DEL MAR : Crowd Helps Bring Out the Best in Paseana for Mile Workout

Sometimes a trainer will stage a public workout with a horse to help a track promote a race.

But that was not Ron McAnally’s reason for working Paseana, the 5-year-old mare with the seven-stake winning streak, between Sunday’s first and second races in preparation for next Sunday’s $1-million Pacific Classic.

“Chris (McCarron) told us that she was goofing off in the mornings,” McAnally said. “She’d run a half-mile and then lose interest. John Henry (McAnally’s horse-of-the-year champion in 1981 and 1984) got to the point where he’d do that. So we worked her today, in front of a crowd, to get her more interested.”

With McCarron aboard, McAnally’s horse-of-the-year candidate apparently fell for the ploy. Paseana worked a mile in an excellent 1:35 4/5, with McCarron surprised that she was traveling that fast.

“Her first quarter felt like 27 (seconds),” McCarron said.

The actual time was 24 1/5, followed by other fractions of :48 1/5, 1:11 4/5, 1:23 4/5 and 1:35 4/5, and she galloped out another eighth of a mile in 1:49 1/5.

“I didn’t tell Chris what I wanted him to work her in,” McAnally said. “The only thing I told him was not to hit her. I wanted to make sure she got tired, but I didn’t want him to (use up all of her energy).”

Coming off of the track after Paseana’s workout, McAnally stopped for a photographer. “It’s the mare that’s putting a smile on Ronnie’s face,” said Del Mar’s official starter, Tucker Slender, who was walking by.

“I wish now that I had done with Tight Spot what I did with Paseana today,” McAnally said. “He wasn’t giving us that much in the mornings, either, and he might have been better prepared if we had worked him in front of a crowd.”

Tight Spot, another McAnally trainee, who was voted best male turf horse last year, finished a tired fourth in the Eddie Read Handicap here earlier in the season.

McCarron has been Paseana’s only jockey since the Argentine-bred’s U.S. career began with a second-place finish in the Manta Handicap in October. She is unbeaten since then, victory No. 7 coming under 127 pounds in the Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park on July 19.

Because of the weight-for-age conditions and Paseana’s sex allowance, she will carry only 119 pounds for the Pacific Classic. The other probables, all males, will carry 124 pounds. They include Jolie’s Halo, Another Review, Defensive Play, Missionary Ridge, Reign Road and Claret.

McAnally, 60, has been a head trainer since 1958, and he has no recollection of trying to beat males with a female before Bayakoa came along in 1989-90. Bayakoa, despite winning Eclipse Awards for best filly or mare both years, failed twice against males, running second here in the San Diego Handicap and finishing far back in the Santa Anita Handicap.

“Paseana’s got a better chance to beat the boys than Bayakoa did,” McAnally said. “Mainly because she’s dropping a lot of weight and the others are all picking it up.”

Because Charisma, a 4-year-old filly who was 45-1, ran off without jockey Adalberto Lopez as the horses were being loaded into the gate for Sunday’s fifth race, Del Mar officials had to cut the time between races to accommodate betting on the telecast of the Longacres Mile.

There were only 16 minutes between the fifth and sixth races at Del Mar, and betting time for the Longacres Mile, which was run after the sixth, was about nine minutes. Typical time between races is 30 minutes.

Charisma, who was scratched, ran off from behind the starting gate at the head of the turf chute, completed a clockwise trip up the backstretch and was caught the first time in front of the stands. Then she got loose again, and in the process caused minor damage to the rail on the far turn, which had to be repaired before the race could be run. The total delay was 13 minutes.

The $250,000 Longacres Mile was won by Bolulight, who was able to rally on the rail while the three leaders, Charmonnier, Time To Pass and Ibero, drifted to the middle of the track for the stretch run.

Bolulight, ridden by Ron Hansen, paid $6 at Del Mar, with Ibero finishing second a half-length behind and Charmonnier and Time To Pass completing the first four. The time was 1:34, which missed the Longacres track record by a fifth of a second.

Horse Racing Notes

Preparing for the Pacific Classic, Reign Road, an unwilling work horse, went seven furlongs Sunday in 1:26 4/5. Jay Robbins, Reign Road’s trainer, used to train Flying Continental, who increased his earnings to $1.6 million Saturday with a victory in the Wedgewood Handicap at Arlington International. Robbins saddled Flying Continental for victories in the Strub Stakes at Santa Anita and the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park in 1990. . . . Owners Trudy McCaffery and John Toffan and trainer Paco Gonzalez had a mixed bag of results with their horses Saturday. At Del Mar, 2-year-old Seattle Sleet was an impressive winner in his first race; at Saratoga, Bien Bien, stumbling out of the gate, ran last in the Travers, but Nice Assay won the Honorable Miss Stakes.

At Saratoga on Sunday, Versailles Treaty, the odds-on favorite, ran second, 6 3/4 lengths behind Quick Mischief, who ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:47 4/5--the fastest time for the John A. Morris Handicap since 1958. . . . The entry of Sir Beaufort and Excavate is the 7-5 morning line favorite today in the Windy Sands Stakes at Del Mar. But the most intriguing race on today’s card is the third, which features the California return of Superstrike, one of the best sprinters in the country. Winner of races in New York and Maryland this summer, the 3-year-old gelding will run in his first West Coast race since a second-place finish at Santa Anita in April. Before that, he raced in England.