DEL MAR : Now, Nakatani Gives Lessons to His Teachers

Back in 1990, when Corey Nakatani was losing his five-pound apprentice weight allowance, he kept hearing an unsettling question.

“Where,” he was repeatedly asked, “are you going to ride now?”

He was taken aback at first because such a question was a not-too-veiled suggestion that he had to leave Southern California and go elsewhere, such as South Dakota or Sri Lanka, to prove that he could win without “the bug.”

“I kept saying I was staying right here,” Nakatani said Friday. “I won over 200 races with the bug. I thought I deserved to stay here. I think I showed I had the ability to deserve a shot.”

Nakatani, 23, was sitting in the jockeys’ lunch room shortly after he had brought Baja Bill home a winner in the second race. He had also won the first on He’s Domineering, an appropriate name for the horse considering the man on his back has moved into a comfortable lead in the rider standings at the Del Mar meeting. Those winners were his 42nd and 43rd and he later added a 44th to give him a seven-victory advantage over runner-up Gary Stevens.

Although he was the nation’s leading apprentice rider in 1989, Nakatani has never won the riding title at a racetrack meeting. Kent Desormeaux has won the last three years here.

“I was in the hunt last year,” Nakatani said, “but I got (a 10-day suspension) and it cost me being right there.”

Nakatani’s chances this year might also have been hurt by a suspension he incurred this week for a ride on Eagle Eyed in Monday’s Del Mar Derby. He got five days for bumping Desormeaux’s Marvin’s Faith coming down the stretch, and his horse was disqualified from third to seventh place. Nakatani went to court and got an injunction allowing him to continue to ride.

The incident caused a brief rift between the jockeys, Nakatani supposedly believing Desormeaux refused to give him room in retaliation for something he had done to Desormeaux earlier.

“There was kidding between me and Kent that got overheard and exaggerated,” Nakatani said. “We both ride to win and we both ride with our horses as the top priority. I think I was on the best horse in that race, definitely the best 3-year-old grass horse in the country.”

Obviously, things did not go well for Nakatani in the Del Mar Derby. However, among his accomplishments at this meeting are stakes victories on King’s Blade in the Bing Crosby Handicap, Approach The Bench in the Eddie Read Handicap, D’hallevant in the Pat O’Brien Breeders’ Cup Handicap and Gold Splash in the Osunitas Stakes.

Nakatani will be on D’hallevant in the six-horse Del Mar Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Sunday and he figures as a factor against Brocco, a horse making his first start since the Kentucky Derby.

“I think he has an exceptional chance,” Nakatani said. “He has early speed and that helps in any kind of a race. It helps keep him out of trouble and lets you do what you want to do with a race.”

Although D’hallevant might represent Nakatani’s strongest entrant in this weekend’s stakes races, he also has Shir Dar in today’s Palomar Handicap for older fillies and mares. The Grade II event is an upward step for the Bobby Frankel-trained filly, who has spent most of the year on the allowance level.

“It looks like an evenly matched race to me,” Nakatani said, “and it’s on the turf. I really believe the horse who gets the best trip wins on the turf.”

Because of his success, Nakatani does not have to climb aboard very many longshots. The ultimate compliment is paid to a jockey by racegoers when they begin to bet horses because he is riding them.

Nakatani might not be an apprentice any more, but he is still going to school.

“Laffit Pincay is my idol,” he said. “To this day he’s the best from the eighth-pole to the wire. I watch him . . . and he’s a big part of my success. You look around here and you’ve got Gary Stevens, Chris McCarron, Eddie Delahoussaye, the greatest riders in the world. You’ve got to learn around these guys.”

Horse Racing Notes

The Juddmonte Farms entry of Skimble, ridden by Pat Day, and Nidd, ridden by Eddie Delahoussaye, is the 9-5 favorite in today’s Palomar Handicap. Delahoussaye is back for the first time since he was injured in a mishap last Saturday. Second choice is another entry, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Wygod’s Glass Ceiling, with Chris McCarron aboard, and Private Persuasion, with Alex Solis up, at 5-2. . . . The Rocking Chair Derby, a showcase for retired riders, will be held between the fifth and sixth races without parimutuel betting. . . . Stellar Affair, ridden by Gary Stevens, was the winner of the $60,000 Matching Handicap Friday. . . . A federal judge in Syracuse, N.Y., refused to vacate an Internal Revenue Service lien imposed on Devil His Due’s owner as a way of collecting back taxes from her father. However, U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy granted a preliminary injunction that will allow Devil His Due to race Sept. 17 in the Woodward at Belmont Park. McAvoy issued his decision following a two-day hearing. He gave attorneys 60 days for discovery of evidence, after which time the judge will set a trial date. Devil His Due’s owner, Edith LiButti, contends the IRS wrongfully placed the lien and notice of seizure on the horse and Lioncrest Stables in Mahwah, N.J. Although LiButti claims she is the sole owner of Devil His Due, the IRS contends her father is profiting from his association with his daughter and has an undisclosed financial interest in the horse.