SANTA ANITA : Marble Maiden Provides Jones a Welcome Back

Nine days after being rushed to the hospital after suffering a mild heart attack, trainer Gary Jones was back at the track Sunday.

Jones was sucking on a plastic pacifier rather than resuming his two-pack-a-day cigarette habit, and he held off yelling while his 4-year-old filly, Marble Maiden, turned an easy victory into a nail-biter in the $110,000 Buena Vista Handicap at one mile on turf.

Marble Maiden headed for the crowd of 20,160 leaving the stretch turn, but Kent Desormeaux held her together as they withstood a driving Suivi on the inside to win by a head.

“My filly was playing around in the lane,” Desormeaux said. “But they can do that and still win when they’re of this caliber.”

The British-bred Marble Maiden had been first or second in seven French starts before she came to the United States late last summer. After a fourth-place finish in the Beverly D, a stake Jones won with Kostroma at Arlington International, Marble Maiden won the All Along at Laurel. She then was turned over to Jones, who saddled her for a fifth-place finish in the Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita.

“This filly was only half-ready to run today,” the 48-year-old Jones said. “I had her ready to run four times before this race and something always came up. She got sick, she couldn’t train. Take a look: She’s only had one workout this month, and that’s not how I train. But today, I was determined to get another race in her.”

Suivi, who runs better on firm surfaces, was a brief leader, but Marble Maiden took the lead coming out of the first turn. She led by two lengths going down the backstretch and might have increased her margin through the stretch if she hadn’t lugged out so badly.

Earning $65,000 for her owner, Sheik Mohammad of Darley Stud, Marble Maiden paid $6.20 as the slight favorite over Suivi. Marble Maiden’s time on a course labeled good was 1:36 1/5.

Ironically, a horse Jones saddled earlier on the card was Cardiac, who ran second in a maiden race for 3-year-olds.

“I would have felt better if Cardiac had also won,” Jones said, “but I feel great. It’s a lot better being here than not.”

Jones trains his horses at Hollywood Park, and he had some good news from there Sunday morning. Stuka worked five furlongs in :58 1/5 and Art Of Living went six furlongs in 1:10 3/5, both the fastest times of the day for their respective distances. Jones said he plans to run both colts Saturday in the San Rafael Stakes at Santa Anita, one of the important prep races for the Santa Anita Derby on April 3.

Stuka had been a San Rafael probable all along, but River Special’s defection from the stake because of a fever opens up the race for Art Of Living as well. John and Betty Mabee own both River Special and Art Of Living, and the original plan was to keep the horses separated as they try to earn berths in the Kentucky Derby.

“I had horses train like they were wild this morning,” Jones said Sunday. “Art Of Living usually isn’t that good of a work horse, but he sure showed something today.”

Another Jones horse who worked at Hollywood Sunday was Best Pal, who covered seven furlongs in 1:23 4/5. Best Pal will try to win the Santa Anita Handicap for the second consecutive year when the $1-million race is run March 6.

Horse Racing Notes

The Southern California Trainers’ Assn. is unhappy that four trainers whose horses raced last year with clenbuterol, an illegal medication, were identified by The Times last week. “ . . . The trainers have been deprived of their rights to have their (horses’ urine samples) retested, deprived of their right to defend themselves, and deprived of any opportunity to clear their names,” said Donn Luby, who is president of the trainers’ group. “I had hoped we had learned our lesson from the cocaine episode (in 1988-89), but again we see trainers prejudged by segments of the media and the racing community. These trainers never asked for dismissal of their cases (by the California Horse Racing Board). They asked only for the CHRB to follow established and normal procedures. Let us not be fooled into judging these defenseless trainers, let us look to the individuals who obstructed or aborted these investigations.”

Darrell Vienna, who trains Gilded Time, said Friday that last year’s champion 2-year-old male was “iffy” for the Santa Anita Derby because of a hoof problem. Gilded Time has not raced this year. On Sunday, Gilded Time jogged at Santa Anita. “He went real well,” Vienna said, “but his status is day to day.”

Seven 3-year-olds were entered for Wednesday’s Bolsa Chica Stakes, with Moscow Changes and Crafty carrying the high weight of 119 pounds apiece in the six-furlong race. The other entrants are Irish Heaven, Concept Win, D’Hallevant, Covered Wagon and Fort Chaffee, who was scratched from a race Friday because of the sloppy track.

Chris McCarron has chosen to ride Paseana, last year’s champion filly or mare on dirt, in Sunday’s Santa Margarita Handicap. With another McCarron mount, Pacific Squall, also scheduled to run, that riding assignment has gone to Kent Desormeaux. . . . Ron McAnally, who trains Paseana, saw two of his other stakes winners, Super Staff and Race The Wild Wind, undergo surgery last week and they will be sidelined for several months.