DEL MAR : Fanatic Boy Is Tonic for McCarron

Chris McCarron, off to a slow start at the Del Mar meeting, got what he needed in the $125,000-added San Diego Handicap on Saturday.

A slow-starting horse.

Fanatic Boy, the longest shot in the 1 1/8-mile race, trailed by as many as a dozen lengths before surging in the stretch to beat favored Memo by 2 1/2 lengths. He paid $16.80.

McCarron was winless on his first 18 mounts in the meeting.

“It’s nice to break the ice,” he said, “before you get too far into a new meet. You get too far into a meet and you can start to get frustrated.”

In the San Diego Handicap, it was a matter of how far Fanatic Boy would get into the race before he made his move in this field of five. Memo and Missionary Ridge took the early lead, with Sir Beaufort and L’Express right behind.

“You get concerned about getting behind good horses,” McCarron said. “You just have to have confidence your horse is going to kick in when you ask him to run.”

Fanatic Boy was behind good horses. Sir Beaufort won the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap in March. Missionary Ridge won last year’s Pacific Classic here. And Memo, while lacking victories of such magnitude, was the favorite off recent form.

“It turned out just like it looked on paper,” McCarron said. “Maybe not the result, being the longshot we were. But the race went the way we thought it would.”

Memo and Missionary Ridge set fast fractions: 22 3/5, 45 3/5 and 1:09 3/5. Fanatic Boy stayed clear of the lead pack and had plenty left when McCarron got him into gear at the half-mile pole.

Horse Racing Notes

Thirty Slews, winner of the 1992 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, is the top-weighted favorite in today’s $100,000-added Bing Crosby Handicap at six furlongs. He will carry 121 pounds, including Eddie Delahoussaye. Thirty Slews, trained by Bob Baffert, has raced only once since the Breeders’ Cup, finishing fourth in the Los Angeles Handicap at Hollywood Park in May. The winner of that race was Star Of The Crop, second choice today at 5-2. Star Of The Crop, assigned 119 pounds, will be ridden by Gary Stevens. Slerp is the third morning-line choice and will be ridden by Kent Desormeaux.