SANTA ANITA : For Racehorse Owner Al Michaels, Thrill of Victory Has New Meaning

Al Michaels will not be working the Santa Anita Handicap for ABC on Saturday. Jim McKay will host the network’s coverage of the $1-million race.

Michaels will be at Santa Anita in a different capacity--horse owner. Barraq, a gelding he owns in partnership with attorney David Leveton, will be a starter in the $100,000 Arcadia Handicap, one of two supporting features on the Big ‘Cap card.

A 6-year-old bred and raced in France before being purchased by Michaels and Leveton, Barraq has blossomed since last summer. After finishing second in a Del Mar allowance race, he rattled off three consecutive victories at Del Mar and Oak Tree. He didn’t run the the remainder of 1992.

Returned to the races on Jan. 31, he finished in a dead heat for third, beaten by a neck by winner Luthier Enchanteur.

Barraq was to start last Friday, but rain forced the allowance race to be switched from the turf to the main track, so owners and trainer Gary Jones decided Barraq would make his U.S. stakes debut in the one-mile Arcadia turf race.

“I’m thinking about it all the time,” Michaels said by phone from New York. “We’ll be getting into Los Angeles about 11 a.m. Saturday morning and, we’ll go right from (the airport) to Santa Anita.”

A race fan since he was growing up in New York, Michaels always wanted to be a horse owner, but it wasn’t until after he got to know Leveton, whose most famous horse was multiple-stakes winner Masterful Advocate, that it became a reality.

Even so, it wasn’t until five years after they met that Michaels and Leveton became partners. Their first purchase, a colt named Ultimate Fantasy, died before he got to the races in 1990.

“It was a helluva way to break in, but I wasn’t going to be deterred,” Michaels said. “Once I got into it, I knew I was here to stay. I owe so much of this to Dave.

“He’s the one that got me to pull the trigger, to do it. He’s a doer and a perfect partner. He’s a wonderful guy to deal with at this level, and Gary’s a lot of fun. I hope to become more and more involved, and we’re looking for other horses right now.”

Barraq provided Michaels with four victories last year.

“It’s been fantastic,” Michaels said. “It’s a different kind of thrill from any of the things that I’ve experienced. It’s apart from anything I’ve ever experienced. (Before a race) it’s like I’m in some sort of dream world, not aware of anything else that goes on around me. When they go in the starting gate, my heart starts pounding a mile a minute.”

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Eleven horses are likely to be entered this morning for the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap, which will be run as the fifth race on Saturday.

If there are 11 starters, it would be the biggest field for the Big ‘Cap since Martial Law won at $101.60 in 1989. There would be 10 betting interests because Marquetry and Bertrando will race coupled.

Best Pal, the 124-pound highweight, will be favored to win the 1 1/4-mile race for the second consecutive year and become only the second repeat winner (John Henry won 1981 and ‘82). Kent Desormeaux has the mount on the gelding, who beat six rivals when he won last year.

The other probables are Jovial, Sir Beaufort, Tel Quel, Major Impact, Reign Road, Star Recruit, El Trenzador and June’s Reward.

Siberian Summer, who upset Bertrando in the Charles H. Strub Stakes last month, will skip the Big ‘Cap to run in the $500,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap on March 14.

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Making his first start in the United States, Jahafil led every step of the way under Chris McCarron and easily won the $85,050 San Marino Handicap Wednesday.

Providing trainer Sandy Shulman with his first stakes victory at Santa Anita, Jahafil, a 5-year-old Rainbow Quest horse, completed the 1 1/4 miles on turf in 2:01 1/5 and beat 16-1 shot Fast Cure by six lengths. Super May, a 20-1 outsider, was a nose behind in third. Toulon, the 2-1 favorite, turned in his second consecutive bad effort, finishing eighth of 11 after being a distant sixth in the San Luis Obispo Handicap on Feb. 15.

“This horse had been working very well,” Shulman said. “He took to this country very well and acclimated well. Chris did a beautiful job with him. It’s as though Chris has 17 gears when he rides.

“I expect he’ll run in the San Luis Rey (March 21) next and, hopefully, the San Juan Capistrano (April 18). This horse had outworked everything in the barn.”

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River Special, who missed the San Rafael Stakes last Saturday because of a fever, went five furlongs in 1:00 Tuesday morning, his first work since he became ill Feb. 19.

The future book favorite for the Kentucky Derby is scheduled to make his first start as a 3-year-old in the $200,000 San Felipe Stakes March 14.

Horse Racing Notes

Kent Desormeaux was handed a five-day suspension, beginning Saturday, after being disqualified aboard Princely Hug in Sunday’s fifth race. Desormeaux will be able to ride in the Santa Anita Handicap and Sunday’s Santa Anita Oaks because they are designated races. Desormeaux also began a suspension on Big ‘Cap Day last year and won both the Big ‘Cap and the Oaks with Best Pal and Golden Treat, respectively. . . . There will be a mandatory payout in the Pick Nine today because the pool exceeded $300,000 Wednesday, and there is also a two-day carryover in the Pick Six of $333,398.26.