Another First for Shoemaker : Horse racing: He becomes first former jockey to train Strub Stakes winner when Pincay wins with Diazo.

In Diazo’s worst races, the 4-year-old colt’s problems have been self-inflicted. He has pulled his jockey, Laffit Pincay, to the front prematurely, expending his energy and having nothing left for the finish.

Before Sunday’s $500,000 Strub Stakes at Santa Anita, Allen Paulson, the owner and breeder of Diazo, gave Pincay some advice. “You better eat your Wheaties,” Paulson said.

For the 47th Strub, Pincay was at his best, conserving Diazo’s energy early and then bringing him back after they had been passed near the wire. Diazo beat Nonproductiveasset by a nose in one of the closest finishes in Strub history.

“This isn’t good for the heart,” said Paulson, who also had to wait out a foul claim by Nonproductiveasset’s jockey, Corey Nakatani, before Diazo’s number was posted on the tote board before an on-track crowd of 32,859.

Bill Shoemaker, who won a record seven Strubs as a jockey, became the first former rider to train a winner of the stake.

“It’s a great feeling,” Shoemaker said. “I never felt this good when I rode all seven of those Strub winners.”

Shoemaker removed the blinkers on Diazo three races back, and the colt won the Malibu Stakes, the opener of the three-race Strub series. Diazo gave Pincay another rough time three weeks ago, pushing for the lead before sputtering to a ninth-place finish in the San Fernando Stakes.

“This little horse is game,” Shoemaker said after Sunday’s victory. “He’s capable of coming back on you.”

Paulson, the Eclipse Award winner for outstanding breeder last year, got $350,000 of the Strub purse, with his Stuka finishing third, beaten by about 1 3/4 lengths. Both Diazo and Stuka are sons of Jade Hunter, who stands at Paulson’s farm near Versailles, Ky.

Coupled with Stuka in the betting, Diazo paid $14.60, running 1 1/4 miles in 2:00 1/5. Since the Shoemaker-ridden Spectacular Bid swept the Strub series in 1980, only two horses--Snow Chief and Best Pal--have been faster winners of the Strub.

Pleasant Tango, the 17-10 favorite off of his third-place finish in the San Fernando, had traffic problems again Sunday and finished eighth after breaking last in the 11-horse field.

Zignew, the San Fernando winner, finished fourth, 2 1/2 lengths behind Diazo, and was vanned off the track. It was reported that he suffered a broken left foreleg, but the injury wasn’t considered life-threatening.

Zignew, acting like the Diazo of old, pulled jockey Chris McCarron to the front at the start of the far turn and then matched strides with Goldigger’s Dream until Diazo edged past both of them with less than a furlong left. Nonproductiveasset, a consistent stakes threat since trainer Wally Dollase claimed him from Ted West for $40,000 at Hollywood Park eight months ago, was able to circle the field after lagging in ninth place for three-quarters of a mile.

Nonproductiveasset, on the outside, got a head in front of Diazo nearing the wire. “I was surprised that horse came by me,” Pincay said. “But for some reason, I knew I still had a lot of horse under me, and he came back again.”

Nakatani, who declined to comment after the race, made the foul claim, alleging interference at the five-sixteenths marker.

“I don’t know what happened (regarding the claim),” Pincay said. “I never saw the other guy. I never heard anything. I was on the outside most of the time, and I just don’t know what happened.”

Nonproductiveasset was second, 1 3/4 lengths behind Zignew, in the San Fernando. He picked up two pounds off that race, to 118, while Diazo stayed at 120. Sunday’s highweight, Kissin Kris, finished sixth while carrying 124 pounds.

“This was a great thrill,” Dollase said of Nonproductiveasset’s near-miss. “He gave us a big effort, and he should make a nice living for my family down the road.”

Diazo still had energy to burn past the finish line. Coming back to the winner’s circle, he dumped Pincay as a track official tried to drape the wreath of flowers.

“He broke the same way he did last time,” Pincay said, “and he would have gone on (to the lead), but I had a tight rein. I jerked him back, got him behind horses and he came back to me. I know some people have said that he couldn’t get this distance, but if he runs the right way, he can do it.”

At 1 1/4 miles last year, Diazo was fifth in both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Park’s Jockey Club Gold Cup, and sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita. The Strub was his sixth victory in 13 starts, pushing his earnings to $681,400.

Horse Racing Notes

Laffit Pincay, who has ridden in the race 24 times, scored his fifth victory in the Strub and his first since Affirmed won in 1979. He won the race in 1967 with Drin, his first Strub mount, and also won with Snow Sporting in 1970 and Ancient Title, who swept the series in 1974. . . . Unofficially, Pincay, 48, has won 8,076 races, second to Bill Shoemaker’s 8,833.

The day after his 26th birthday, jockey David Flores suffered a broken collarbone when he was dumped by Chapar in a rough run into the first turn in the fifth race. . . . X-rays Sunday morning showed that Chris McCarron suffered a small fracture in his right hand. McCarron, who rode two winners after the spill that caused the injury Saturday, rode all of his mounts but one Sunday, finishing fourth in the Strub on Zignew.

Pat Valenzuela, who has skipped eight of the first 33 days of the meeting, called in sick Sunday. “I realize it’s a big race, but I’m too sick to make it,” Valenzuela told steward Ingrid Fermin. Ridden by his cousin, Fernando Valenzuela, his mount, Justtofit, finished last in the Strub.

The stewards have suspended Gary Stevens for five days, starting Wednesday, for an incident in a race on Saturday. . . . Corey Black, who is appealing a five-day Santa Anita suspension that was to have started Sunday, was at Turf Paradise to ride Megan’s Interco, who finished in a dead heat for first with Ranger in the $108,500 Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Stakes. . . . With eight horses scratched when the race was moved from the turf to dirt, Mamselle Bebette won the Monrovia Handicap, another stake on Sunday’s Santa Anita card.. . . Between races, Phil Grove received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award for 1994. Grove rode more than 3,700 winners.