OAK TREE AT SANTA ANITA : Aube Indienne Surges to Win the Las Palmas

After Rodney Rash ended a 16-year stint as Charlie Whittingham’s assistant to begin a career of his own in 1991, the Hall of Fame trainer recommended Rash to several potential horse owners.

Combined with the know-how that Rash acquired from all those years at Whittingham’s side, there’s an unspoken debt there. Rash, currently racing more stakes winners than his 81-year-old former mentor, in part repaid the favors a couple of weeks ago when he shuffled a 4-year-old French filly over to Whittingham’s barn.

Saddled by Whittingham for the first time, Aube Indienne won the $106,300 Las Palmas Handicap by a neck over Queens Court Queen at Santa Anita on Sunday. This hasn’t been a vintage year for Whittingham, and Aube Indienne’s was that rare stakes victory that didn’t have Flawlessly’s name attached.

Before Sunday, Aube Indienne had only one victory in six starts in the United States. Bon Point, another European import, had done worse than that--one victory in nine tries--but the 4-year-old British-bred colt won Sunday’s other stake, the $107,050 Koester Handicap, after a stiff stretch drive with favored Journalism. The winning margin was a half-length.

The 7-10 favorite in the Las Palmas, Corrazona carried high weight of 120 pounds, five more than Aube Indienne, and after running last for the first half-mile, was caught behind horses in the stretch. After Laffit Pincay Jr. angled the Beverly Hills Handicap winner to the outside, she finished fourth in the five-horse field, beaten by almost five lengths.

“I had to get out of there,” Pincay said, “and when I did, she started lugging in with me the last sixteenth of a mile. I really think that if I had been able to get through, she would have been tough.”

Flawlessly, who has won two Eclipse Awards as best grass female and earned $2.5 million, was once a possibility for the Las Palmas, but now the 6-year-old mare won’t run during the Oak Tree meeting at all, skipping the $400,000 Yellow Ribbon on Nov. 6.

“She doesn’t like this grass course and she loves Hollywood Park,” Whittingham said.

Flawlessly has won only one of five starts at Santa Anita and has been second in the Yellow Ribbon twice.

Aube Indienne, who ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:49 3/5, one of the slowest winning times in the history of the Las Palmas, paid $18.80. Under Rash, her U.S. career began at Santa Anita last winter and her only stakes victory was negated by a stewards’ disqualification after the Modesty Handicap at Arlington International in June. Sunday’s victory was worth $61,300, and Aube Indienne is now a candidate for the Yellow Ribbon.

Kent Desormeaux rode Aube Indienne for the first time. “I didn’t know anything about this filly,” he said. “I walked into the paddock, and Charlie gave me the first bit of confidence. He told me that she caught another horse in a workout the other morning who had been about 20 lengths in front of her, and she caught him from the eighth pole home.”

With Skimble and Queens Court Queen ambling along up front, Desormeaux had Aube Indienne in third place early. Skimble faded in mid-stretch and Aube Indienne outfinished Queens Court Queen, who has been second in four of her last five starts.

Bobby Frankel, who trains Skimble, scratched Wharf, the other half of Saudi Arabian Prince Khalid Abdullah’s entry in the Koester. Wharf will run Wednesday, in a $60,000 allowance.

Under Eddie Delahoussaye, who was riding the 4-year-old colt for the first time, Bon Point led all the way. That was Frankel’s idea. “He had been disappointing, so we changed the strategy and put him on the lead,” Frankel said.

Bon Point, running a mile on grass in a swift 1:33 4/5, paid $14.40 and earned $62,050. He capped a big day for the prince’s Juddmonte Farms, which won the $1-million Rothmans International at Woodbine with Raintrap at 18-1 and also won a stake in France with Sunshack, a full brother to Raintrap.

Raintrap, who has been in the care of French trainer Andre Fabre, is headed Frankel’s way. “We’ll have to figure out whether to run him in the Breeders’ Cup Turf (Nov. 5 at Churchill Downs) or bring him to California,” Frankel said.

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Bobby Frankel has two probables for the Breeders’ Cup, Pacific Classic winner Tinners Way in the Classic and Eagle Eyed in the Mile. . . . Alywow was second in the Rothmans, a length behind Raintrap and three-quarters of a length ahead of Volochine. . . . White Muzzle, the even-money favorite, was last in a field of nine.