DEL MAR : It’s Just Like Old Times as Navarone Wins

If you liked the 1992 Del Mar Handicap, you would have loved Sunday’s 1994 Del Mar Handicap. The owner was the same. The trainer was the same. The jockey was the same. The tactics were the same.

Even the winning horse, Navarone, was the same.

The jockey, Pat Valenzuela, let his horse control what was basically a race without pace, picked up speed a little bit, then had enough left to hold off onrushing Approach the Bench at the wire. Navarone won by a nose and paid $12.60.

The big money on this $250,000 race for older horses over 1 3/8 miles on the turf was on the Mike Sloan-entry of Grand Flotilla and Sir Mark Sykes. Grand Flotilla was thought to be the horse to beat but finished fifth. His stablemate rallied for third, two lengths behind.

“He ran well,” said Jenine Sahadi, Grand Flotilla’s trainer, “but there wasn’t any pace and he was too far back to make up the ground.”

The race unfolded perfectly for Navarone, who followed the 1992 Del Mar Handicap victory with a first in the Oak Tree Invitational at Santa Anita, then battled injury and illness for a long time.

Rodney Rash, the trainer who brought him through this troubled period, and his owner, R.E. Hibbert, were happy merely to see him back.

“I never had any doubts he’d come back,” Rash said. “I’m lucky I work for the Hibberts because they allow me to do what’s right. On his day, Navarone can run with the good horses and today he proved it. That was one of the toughest Del Mar Handicaps in a while.”

Rash felt good in the paddock, as Navarone stood calmly while being saddled. The race unfolded with Navarone, Regency and Daros on the lead. Navarone gradually pulled away until he had to contend with Approach the Bench and Corey Nakatani at the wire.

“I had a flashback to ‘92,” Valenzuela said, “when I opened up with him on the turn and won it in the clear. I saw myself doing it again. When Corey’s horse came up on me, he (Navarone) stuck his neck out and tried harder.”

Rash laughed about having complained to the racing secretary about the impost Navarone had to carry, only one pound less than his last stakes start.

“All that yelling,” he said, “probably doesn’t look too good now.”

However, that one pound might have given him the nose he needed to relive 1992.

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Trainer Brian Mayberry has hit a bad patch.

It started Thursday when the California Horse Racing Board suspended Mayberry for 30 days because a tranquilizing drug had been found in the urine of a horse he saddled at Hollywood Park. He termed it a “vet’s mistake.”

Then, on Saturday, one of his horses, Ramblin Guy, veered left out of the first post position in the sixth race and barreled over the rail in an ugly mishap that sent jockey Eddie Delahoussaye flying. Delahoussaye suffered no serious injuries, but is off his mounts indefinitely because of soreness. Ramblin Guy, a 3-year-old, had to be destroyed.

“What other people do to me means nothing,” Mayberry said Sunday, “but having that horse killed means everything. He was a wonderful horse and that was a terrible thing to happen. He was a high-class horse I thought would develop into a quality sprinter. The only thing I’m happy about is that Eddie wasn’t hurt any more seriously than he was.”

What of the suspension, which is supposed to begin Tuesday?

“I’m very ill-versed when it comes to matters of law and jurisprudence,” Mayberry said.

“My attorney will handle it with an injunction and hearing. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just some little people trying to be big people.”

He indicated it would be business as usual with him until he heard otherwise.

“I haven’t been drawn and quartered yet,” he said.

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Today’s Del Mar Derby, a $300,000 race for 3-year-olds over 1 1/8 miles on the turf, is wide open. A case can be made for every entry in the 10-horse field.

The morning line favorite, at 7-2, is Eagle Eyed, based on his performance in the Grade II Arlington Classic. Next, at 9-2, is Unfinished Symph, winner of the Cinema Handicap at Hollywood Park but second to Marvin’s Faith, a 10-1 shot in this field, in the La Jolla Handicap.

The Derby also features the likes of Powis Castle, a horse who ran, without success, in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness; Rapan, fourth in his only stakes start but hoping today’s distance is right for his style; and Bluegrass Prince, an import from England who arrived on Friday.

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Gary Baze, another jockey injured Saturday, will be sidelined for four weeks because of broken ribs. He was thrown and kicked as he left the paddock on Oklahoma Morn before the second race.