SANTA ANITA : Zignew Lives Up to Breeding, Wins the San Fernando Stakes

A grandson of Northern Dancer and a son of Danzig, Zignew is a 4-year-old colt whose races have never been as good as his breeding.

Northern Dancer won the Kentucky Derby in 1964; 29 years later, Sea Hero, a grandson of Danzig, did the same. But Zignew spent his 3-year-old season unable to bridge the competitive gap between allowance company and stakes races.

Trainer Speedy Smithwick moved the colt from dirt to grass and back to dirt while trying to find the answer. Smithwick’s patience might pay off. Waiting until his 12th start before scoring his first stakes victory, Zignew scored a 21-1 upset on dirt Sunday at Santa Anita in the $225,400 San Fernando Stakes. That means that the Strub series will go another year before a horse has a chance to sweep the three races. Of the five horses to sweep, Precisionist was the most recent, in 1985.

Diazo, winner of the Malibu, the first race in the series, was a contender for the first mile of the San Fernando, but he finished a well-beaten ninth in a field of 12 4-year-olds.

Nonproductiveasset, making his first start on dirt since trainer Wally Dollase claimed him out of a $40,000 maiden race last May, came from far back to finish second, 1 3/4 lengths behind Zignew and a half-length in front of Pleasant Tango, who might have done better had he not been trapped behind horses in the stretch.

Zignew, bred and owned by Jack Kent Cooke and ridden by Chris McCarron, earned $135,400, which was $22,875 more than his purses for 11 previous starts. He had won four times, but was not better than fourth in three stakes starts. Sunday marked Zignew’s first stakes race since an eighth-place finish in the Ascot Handicap at Bay Meadows on Sept. 25.

Diazo and his stablemate, Stuka, went off favored at 19-10. Zignew, who paid $44.80 after running 1 1/8 miles in 1:47 4/5, came into the San Fernando off an allowance victory at Hollywood Park a month ago. He carried 116 pounds Sunday, four less than the top-weighted Diazo.

“He’s getting better with age,” said Smithwick, who comes from a family of Hall of Fame steeplechase horsemen. “I think he’s matured, he’s learned how to rate and he didn’t stall when he made the lead this time. He’s out of a Prince John mare (Newfoundland) who’s had nothing but nice horses, and they’ve all put it together late in life, too.”

Zignew broke from the outside post, and with Bat Eclat, Diazo and Del Mar Dennis doing the fastest early running, McCarron was able to drop his mount into fourth place after a half-mile.

At the top of the stretch, Bat Eclat and Diazo dropped out of contention. Del Mar Dennis had the lead with an eighth of mile to go, and although McCarron could have gone to the front then, he was reluctant to do so.

“I didn’t want to open up three lengths or so leaving the eighth pole,” McCarron said. “Because then he might stick his toes into the ground and lose momentum.”

McCarron said that after he heard the Santa Anita announcer, Trevor Denman, say that Pleasant Tango was moving, he asked Zignew to dig in. McCarron, who rode Bertrando to victory last year, became only the third back-to-back winner of the stake, which was first run in 1952. Bill Shoemaker rode the winners in 1957-58 and Eddie Belmonte had a three-race streak that started in 1969.

McCarron rode Zignew early in his career and has been aboard for the horse’s last three races.

“Chris has figured him out a lot,” Smithwick said. “He waited as long as he could to move with him today. One of the problems with this horse is that he’s never learned how to shift into overdrive. He was a May foal, and that’s one of the reasons he never made it to the races as a 2-year-old. I hope the best with him is yet to come.”

Trainer Chris Speckert could say the same thing about Pleasant Tango, who made his first start since a fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic nine weeks back.

“We would have needed a bulldozer to get through in the stretch,” Speckert said.

Pleasant Tango hadn’t bled in the Breeders’ Cup, but was a first-time Lasix user because of bleeding during a morning workout.

“On the last turn, there were a lot of traffic problems,” jockey Eddie Delahoussaye said. “We had to weave in and out. After he got through, he made a run, but those other two were already gone.”

Dollase and his crew were ecstatic about Nonproductiveasset’s race, which was also marred by crowded quarters.

“Every time I tried to go somewhere, I was looking for a place to go,” jockey Corey Nakatani said.

Diazo came from the back of the pack to win in the Malibu. His worst finishes last year came when he raced close to the lead.

“I didn’t send him,” jockey Laffit Pincay said Sunday. “I figured he’d be about six, seven lengths off the pace, but then all of a sudden he started running. He started fighting me, so I had to go with him. That’s not his style, but I’ll know next time.”

There will probably be another large field for the series finale, the $500,000 Strub Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on Feb. 6. Zignew, who has never run farther than Sunday’s distance, will get his chance.

“At one point in his career, I wasn’t even sure he was a miler,” Smithwick said. “But he’s sure bred to run all day.”

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Horse Racing Notes

Chris McCarron rode three winners Sunday, and was astride the other stakes winner on the card when Musical Girl outfinished Flying In The Lane for a 1 1/4-length victory in the $111,550 filly division of the California Breeders’ Champion Stakes for 3-year-olds. Musical Girl, bred and owned by Sidney Factor, ran seven furlongs in 1:21 4/5, tying the stakes record. In her only other start, Musical Girl won a maiden race at Hollywood Park and Sunday she paid $21. Of the 12 stakes at the meet, only one has been won by a favorite. Overall, 21% of the races have been won by favorites, about 10% less than the national average.

Arches of Gold, who finished sixth in the race a year ago, is the 3-1 favorite in today’s Santa Monica Handicap. . . . Legacy World, winner of the Japan Cup, is headed for trainer Richard Mandella’s barn, to run in the San Juan Capistrano Handicap on April 24. Mandella’s Kotashaan, a horse-of-the-year candidate in North America, ran second in the Japan Cup.