DEL MAR : Dead Heat in Sunday’s Feature Would Suit Trainer Sahadi Fine

Jenine Sahadi had been around thoroughbred racehorses all of her life. She had a degree from USC in journalism and seven years’ experience doing assorted tasks at Hollywood Park. Her life had direction, but it lacked specific purpose.

Horse racing, obviously, would be her career, but others controlled it.

Sahadi’s solution was to cast her lot with the horses themselves. She would train them.

In the 16 months since Sahadi, 31, took out her training license, her horses have already earned close to $2.5 million.

Her key?

“You’ve got to put them where they can win,” she said. “They know when they’re getting beaten.”

Sahadi has two horses placed where they have an opportunity to win--in Sunday’s $250,000 Del Mar Handicap. In fact, Grand Flotilla and Sir Mark Sykes will start side by side in the first and second positions in the 1 3/8-mile race on the turf.

They will give their trainer an opportunity to experience one of the joys of training.

“The easiest part of training is the walk down to the winner’s circle to get your picture taken,” she said, laughing. “There’s nothing like winning. The horses know it too. No doubt about it. They know it for days.”

Why, then, put one of her two in position where he can’t win--barring a dead heat?

Grand Flotilla is a homebody who does not like to travel. Sir Mark Sykes is a jet-setter with nowhere to go.

“It takes forever just to get Grand Flotilla into a van,” Sahadi said. “Nothing bothers Sir Mark Sykes, but there’s nothing really around (elsewhere) for him now and this race is a good distance for him.”

Both horses are owned by Mike Sloan, general counsel for Circus Circus. He and his wife, Mary Louise, helped the trainer get started in her adopted career. “I wanted to do it properly if I was going to do it,” Sahadi said. “I didn’t want to start with one or two horses because I knew I wouldn’t get anywhere like that. I wanted to make sure I had horses before I got a license. With their horses and mine, now I had a barn.”

Sahadi has owned thoroughbreds since she was in high school. Her father founded the Cardiff Stud Farm and her brother, Stephen, now runs it. The facility is located near San Luis Obispo in Creston, which happens to be the name of a Sahadi-trained colt who won last year’s Balboa Stakes here. Indeed, when Sahadi started training, the first horse she sent to the post, La Sarcelle, won an allowance race at Hollywood Park on May 2, 1993. She was also successful with Kalita Melody, and Megan’s Interco set a course record in the Shoemaker Handicap at Hollywood Park.

However, Grand Flotilla has delivered the biggest victories for her. He won the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Handicap on May 30 and came back to win the Sunset Handicap on July 24. He has not run here yet this year, but Sir Mark Sykes won the Escondido Handicap on Aug. 10.

“This year has been incredible,” Sahadi said. “I’ve always been lucky and I know I’m fortunate to have some really nice horses, but a lot of people train horses for 30 years and don’t get a horse like Grand Flotilla.”

But there is another side to training.

“Every day there’s bad news at the barn,” Sahadi said. “I’ve got 34 horses over there and every day I get to the barn and find out somebody’s not eating right or somebody’s not feeling well or somebody’s got a bad ankle.”

But that’s not the worst of it.

“The worst thing,” she said, “is telling a guy his horse can’t run. Maybe he’s bred it and he’s proud of it and looking forward to the races and you’ve got to tell him his horse can’t be competitive.”

In two summers at Del Mar, Sahadi has been as competitive as anyone on the backstretch. Close to 30% of her entries have won and 50% have run first or second. Come Sunday, her ambition is to finish first and second.

Horse Racing Notes

Blaze O’Brien, ridden by Chris McCarron, caught 3-5 favorite Rapan Boy at the wire and won the $55,000 How Now Handicap by a nose Friday. . . . Trainer Brian Mayberry, suspended for 30 days Thursday because of a positive drug test on one of his horses, will appeal the decision. He maintains that a veterinarian’s mistake caused the positive tests and called the “trainer’s responsibility” rule archaic. According to that rule, the trainer is responsible for all that goes on in his barn.

Call Now, ridden by Alex Solis, is favored in today’s $250,000 Del Mar Debutante for 2-year-old fillies. . . . Eliza, the champion 2-year-old filly in 1992, will make her first start in almost 15 months in the June Darling Handicap earlier on the card. She has been plagued by minor problems, according to trainer Alex Hassinger.

Venus In Spurs beat Incognito by 1 1/4 lengths to win the $30,000 Signor Corron Handicap for Illinois-bred 2-years-olds at Arlington International Racecourse. Venus In Spurs, ridden by Mark Guidry, finished the six-furlong race in 1:11 and paid $7.40, $4.40 and $2.80. Incognito returned $26.80 and $7.20 and Holy Matrimony paid $3.00.