SANTA ANITA : Bien Bien Doesn’t Have Soft Spot for Turf Condition

Add another race, the San Luis Obispo Handicap, to the list of stakes that Bien Bien has been unable to win over soft courses.

Bien Bien was winless in three attempts on soft going, and after the weekend rain, his owners and trainer debated about running Monday at Santa Anita in the $221,400 San Luis Obispo. Although the sky was clear, the course was still listed as good, and there was Bien Bien losing again, this time by three-quarters of a length to Fanmore after 1 1/2 miles.

Paco Gonzalez, Bien Bien’s trainer, did not use the course condition as an excuse. Those who walked the grass layout before the race said the course could almost have been labeled firm.

“The track (condition) had nothing to do with it,” Gonzalez said. “I thought we might have a chance at the top of the stretch, but he was too far back. He did get into a little trap over there (near the half-mile pole).”

Eddie Delahoussaye was a new jockey for Bien Bien, replacing the injured Laffit Pincay, who had become a replacement for the suspended Chris McCarron.

“He handled the surface all right,” Delahoussaye said, “but I would have liked it if the turf had been a little firmer, because he didn’t seem happy. Even so, he made a move at the head of the stretch and it looked like we were going to maybe get there. Then in the last sixteenth (of a mile), he hung.”

Kent Desormeaux, the meeting’s leading rider with 45 victories--including Lakeway in Sunday’s Las Virgenes Stakes--rode Fanmore, a 6-year-old gelding who had already made two starts here this winter, running second in the San Gabriel Handicap on Jan. 1 and first in an allowance race two weeks later.

In the allowance victory, at 1 1/8 miles, Fanmore took the lead at the start and couldn’t be caught, which is what happened Monday.

“I had a question about whether he could get a mile and a half,” trainer Bobby Frankel said. “He hadn’t run that far over there (in Europe), and until a horse tries the distance, you never know.”

Frankel had another concern with about a half-mile left, when Grand Flotilla spurted from the middle of the pack to challenge Fanmore for the lead.

“That was an early move that other horse made, and I thought the two of them might kill each other off,” Frankel said.

Fanmore, owned by Prince Khalid Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, paid $7.20 as the second betting choice and earned $131,400. Bien Bien, the 9-10 favorite, carried high weight of 124 pounds, eight more than the winner.

Fanmore has won six times and had four seconds in 11 starts, and is headed for the San Juan Capistrano Handicap, at about 1 3/4 miles, on April 24. Bien Bien’s next race probably will be the 1 1/2-mile San Luis Rey Stakes on March 27.

Bien Bien finished three-quarters of a length ahead of third-place Navire in a field that was cut to nine by three scratches. The winning time was 2:27, three-fifths of a second faster than Kotashaan’s victory on a yielding course a year ago.

Frankel might have been worried about the challenge from Grand Flotilla, but Desormeaux wasn’t. “When the gray horse came to us,” the jockey said, “my horse absolutely sprinted around the turn, pricked up his ears and said, ‘Where’s the next one?’ ”

Bien Bien was third most of the way, trailing by about five lengths midway down the backstretch.

“At the end, I could hear (track announcer Trevor Denman say) that Bien Bien was coming,” Desormeaux said. “I was scared. I held my horse together to the sixteenth pole, then I just threw everything I had at him.”

It was Desormeaux, riding Kotashaan, who beat Bien Bien three times at Santa Anita last year, with their final meeting in the Breeders’ Cup Turf in November. Kotashaan, who was voted horse of the year, has been retired to stud.

“After losing Kotashaan, (Fanmore) has filled a big empty spot for me,” Desormeaux said.

Horse Racing Notes

Laffit Pincay, who was injured in a spill Saturday, is expected to resume riding Thursday. . . . Bengal Bay, fourth in the El Conejo Handicap Saturday, was sixth in the San Luis Obispo. . . . Trainer Bobby Frankel said his newly acquired 3-year-old, You And I, is scheduled to run in the Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds on March 19. . . . In a prep for the California Derby at Golden Gate Fields, Double Jab outfinished Halloween Treat to win Monday’s Golden Bear Stakes on a sloppy track. The co-favorites, Flying Sensation and Powis Castle, were scratched.