HOLLYWOOD PARK : Meafara Wins the Underwood by Seven Lengths

Gary Stevens usually merely has to grab his silks, a whip and a pair of goggles, and off he goes. But as rain soaked the Hollywood Park main track Saturday, the jockey bundled up.

He wore a leotard, a turtleneck, a rain-proof jacket and pants. Stevens also would normally take a handful of goggles to wear in each race, but for his ride on Meafara in the $100,275 Vernon O. Underwood Breeders’ Cup Stakes, Stevens took only two.

“I figured if I needed more than two, I’d be in trouble anyway,” he reasoned.

He never used the second pair. Meafara and Stevens went to the front and increased their lead with every stride, rolling to a seven-length victory over Arches Of Gold in the six-furlong Underwood. Meafara and Arches Of Gold were the only two fillies in the six-horse field.

Davy Be Good was a half-length back in third and was followed, in order, by Memo, Arrowtown and Bahatur. Gundaghia was scratched.

Meafara covered the opening quarter-mile in 21 3/5 and had a 1 1/2-length lead over Davy Be Good before pulling away. Her time on the sloppy surface was 1:10, and the even-money favorite paid $4.

“She was spinning her wheels for the first 10 jumps,” Stevens said. “She’s so quick, and the track was getting away from her. But she got going and galloped along to the stretch, and when I picked her up, she rebroke.”

Stevens was taking no chances. In Meafara’s previous start, the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, she led every step but the last one and was caught by Cardmania. That was the second consecutive year in which Meafara had finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint after setting the early pace.

“She laid down after that race for a couple of days,” said Meafara’s trainer, Gary Jones. “But then she was right back up. She’s a trainer’s dream. She’ll make any trainer look good. She’s easy to train.”

Added Stevens: “Usually when a horse runs a hard race like that, it takes a while for them to bounce back. But she bounced right back. I was happier with her work before this race more than her work before the Breeders’ Cup, and she worked great before the Breeders’ Cup.”

Meafara figured to like the mud. In her only previous race on a sloppy surface, Meafara was a 6 1/2-length winner at Arlington in August. Meafara’s victory in the Underwood was her 10th in 17 lifetime starts, and she has now earned $838,594 for her owner and breeder, Frank Muench.

The wet weather made for a cold, bitter afternoon. A program of 11 live races, along with two simulcasts from Bay Meadows, began at 12:30 p.m., and the last race was not official until almost 6:00. Horses were saddled in the narrow tunnel that leads from the paddock to the winner’s circle.

Most of the jockeys had a cold, dirty, wet, afternoon. Stevens, however, looked as though he stepped out of a laundry detergent commercial; such is the benefit of riding a front-runner.

Most of the jockeys wore extra protective gear, but some decided to brave the elements as though it was business as usual.

“I’d rather be cold than bulky,” Aaron Gryder said.

Stevens took a more moderate route, but was shivering after riding Meafara.

“I got soaked during a downpour early in the day, and I’ve been cold ever since,” Stevens said. “My blood’s gotten thin.

“I could wear more clothing, but with these aerodynamic silks, you wouldn’t be able to move. I’d rather be cold and move.”

Extra goggles are a must for riders on horses coming from behind. The jockeys will wrap the goggles in cellophane before going out for the post parade. Once in the gate, they will stack the goggles over their eyes, and as each pair gets muddied during the race, the rider will pull the old pair down to his neck, exposing a fresh pair.

“You can’t put them over your eyes until right before the race starts, because they’ll fog up,” Stevens said. “Once the race starts, the wind unfogs them. But if you’re on the rail and some horse acts up in the gate, you’re in trouble. You wait until the last horse is in.”

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The rain could not have come at a worse time for Bien Bien, who is the 7-5 morning-line favorite for today’s $500,000 Hollywood Turf Cup.

Bien Bien turned in his poorest effort of the year when the turf came up soft for the Man O’ War Stakes at Belmont Park in September. He rebounded from that effort to finish second, beaten by only a half-length, to Kotashaan in last month’s Breeders’ Cup Turf. Bien Bien’s best races have come on the Hollywood turf when it is firm. He has won four times in six races here.

All races scheduled for the turf on Saturday were moved to the main track, and there are no grass races scheduled today before the Turf Cup, which will prevent the course from getting chewed up.

The Turf Cup features a rematch between last year’s top two finishers. Fraise crossed the wire a nose in front of Bien Bien, but Fraise was disqualified for interfering with Bien Bien in the stretch.

This is only the fifth start for Fraise since last year’s Turf Cup. He comes off a fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Horse Racing Notes

Mabrur, one of the most expensive yearlings sold at auction last year, will make his debut in today’s sixth race. The 2-year-old colt, who is by the premier stallion Mr. Prospector, cost $950,000. Mabrur’s dam, Reminiscing, already has produced California-based stakes winners Commemorate and Premiership. . . . Also making his first start in that race is The Doorkeeper, a full brother to the stakes winner Little Missouri. Little Missouri was the sire of the ill-fated Preakness winner, Prairie Bayou.

Phone Chatter, who fractured a broken rear cannon bone when winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, is recuperating quicker than expected. “We took X-rays this morning,” Richard Mandella, Phone Chatter’s trainer, said Saturday, “and the fracture line is coming together. It couldn’t look better. We might be able to take the screws out a month earlier than we’d thought.”