HOLLYWOOD PARK : Best Pal Hits Stride With Latest Victory

Everyone needed a confidence builder: Trainer Richard Mandella, jockey Chris McCarron, owners John and Betty Mabee, their racing manager Gayle Van Leer and, most of all, Best Pal. The not-so-creaky gelding, less than a month from his seventh birthday, delivered in his best style, circling the field at the top of the stretch for a four-length victory in Sunday’s $109,000 Native Diver Handicap.

This was the first time Best Pal had won a race under McCarron; it was Best Pal’s first victory in a graded race in 16 months; and it was only the fourth in the last 16 starts for the Mabees’ horse. The timing was right. Best Pal rarely loses at Hollywood Park--Sunday’s victory was his sixth in seven starts on dirt there--and McCarron only fails to win the Native Diver when he doesn’t have a mount in the race. Best Pal gave the Hall of Fame jockey his fifth consecutive victory in the stake, not counting last year when no trainer was smart enough to hire him for the race.

“It wasn’t that Best Pal didn’t respond at Churchill Downs, it was just that he didn’t have his best stride,” said McCarron, recalling Best Pal’s fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last month. “He just wasn’t handling the track. But after what he showed today, I’d say that he hasn’t lost any steps whatsoever.”

Best Pal was at least six wide, in the center of the track, entering the stretch, but the way he cruised up to the leaders, out of last place and eight lengths behind with five-eighths of a mile to go, Mandella wasn’t worried. Best Pal overhauled Tossofthecoin in mid-stretch.

“He needed this win,” Mandella said, “to let himself know that he’s the big fish again. You can’t keep running a horse this good and keep getting his brains beat out. But when this horse runs his race, I’m not afraid of anybody.”

Tossofthecoin, who has earned more than $400,000 without winning a stake, finished second for the 10th time, with Royal Chariot third, 3 1/2 more lengths behind. Sea Cadet, the other 6-year-old in the seven-horse field and second choice in the betting, was fourth, beaten by 10 lengths.

Favored Best Pal, carrying high weight of 121 pounds, paid $5 to win and ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:48 2/5, a second slower than the stakes record. The richest horse in training, he earned $64,000 to surpass the $5.1-million mark, but he’s still a distant third behind Alysheba and John Henry on the overall list.

Best Pal finished the year with two victories, two seconds and one third in seven starts. The first major goal for 1995 is the Santa Anita Handicap, a race that Best Pal won in 1992. Mandella figures on one prep race for the March 11 Big ‘Cap.

Best Pal’s last 1994 race was supposed to be the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Cup next Sunday, but when the Mabees and one of their other trainers, David Hofmans, elected not to run Dramatic Gold in the Native Diver, Best Pal’s assignment came a week earlier.

“I had some question about him getting the mile and a half next week,” Mandella said Sunday. “But the way he looked today, I don’t think that would have been much of a problem. I’m still not sure we did the right thing.”

Pat Valenzuela was the first jockey to win with Best Pal, in the horse’s first race, at Hollywood Park in May 1990. The horse’s 16 victories (in 38 starts) have been distributed among Valenzuela, Jose Santos, Kent Desormeaux, Corey Black and now McCarron, who had ridden Best Pal three times before Sunday.

McCarron’s best previous finish astride Best Pal was a second behind Tinners Way in the $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar in August.

“What a different feeling there is riding this horse at Del Mar and Hollywood as opposed to back East,” McCarron said. “It’s the difference in the tracks. He just spins his wheels in that sand back there and doesn’t get a good hold of it.”

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Kent Desormeaux, the meet’s leading jockey, was sidelined most of last week because of the flu and didn’t ride Sunday.