OAK TREE : Autumn Days a Shade Better This Year for Bel’s Starlet

Before the running of Wednesday’s $83,325 Autumn Days Handicap at Santa Anita, trainer Dick Mandella was saying that Bel’s Starlet, his 5-year-old roan mare, was as good as she had been a year ago.

After Bel’s Starlet had won the Autumn Days for the second consecutive time, Mandella said: “I was wrong about that. She’s a fifth of a second better.”

That fifth of a second is the difference between Bel’s Starlet’s only sharing the Santa Anita turf record for about 6 1/2 furlongs and holding it outright. In last year’s Autumn Days, she covered the distance--which is actually seven feet farther than 6 1/2 furlongs--in 1:11 4/5 to match the record. On Wednesday, as the Oak Tree Racing Assn. began its 24th season, Bel’s Starlet outfinished Glen Kate in the final few strides while stopping the clock at 1:11 3/5. Before Wednesday, Bel’s Starlet was the co-holder of the record with four other horses.

Despite temperatures that reached into the 90s, Oak Tree’s 27-day meeting started auspiciously, with 32,742 fans showing up at the track and 19,645 others betting the races at 17 satellite locations. They bet $7.3 million, the largest handle for an Oak Tree opener ever.

The on-track crowd was the largest at a California track since 38,346 turned out for the Santa Anita Derby last April. The best reasons for the big crowd were a beer-stein giveaway, the return of major racing after the 19-day season at Fairplex Park and a card dotted with full fields.

A few fans who held on for the last race were rewarded with a $204.80 win payoff, a $58,084 trifecta return and a $4.358.20 exacta, boxcar prices that were triggered by Avoid Penalty’s first victory in more than 10 months. Mohawk Chief, the horse finishing second, was 22-1, and Oh Dat Fox, who ran third, was 5-1. Barron Ribot, the even-money favorite, was in distress at the top of the stretch, and jockey Kent Desormeaux pulled him up at the eighth pole.

The $2 payoffs for the trifecta and the exacta were Santa Anita records.

Desormeaux, No. 1 on the national money list and the defending riding champion at Oak Tree, had better luck earlier on the card, riding the winner of the fifth race and helping Bel’s Starlet beat Glen Kate by a neck. Like most of the top jockeys, Desormeaux didn’t ride at Fairplex after Del Mar closed, but he stayed busy in Maryland, where he was based when he won a record 598 races in 1989. At Pimlico, he won several races, including three stakes on Maryland Million day.

Mandella learned a couple of years ago that Bel’s Starlet doesn’t react favorably when struck by the whip, and Desormeaux showed considerable restraint keeping his stick away from her Wednesday, because Glen Kate, who led from the start, wasn’t giving up in the final sixteenth of a mile.

“When I came up to Glen Kate in the stretch, Glen Kate really came back on nice, but my mare just would not be denied,” Desormeaux said. “My mare just loves this course.”

Glen Kate, slightly favored over Bel’s Starlet, finished 1 1/2 lengths ahead of Brisa De Mar. Bel’s Starlet paid $5.60 and earned $49,575 for John and Betty Mabee, her owners and breeders. Bel’s Starlet, who carried 120 pounds, three more than Glen Kate, is the first horse to win the Autumn Days in successive years.

“I’ve got no complaints about my mare,” jockey Gary Stevens said about Glen Kate. “She kicked in really nice, and Kent’s mare had a tough time getting by us. We just got outrun, but not by much.”

Bel’s Starlet has more than $500,000 in earnings with eight victories, eight seconds and three thirds in 29 races. Mandella found out by accident that she had run just as well without being whipped. It was the day she finished second, beaten in a photo finish by Lonely Girl, in a division of the San Clemente Handicap at Del Mar in 1990.

“Corey Black rode her that day,” Mandella said, “and he dropped his whip. But she finished just as strongly without being hit. I had a feeling all along that she didn’t like the whip, but that race convinced me.”

Bel’s Starlet’s prep for the Autumn Days was on the dirt, when she finished fifth going seven furlongs in the Fantastic Girl Handicap at Del Mar on Aug. 6.

“We tried the dirt because there had been a lot of time since her previous race, and that was a good spot to run her,” Mandella said. “She’s just not as good on the dirt, but she was back in her element today. She came up to the race beautifully. I told Kent I thought Glen Kate would go to the lead, and to just sit behind her. The race came up pretty much as we planned.”

Bel’s Starlet’s next start will be the $100,000 California Cup Distaff for California-breds on Nov. 7. She will have distance and precedent on her side. A year ago, Bel’s Starlet ran the same about 6 1/2-furlongs turf raceas Wednesday and won the stake by 1 1/2 lengths.

Pleasant Tap, despite finishing second to Sultry Song in the Woodward Stakes last month, has been installed as the 5-2 favorite for Saturday’s $850,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park. There will be betting on the race at Santa Anita.

Sultry Song, at 7-2 on the morning line, shares second billing with Strike the Gold in the 1 1/4-mile race. A.P. Indy is next at 4-1. Thunder Rumble is 5-1, Missionary Ridge is 6-1 and Devil His Due is 15-1 in the seven-horse field.

Belmont, giving the top horses the opportunity to prepare for the Breeders’ Cup at Gulfstream Park on Oct. 31, has scheduled five other stakes races Saturday. The favorites are Strolling Along in the $500,000 Champagne for 2-year-olds; Beal Street Blues in the $250,000 Frizette for 2-year-old fillies; Roman Envoy in the $200,000 Kelso Handicap for turf milers; Versailles Treaty in the $250,000 Beldame for older fillies and mares; and Missy’s Mirage in the $200,000 First Flight Handicap for sprinters.

Horse Racing Notes

Navarone will be the favorite Saturday in the $400,000 Oak Tree Invitational. Other probable starter include Daros, El Trenzador, Myrakalu, Stark South, Super May, Falling and Incessant. Falling, now trained by Hector Palma, is an Argentine-bred colt who has never run in the United States. . . . John and Betty Mabee have the chance to win another stake during opening week at Oak Tree when they run River Special and Devil Diamond on Sunday in the $200,000 Norfolk. They finished first and fourth, respectively, in the Del Mar Futurity. . . . The Mabees’ Best Pal, sidelined for the year when he suffered a leg injury in June, has been resting at their Ramona farm and is due to resume training later this month. Best Pal’s first objective is next year’s Santa Anita Handicap, which he won last March.