HOLLYWOOD PARK : Stuka Completes Paulson Sweep of Twin Stakes for 2-Year-Olds

Six minutes before Hollywood Park ran the $107,350 Hollywood Prevue Breeders’ Cup on Saturday, Bay Meadows sprang the gates on the Leland Stanford Stakes, worth a mere $54,050.

Owner-breeder Allen Paulson and trainer Gary Jones swept both races for 2-year-olds, Stuka winning the Hollywood Park stake and Yappy the Bay Meadows event.

Pat Valenzuela, Paulson’s contract rider, could only be in one place Saturday, riding Stuka to a three-length victory in the colt’s second start. Slowed down in late summer by sore shins, a common ailment among young horses, Stuka didn’t race until Oct. 17, when he beat a group of maidens by seven lengths at Santa Anita.

At Bay Meadows, undefeated Yappy won by a neck as he was stretched out to a mile in his third start. Ron Hansen rode Yappy after Valenzuela had been aboard for the colt’s first two victories at Del Mar and Santa Anita.

Jones and Paulson have not said whether Stuka and Yappy both will run in the $500,000 Hollywood Futurity on Dec. 20.

A victory in the Futurity would climax a roller-coaster year for Paulson and his wife, Madeleine. He won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Gulfstream with Eliza and she won the Breeders’ Cup Turf with Fraise. Eliza is a cinch to win the Eclipse Award for 2-year-old fillies, while Fraise, a possibility for the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Cup on Dec. 13, will be involved in a close vote for the male grass prize with Sky Classic, the horse he beat at Gulfstream.

The flip side for the Paulsons has been Arazi, champion American 2-year-old colt in 1991 but beaten as the heavy favorite in the Kentucky Derby and a disappointment again in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. The colt has been sent home to Europe, to stand at stud next year and disappoint no more.

“(Trainer) Francois Boutin said that Arazi almost swallowed his tongue at Gulfstream,” Allen Paulson said Saturday. “But Pat (Valenzuela) said no. None of the European horses did much in the heat at Gulfstream. I still think Arazi’s a great horse.”

Much of the credit for the recovery of Stuka goes to Alex Hassinger, Paulson’s training coordinator who operates out of Brookside Farm near Bonsall. In the winner’s circle, Jones kept looking over the heads of onlookers to see if Hassinger would come down and be part of the post-race photograph.

“The game’s more than winner’s-circle pictures,” said Hassinger, who became Paulson’s main trainer when Dick Lundy, Hassinger’s boss, was fired and sued by Paulson earlier this year over alleged irregularities in the buying and selling of horses.

Hassinger trains Eliza, but Paulson has dozens of horses running all over the world and his trainers include Bill Mott, Ron McAnally, John Sadler, Darrell Vienna and Boutin. Earlier Saturday at Hollywood, McAnally saddled Tager, a $32,000 claimer for Paulson, for the colt’s first victory.

Stuka, a son of Jade Hunter and Caerleon’s Success, is named after the German dive bomber of World War II. Valenzuela rode the colt confidently Saturday, settling him into second place behind Altazarr, the horse Jones thought he had to beat.

Stuka moved ahead near the quarter pole and was under little pressure from Codified to hold his lead through the stretch. Altazarr, away from the races for 10 weeks after suffering respiratory problems at Del Mar this summer, had broken his maiden at Hollywood in June and won the Hollywood Juvenile in July. He wound up third Saturday, beaten by 11 lengths.

Earning $62,350, Stuka ran seven furlongs in 1:21 4/5 and paid $4.20.

“We had some awesome 2-year-olds at the beginning of the year,” said Valenzuela, who exercises many of them at Paulson’s farm.

“Some of them shin-bucked like Stuka did and a couple of others had minor setbacks, but it seems that it’s all coming together now. I’ve been happy riding for Mr. Paulson, and he’s been happy with me riding his horses. When both parties are happy, there’s no reason to change. I have no regrets (about the contract that runs through the end of the year), and I’m sure Mr. Paulson has no regrets.”

Besides winning the race, Jones was encouraged by the way Stuka galloped out for Valenzuela afterward.

“We had a great post (No. 7 in an eight-horse field), and Pat took advantage of it,” Jones said. “He got outside the horse on the lead perfectly. This horse has a push-button disposition.”

Not all of the horses went into the race as calmly as Stuka. Denmars Dream, an 11-1 shot who finished fourth for trainer Ian Jory, reared up in the paddock, before jockey Laffit Pincay arrived. Laurie Doreika, Denmars Dream’s handler, went to the ground trying to keep her horse from getting loose. Prone and virtually underneath the rearing horse, Doreika never let loose of the lead shank.

By contrast, Stuka seemed to be taking a nap “Did you see him?” Paulson said. “His second race, and he wasn’t bothered by anything. He seemed to be tranquilized.”

River Special, who dueled the winning Gilded Time through the stretch of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile before finishing third, is a probable for the Hollywood Futurity. Jones knows the 1 1/16-mile race won’t be easy.

“That horse that finished second today (Codified, in only his second start) could be tough next time,” Jones said. “He was down on the inside much of the way, and didn’t have the chance to show his best.”

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Neil Drysdale said that a decision about the future of A.P. Indy would be made after the 3-year-old’s owners meet next Thursday in Los Angeles. A.P. Indy, Drysdale said, will not run again this year and will either be sent to stud or continue running next year. The winner of the Santa Anita Derby, the Belmont Stakes and the Breeders’ Cup Classic, A.P. Indy is a cinch to be voted horse of the year. . . . Kostroma had a workout Saturday and trainer Gary Jones said that she was in good health. The options for the mare, who had a lung infection, are the $400,000 Matriarch at Hollywood Park and the $2.9-million Japan Cup in Tokyo, both on Nov. 29. By staying at home, Kostroma would probably face Super Staff and Flawlessly in a race that will settle the Eclipse Award for best female grass horse.

Chilean-bred Sacramentada, whose only two American victories have come at Hollywood Park, is part of an eight-horse field today in the Silver Belles Handicap. The high weight, Brought To Mind with 120 pounds, has not won in nine starts this year, but has been running close to some top horses--Magical Maiden, Exchange and Fowda--in her last two starts. . . . Owner Allen Paulson said that Fowda had an excuse for running ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. “She had a bad abscess in a (hoof) that we found the next day,” Paulson said. . . . Betty Calder, press-box secretary at Hollywood Park for almost 30 years, has retired to live in Palm Springs.