HOLLYWOOD PARK : Grand Flotilla, Potridee Are Stakes Winners

When Jenine Sahadi belonged to Delta Gamma at USC, she and one of her sorority sisters never envisioned what they’ve accomplished together in the last two months.

“Jenine was from a horse family, so it was easy to tell what direction she might go in,” Mary Louise Sloan said. “But I wasn’t really brought in to horses until I married Mike.”

Mike Sloan, who is general counsel for Circus Circus, the company that runs Las Vegas casinos, and Mary Louise race Grand Flotilla, and Sahadi is their trainer. The 7-year-old continued to perform his big-race feats Sunday, winning the $250,000 Sunset Handicap at Hollywood Park, which came on the heels of his victory in the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Handicap on May 30.

The Sloans’ 3 1/2-year-old son, Andrew, was also in the winner’s circle Sunday, wearing black silks with the diagonal red sash similar to the ones that Gary Stevens wore on his winning ride. The Sloans are also partners in Samourzkan, who won the $100,000 Laurance Armour Handicap at Arlington International for trainer Bob Hess Jr. Saturday.

“This horse kicked in real good,” Stevens said of Grand Flotilla. “He wasn’t going to let that other horse (Semillon) by.”

Grand Flotilla, running with stablemate Sir Mark Sykes, was the 7-10 favorite and beat Semillon by a neck. Emerald Jig was third, another 2 1/2 lengths back and a neck better than Sir Mark Sykes in fourth place.

The Sunset wasn’t even the most expensive race on the card for Hollywood Park’s next-to-last racing day this season. In the $300,000 Vanity Handicap, Potridee and jockey Alex Solis overcame trouble on the inside, split horses in the last sixteenth of a mile and beat Exchange by a neck while the 7-5 favorite and 119-pound highweight, Golden Klair, finished third, beaten by about three-quarters of a length.

Trainer Ron McAnally has won the Vanity in recent years with some champion Argentine-bred mares--Bayakoa and Paseana--and he also won it in 1991 with Brought To Mind, but Potridee, who’s also from Argentina, was a surprise at 7-1 and had finished last on the grass in the Beverly Hills Handicap three weeks ago.

On dirt in the Vanity, she ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:48, carrying 114 pounds.

“I think Argentine-bred horses can run either way, on dirt or grass, and she’s no exception,” McAnally said. “She didn’t run her race last time, and I felt Kent (Desormeaux) didn’t know her very well and he sort of gave up on her on the turn. She had a little trouble in the race and it was a tough race, of course, with Hollywood Wildcat and those top fillies. But I figured she didn’t take too much out of herself and she could come back in this race on the dirt because it was the best race of the meeting.”

Exchange, making only her second start since May 1993, appeared to have the Vanity won before Potridee got through.

“I thought I had it won,” said the 6-year-old mare’s jockey, Laffit Pincay. “But when she gets on the lead, she doesn’t always try like she can. When she saw the other horse coming, it was too late. She tried to come back on again, but it was too late.”

Solis was serving the last day of a five-day suspension Sunday, but because of California’s designated-race rule that applies to major stakes, he was able to ride Potridee in the Vanity.

“I hustled her to go to the lead, like Ronnie wanted to do, but she didn’t show any speed today,” Solis said. “So I put her in good position and waited all the way around.”

Potridee was fifth on the far turn, with Exchange chasing the leader, Southern Truce, up front.

“At the three-eighths pole, everybody was coming from everywhere, and I was trapped down inside,” Solis said.

“I had no place to go, but I was very happy that my filly never dropped the bit. She was still running and running. I finally got some clearance at the eighth pole. I started hitting her left-handed, and she just flew home the last sixteenth.”

Potridee earned $165,000 for owner Leslie Grimm, which is more than the 5-year-old mare earned in 10 starts in the last two years.

Sunset winner Grand Flotilla, running 1 1/2 miles on grass in 2:26 1/5, earned $158,000, boosting his earnings to $565,500 for the Sloans since they bought him in France late last year.

Sahadi, who has been training on her own since April 1993, frets before races, and Sunday she was happy that the Sunset was run as the third race on the card.

“I’m glad I didn’t have to wait until the eighth,” she said. “It was stressful this time, because he was the favorite.

“But he’s been feeling well, and Gary (Stevens) said (Grand Flotilla) feels like a 2-year-old. This horse feels like he’s getting younger instead of getting older.”

Horse Racing Notes

In other races Sunday, Sky Beauty, who is undefeated in four starts this year, won the $150,000 Go for Wand Stakes at Saratoga by 10 1/2 lengths over Link River and Overbury, and Vaudeville dead-heated for the victory in the $300,000 American Derby at Arlington International. Eagle Eyed, the favorite at Arlington, needed seven assistant starters to get her loaded and then flattened out in the stretch before finishing fourth.

In the Hollywood Park windup today, trainer Wayne Lukas will try to beat colts with the filly Serena’s Song in the Hollywood Juvenile. Serena’s Song is the 2-1 morning-line favorite, and Ron McAnally’s Mr Purple, who won by three lengths in his only race, is next at 5-2. After two dull races in Kentucky, Serena’s Song broke her maiden with a 10-length victory at Hollywood in June, then won the Landaluce Stakes by 4 1/2 lengths.

McAnally leads the meeting with six stakes victories, and with 23 winners is one behind Sandy Shulman in the trainer standings. . . . Chris Antley, who leads the jockeys in stakes victories with nine, rode a disqualified winner, Never Topped, Saturday and has been handed a five-day suspension. The penalty will start Thursday, the second day of the Del Mar meeting.