DEL MAR : Star Of The Crop Wins Sprint as Superstrike Veers From Gate

Before Monday’s third race, trainer Bruce Jackson was asked to explain why he entered Superstrike, considered by some a favorite to win the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, in a $42,000 allowance race.

Afterward, Jackson couldn’t explain why his horse came out of the gate running toward the outside rail.

Another 3-year-old, Star Of The Crop, covered six furlongs in 1:08 4/5 to win the race, paying $6.60.

As the gates opened, Superstrike, who started on the rail, veered across the track, pushing the two horses to his immediate right--Mystery’s Edge and Barron Ribot--wide. Gary Stevens, meanwhile, took Star Of The Crop underneath and cut to the inside.

The maneuver brought the eventual winner into the lead near the end of the backstretch.

At that point, Danny Sorenson had corrected Superstrike’s path and began challenging Star Of The Crop for the lead. Both horses went around the turn and down the homestretch no more than half a length apart at any time.

It didn’t matter. Superstrike was disqualified from its second-place finish after Martin Pedroza, who rode Mystery’s Edge, filed a protest. Slew The Surgeon, who broke in the fifth position and followed as Star Of The Crop ducked behind the tussle, was given second place after the disqualification.

“He has never done anything like that in a race, but he used to do things like that in (morning workouts) all the time,” Jackson said of Superstrike.

Sorenson said he was puzzled, too.

“He was just going,” Sorenson said. “He went a little haywire. . . . If that doesn’t happen, they don’t beat us. It takes a lot out of a horse to be bumping against other horses and to have his rider wrestle with him.

“He sure panicked about something, and I don’t know what.”

Superstrike had won three of his past six starts, including the $300,000 Frank De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel, Md., July 18, all of which pointed him toward the Breeders’ Cup.

Now Star Of The Crop is pointed in that direction, having won his last two, although owner Leonard Levin isn’t making any definite plans.

“We’ll take our time and see what happens,” Levin said when asked about the Oct. 31 Breeders’ Cup.

Jockey Kent Desormeaux was dumped when his mount in the fifth race, Main Choice, was forced into the rail and fell. The incident occurred in the homestretch when Music King, ridden by Hector Torres, cut off W.E. Lucero, ridden by Patrick Valenzuela. W.E. Lucero bumped into Main Choice, causing the spill.

Music King was disqualified from his seventh-place finish.

Viva El Capitan, already some 10 lengths ahead when the pushing occurred, gave rider Gary Stevens his third victory of the day.

Desormeaux, meanwhile, took his scheduled mount in the sixth race, but asked to be excused from his last mount of the day in the seventh race. Main Choice sprang to his feet and had to be chased down before being led off the track.

Owner Nancy Bretzfield was ordered by the track’s stewards to pay trainer Bill Shoemaker $5,989 before Sept. 1 or face the possibility of having her California Horse Racing license suspended. The stewards did not elaborate on the dispute.

The duel between Star Of The Crop and Superstrike obscured the day’s feature race, the $61,650 Windy Sands Stakes over a 1 1/16 miles.

Regal Groom, ridden by Laffit Pincay, caught Sir Beaufort in the stretch to win in 1:41 1/5 and pay $8.80.

Heading into the homestretch, jockey Chris McCarron and Sir Beaufort appeared headed to victory as the 5-year-old passed Robyn Dancer along the rail.

At the same time, however, Regal Groom was sprinting by Robyn Dancer on the outside, and when the three horses reached the straightaway, it was Regal Groom who took over.

Regal Groom has won his last two outings, going a mile on Aug. 2 at Del Mar.