Rivalry Proceeds Flawlessly

As rivalries go, this one wasn’t exactly Army-Navy or Russell-Chamberlain or Evert-Navratilova or Buckingham-Lady Di. It wasn’t even Affirmed-Alydar, at least in terms of prominence in the sporting public’s psyche.

It isn’t one of those headline things. It doesn’t make the tabloids in New York or London. It isn’t subjected to nasty rumors in check-out line rags.

Two very intense rivals squared off in the $322,500 Ramona Handicap at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club Saturday afternoon. You ask 999,999 out of a million San Diegans to identify these rivals and you’d get a blank stare. You had to be there and study a Racing Form to comprehend the depths of this rivalry.

A boxing promoter with a sense for hype and hoopla would have been all over this affair. Every liquor store within 25 miles of the track would have had posters pushing something like “Commotion by the Ocean.”

One of the problems was that I doubt these antagonists would know one another if they were alone in a phone booth. Hearns and Hagler wouldn’t have been any fun at all, for example, if they hadn’t been so good at those big, bad glares of recognition.

These “fighters” were Flawlessly and Kostroma, a couple of runners who do not seem to lose to anyone but each other. Flawlessly is a 4-year-old filly and Kostroma is a 6-year-old mare. They are undoubtedly the best distaff turf runners in the nation.

The fact that they are the best is what tends to throw them together. Neither would have ducked the Ramona Handicap Saturday for clear sailing and a $36,000 purse in the sixth race. You won’t find Garth Brooks playing in a strip mall saloon between a dry cleaners and a barber shop, would you?

Flawlessly had won six of her last seven races before Saturday, the other one having been won by Kostroma. For her part, Kostroma had won five of her last seven. . . . Flawlessly winning the other two.

On three occasions, dating back to last Nov. 10 at Santa Anita, these two had met three times. Flawlessly had won twice.

What made this interesting was that success was about all these two had in common. Otherwise, they were like a diamond and a chunk of coal, a sports car and a truck or maybe a lady and a tramp.

Flawlessly would be the prom queen and Kostroma would be the rebel tomboy who would want to play football. . . . as a middle linebacker.

Flawlessly was a sweetheart of a filly with an affinity for sugar cubes, but Kostroma would rather take your fingers off than nibble on something nice. If you have a polite horse in your barn, you hope he brings home Flawlessly and not Kostroma.

On the race track, they had the same reputation. You could race tactically with Flawlessly, because she would go when urged and slow when cautioned. Kostroma, betraying perhaps her Irish heritage, was headstrong and inclined to make one frantic rush.

In the paddock, Kostroma was, as might be expected, chomping at the bit. Flawlessly looked as demure as a bride. Hand her a bouquet and she would carry it. Kostroma would eat it.

They came on to the track virtually even on the tote board, as if no one else was even in the race. One entry scratched and five others went off at odds ranging from 10-1 to 50-1. Each of the Big Two had more money on her than the rest of the field combined.

Once the race started, Flawlessly kept going like she was a bride coming down the aisle. She should have been wearing lace. The thing was, the rest of the field was behind her. She wasn’t loafing, but rather obediently following the ride she was being given by jockey Chris McCarron.

“When they went that slow,” beamed trainer Charles Whittingham, “I was whistling.”

Probably the wedding march.

When it was time to go, Flawlessly went. Kostroma, bogged down and impatient with the leisurely pace, never got into position to make her reckless charge. She never did get free of the intruders in her path and came in fourth. At the pace Flawlessly got away with, Kostroma couldn’t have won if she had hitched a ride on a Blue Angel.

Flawlessly is so versatile and responsive that Whittingham’s instructions to McCarron had to take all of three or four seconds.

“I told him to put her anywhere,” he said. “She can go to the front or she can come from behind. She’s a push-button horse, a once in a lifetime horse.”

McCarron was effusive about how cooperative his filly was. It’s almost as if this seemingly perfect dame is perfectly named.

What Flawlessly may have earned is a chance to go to a very big dance with the guys. . . . the Arlington Million. If she’s going to do that, she may as well stay in the neighborhood and run Del Mar’s Pacific Classic Aug. 30. Regardless, she has bigger dates ahead of her.

And what she may also have done is dispense with both her rival--and the rivalry.

* DEL MAR

Charlie Whittingham’s Flawlessly finished strong to win the Ramona Handicap, and Tight Spot is favored in today’s Eddie Read. C15