HOLLYWOOD PARK : Re Toss Catches Favored Paseana to Win Vanity Handicap

There was an Argentine-bred winner of the $300,000 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park on Sunday, but it wasn’t Paseana, last year’s Eclipse Award winner and the 7-10 favorite.

Re Toss, carrying 115 pounds, 11 less than Paseana, was brought out from the fence with about an eighth of a mile to run and scored a 1 1/4-length victory, preventing Paseana from winning the Vanity for the second consecutive year.

Re Toss and Paseana are both 6-year-old mares whose careers took different turns when they left Argentina. Paseana went on to more than $2 million in purses while Re Toss’ victories have been far more infrequent. Before the Vanity, Re Toss had won only twice in 17 starts in 1992-93.

Henry Moreno, the trainer of Re Toss, and Ron McAnally, who saddled Paseana, agreed that the weight difference was a factor.

“If anybody tells you that weight doesn’t make a difference, don’t believe them,” said Moreno, who came close to training Paseana before McAnally was able to buy her in 1991 for Sidney and Jenny Craig for about $320,000.

A year ago, Paseana spotted Re Toss 10 pounds in the Vanity and beat her by two lengths.

“There were two things that beat us,” McAnally said after Sunday’s race. “Too much weight and the winner got a dream trip. I think the weight difference tells when you’re going that far (1 1/8 miles). When you have a closer (jockey) like Eddie (Delahoussaye), and you get the trip that he got. . . . He didn’t have to go around, he got through on the inside.”

After the scratches of Party Cited and Pleasant Baby, the field was reduced to eight fillies and mares, and Saros On The Town was eliminated leaving the gate when she stumbled and dropped her jockey, David Flores, who was not seriously injured.

Re Toss was the second betting choice and paid $9.20 . Paseana finished 2 lengths ahead of Guiza, who finished three lengths ahead of Miss High Blade. Re Toss’ time was 1:47 4/5 as she earned $165,000 for her owners, the father-son combination of Arthur and Larry Risdon. Re Toss’ overall record is nine victories in 33 starts, with earnings of $667,286.

Bold Windy and Southern Truce were the early leaders, with Chris McCarron positioning Paseana in the middle of the field. Paseana began to run at the leaders on the far turn, but after opening up a 1 1/2-length lead in the stretch, she couldn’t hold off Re Toss.

“She ran her race,” McCarron said of Paseana. “I didn’t have any options today. The last time, I had the option to move on her when I wanted to. But she made the move very easy on the turn, then the other filly just came and got her.”

Paseana had been undefeated in four starts at Hollywood Park, including a victory in the Milady Handicap on June 12, when Re Toss ran third, beaten by a length.

“If Delahoussaye sticks with me, I’ll make a rider out of him yet,” Moreno joked about the Hall of Fame jockey. “He hit this mare left-handed that day and she almost bolted. He knew when he talked to me after the race that he had whipped her too much. This mare’s as sound as the day she was born, and she has no problems, but she doesn’t like to be whipped too much.”

Other jockeys had been riding Re Toss before Delahoussaye took over for the Milady.

“I got to know her last time and she didn’t care for that whip too much,” Delahoussaye said. “Today, the pace was pretty good up front, and everything worked for the best. The loose horse (Saros On The Town) just fanned everybody out.”

Moreno thought that Paseana’s move to the inside in the stretch might have led to a stewards’ disqualification had she won, but Delahoussaye said that from his angle the pressure wasn’t that tight.

Moreno, 63, has been training Re Toss since early in 1991, running her on dirt and grass against some of the best opposition in the country. “I was supposed to get Paseana,” Moreno said. “But McAnally was down there at the time, and he bought her. They’d already taken a blood test on her to send her to me, that’s how close it was. But Ronnie beat me to the punch.”

Moreno said that the Risdons paid less than $100,000 for Re Toss. “We didn’t pay much for her, not the way she’s running,” Moreno said.

While Paseana had never lost at Hollywood, Re Toss was winless there, with two seconds and three thirds in six starts. The Argentine mares are probably headed in different directions for a while. McAnally mentioned another dirt race, the Ruffian Handicap at Belmont Park on Sept. 19, for Paseana, while Moreno’s plan is a return to grass for Re Toss, in the Ramona Handicap at Del Mar on Aug. 7. All but three of Re Toss’ wins have come on grass.

Horse Racing Notes

Jockey David Flores suffered a mild sprain and contusion of the lower back and took off his final mount Sunday. . . . Eddie Delahoussaye picked up his 11th stake win of the season, moving him to within one of Kent Desormeaux. . . . Discolo, a horse who might have run in the Oceanside Stakes at Del Mar on opening day a week from Wednesday, suffered undetermined injuries when he collided with a 2-year-old during training hours Sunday. . . . Laffit Pincay won his 7,973rd race.