Santa Anita Draws Some Terrific Threes : Horse racing: Season that opens today at noon is expected to showcase a young, talented crop including Tabasco Cat, Dramatic Gold and Soul Of The Matter.

Trainer Charlie Whittingham believes critics are too quick to judge the nation’s 3-year-olds.

“It happens all the time,” Whittingham said. “Before they even turn 4, they’re saying that it’s a bad crop. You really don’t know until later. Well, this year, they didn’t get the chance. The 3-year-olds were real good, and most of them are still around. It’s the deepest group I’ve seen in years, and most of them are out here.”

Indeed, for the first time the first four finishers in last month’s Breeders’ Cup Classic were 3-year-olds. And Tabasco Cat, Dramatic Gold and Soul of the Matter, who ran 2-3-4--will compete in the Santa Anita season that opens at noon today. The winner of the Classic, Concern, might run in the Strub Stakes and the Santa Anita Handicap, if trainer Dick Small decides to ship the horse from New Orleans.

Whittingham’s best 3-year-old, Strodes Creek, is still a supporting player in this company, even though the Hall of Fame trainer uncharacteristically praised the colt strongly after it finally won a stakes race late in the recently completed Hollywood Park meet. Strodes Creek had some setbacks, one that required surgery, after his second-place finish in the Kentucky Derby and a third in the Belmont Stakes. He’ll probably surface at Santa Anita in the San Fernando Stakes on Jan. 14, which is the middle event in the three-race series that ends with the $500,000 Strub on Feb. 5.

The first race in the Strub series is today’s feature, the Malibu Stakes. Whittingham has a Malibu entry in the underachieving Numerous. The $1.7-million yearling beat only one horse while running on grass in the Hollywood Derby. Now he’s returning to dirt and the shorter seven furlongs for his final appearance as a 3-year-old.

The advantage in the Malibu belongs to Ferrara, a fast but fragile colt, and College Town, a fall upstart who won the California Cup Classic at Santa Anita and the Laz Barrera Stakes at Hollywood.

The Malibu is one of 57 stakes races scheduled for the 90-day meet. Those races will be worth $9.1 million, and other purses, for overnight races, are estimated at $285,000 a day, an increase of 15% over last season.

Purses are based on money bet, and this will be the first Santa Anita meet that offers full-card races from Northern California tracks Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields.

The richest race, the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap on March 11, might lure Holy Bull, expected to be voted horse of the year for 1994.

Owner-trainer Jimmy Croll, who has Holy Bull training at Gulfstream Park, must make a decision on the Big ‘Cap after two more races.

“Our definite plans are the two Gulfstream races (the Olympic Handicap on Jan. 22 and the Donn Handicap on Feb. 11),” Croll said recently. “The Santa Anita Handicap is a possibility, that’s all. It’s not for sure.”

Stuka, the winner of last year’s controversial Big ‘Cap, has been retired, but The Wicked North, who finished first before being disqualified by the stewards for interference, will use the Santa Anita meet to launch his comeback. Trainer David Bernstein’s horse underwent surgery for a chipped ankle last summer.

“We’re looking at the San Antonio Handicap,” Bernstein said. “That’s a mile and an eighth, but this is a horse that runs well fresh, so I think it should be a good spot for him.”

The San Antonio, won by The Wicked North last season, is Feb. 12.

Another possibility for the San Antonio is the veteran gelding Best Pal, one of a raft of horses that could make this a memorable season for trainer Richard Mandella. Others in the Mandella barn are Soul Of The Matter, Afternoon Deelites and Sandpit.

“I hadn’t given much thought to all the quality at the meet,” Mandella said. “But when many of those horses are in your own barn, and you know there’s a lot of good horses in the other barns, it sinks in.”

The leading Kentucky Derby candidates, Afternoon Deelites and trainer Wayne Lukas’ Timber Country, could be headed toward a showdown in the Santa Anita Derby on April 8. Lukas also trains Tabasco Cat and the standout filly Serena’s Song.

Despite the talented horses, there could be problems this season.

The clouds hanging over Santa Anita are the oft-maligned turf course and the possibility of a mass jockey walkout Sunday.

If there is no insurance agreement between the Jockeys’ Guild and the Thoroughbred Racing Assns. tracks many of the jockeys are expected to not ride.

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After being dark Tuesday, Santa Anita will resume racing Wednesday and go through next Monday. Then the Wednesday-through-Sunday schedule begins, with the exception of Jan. 16 and Feb. 20 and closing day, April 24.

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Although Santa Anita is advertising this as its 60th anniversary, the season is actually No. 58. Santa Anita didn’t run during the war years of 1942-44.

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Kent Desormeaux, who served a five-day suspension to end the Hollywood Park meet, returns to action today.