactly what’s wrong.”

Hollywood Wildcat won the Sorority. Entries were drawn for the race on Thursday, when Zealous Connection, having not been nominated, was supplemented for $12,500. That fee is not refundable.

Horse Racing Notes

Pat Valenzuela, Del Mar’s leading rider last year with 53 victories, has been suspended for five days by the stewards, starting Thursday and running through next Monday, “for crossing over without sufficient clearance” while riding Appealing Missy to an eighth-place finish in Saturday’s $100,000 Palomar Handicap. The incident occurred on the far turn. . . . The stewards have designated eight Del Mar stakes in which jockeys can ride despite suspensions, but next weekend’s stakes--the San Clemente and San Diego handicaps on Saturday and the La Jolla Handicap on Sunday--are not on the list.

Valenzuela rode three winners Friday, including Best Dress in the Junior Miss Stakes. Other jockeys with three victories in a day the first week at Del Mar have been Kent Desormeaux, Alex Solis, Gary Stevens and Eddie Delahoussaye. . . . Wednesday’s $60,000 Fleet Treat Stakes for California-bred 3-year-old fillies drew six horses--Mountains of Lune, Blonde Fever, Natural Look, Knight Prospector and Bold Windy.

Howell Wynne was a teen-ager when his father’s Bad ‘n Big won the Crosby Handicap in 1978, tying the stakes record with a time of 1:07 4/5. “The amazing thing about that time is that he did under a hand ride from Bill Shoemaker,” Wynne said Sunday. Other horses winning the Crosby in that time have been Kissin’ George in 1969, Pretense in in 1968 and Crazy Kid in 1962.