HOLLYWOOD PARK : Valiant Nature Upsets Brocco in the Futurity

On a day when one of his closest clients was being buried with his racing colors in Kansas, trainer Ron McAnally’s emotions rose and fell all afternoon at Hollywood Park.

For the family of Frank Whitham, killed in the crash of his private plane on Wednesday, McAnally was at least happy that Ibero, one of Whitham’s stakes winners, was able to win Sunday’s seventh race. That emotion had not yet subsided a race later when McAnally saddled Valiant Nature for the biggest upset in the history of the Hollywood Futurity.

Bred and owned by Verne Winchell, another loyal McAnally client, Valiant Nature beat the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, Brocco, by running 1 1/16 miles in 1:40 3/5--a full second off of the stakes record and missing the track record by three-fifths of a second.

Brocco’s camp was somewhat bitter about an outcome that might cost the previously undefeated colt the Eclipse Award for best 2-year-old male. There were suggestions that Brocco’s chances were hurt because of the way Kent Desormeaux rode the $500,000 race on Gracious Ghost, who finished fifth in a six-horse field.

“I’d like to be real classy and say the best horse won, but I can’t do it,” said Gary Stevens, who rode Brocco to his three consecutive victories. “There was somebody in the race who forced me to do something I didn’t want to do down the backside, but when you’re riding a 2-5 shot, there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it, and in fact I expected it. I knew that Kent’s colt had plenty of speed and that he might be in front of me. I figured I was going to have to fight my way around there, and that’s basically what happened.”

Beaten by three-quarters of a length, Brocco was in fourth place early, and despite shaking loose entering the stretch, he couldn’t catch Laffit Pincay astride Valiant Nature, who ran a mile in a fast 1:34 2/5 and never faltered. Brocco finished 2 1/2 lengths ahead of Flying Sensation.

“Gary had a ton of horse,” said Brocco’s trainer, Randy Winick, “but he got into trouble between the half-mile pole and the three-eighths pole, and near the three-eighths pole, Gary had to check our horse. He was under a head of steam before that happened, and then Gary had to get him into gear again.”

Stevens said that Brocco was forced about nine horses wide on the far turn. “When we were seven wide, the guy (Desormeaux) kept looking back to see where we were,” Stevens said. “He was surprised as hell at that point that we weren’t behind him. My horse has instant acceleration, but you can only expect so much. My horse got to within the hip of Laffit’s horse, but then he hung in the last sixteenth of a mile. Unless you’ve got a horse with a lot of speed, you can’t expect a smooth trip on a 2-5 shot. About 90% of the 2-year- olds would have stuck their feet into the ground at the three-eighths pole and cashed it in, but my horse didn’t.”

Desormeaux is in the middle of a five-day suspension, but was able to ride Gracious Ghost because of California’s designated-race rule.

“I was in a spot (near the lead) where I wanted to be,” Desormeaux said. “I wouldn’t have traded places with the world right then. But I didn’t know who or what was behind me. I was just sitting outside of Laffit and following him.”

Some Eclipse voters might shift their support to Dehere, who had won five of six starts in New York before he was badly beaten by Brocco in the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita last month. A post-race examination that day determined that Dehere had bled from the lungs.

“I don’t know if we’ll get the Eclipse,” Winick said. “But they’ve given Dehere excuses twice, so how about my horse? We would have won if he hadn’t got into trouble. Why should Dehere have the market on excuses?”

Valiant Nature, carrying 121 pounds, ran the same time Sunday as Ibero, a 6-year-old carrying only 117 pounds. Earning $275,000, Valiant Nature paid $34 as the second-longest shot in the race.

Brocco had won the Breeders’ Cup with only two races on his record, and Valiant Nature’s Futurity victory also came in only his third start. The full brother of Tight Spot, another of Winchell’s stakes-winning horses, the His Majesty-Premium Win colt ran 10th while making his debut at Santa Anita on Oct. 10, then convincingly beat maidens at a mile on the turf at Hollywood Park a month ago.

When McAnally saw that Valiant Nature was 35-1 in the early betting, he turned to his assistant, Eduardo Inda, and said, “Somebody must be crazy.”

When Pincay joined them in the paddock, McAnally said: “He looks like a million dollars. I think we’ve got a shot.”

Said Pincay: “I thought he would run well, especially if I put him on the lead and he didn’t get dirt in his face. Turning for home, I knew I had a lot of horse, and that it was going to take a lot of horse to beat him. I was worried that he might duck in down the stretch if I hit him, because he did that the last time on the grass. So I just tapped him to keep his mind on going straight. I think this horse has a big future. Maybe I’ve got a Kentucky Derby horse right here.”

McAnally likened Sunday to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Belmont Park in 1990, when he saddled Whitham’s champion mare, Bayakoa, for a victory that was marred by her rival, Go for Wand, breaking down and being destroyed on the track.

“This is bittersweet, too,” McAnally said.

Horse Racing Notes

Laffit Pincay rode River Special to victory in last year’s Hollywood Futurity. . . . Valiant Nature and Brocco are expected to resume their rivalry this year at Santa Anita. Trainer Randy Winick said that Brocco would be rested for about two months. . . . The Hollywood Park meeting ends today, with Santa Anita’s opener scheduled for next Sunday. . . . A spokeswoman for the Wayne Lukas Racing Stable said Sunday that assistant trainer Jeff Lukas remains in critical condition at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena.