SANTA ANITA : Will There Be Sunday Silence From Jockeys?

Call Now, the 2-5 favorite, received a lively but unsuccessful chase from Denim Yenem in the stretch of Saturday’s $80,800 Pasadena Stakes at Santa Anita, and in a curious aftermath to the potential jockeys’ walkout, their riders declined to discuss the duel after the race.

“No comment,” Alex Solis said to two reporters after riding Call Now to a one-length victory. Earlier, when a representative from Santa Anita’s publicity department asked Solis for a few quotes, he said the same thing.

Asked if there was a reason for his silence, Solis said: “Personal reasons.” Asked how long he might decline interviews, Solis didn’t have an answer.

Corey Black, who rode Denim Yenem, also wouldn’t comment about the race, but cordially wished the reporters a “Happy New Year” before they left the jockeys’ room.

As much as anything, the reactions of Solis and Black indicated there was unrest among the riders after the Jockeys’ Guild made an 11th-hour settlement with the Thoroughbred Racing Assns. in their bargaining over health, accident and welfare insurance.

A new three-year contract was agreed to on Friday, the day before the old agreement ran out. Most of the country’s jockeys were prepared to stop riding if there was no settlement, and dozens of replacement riders had been named by trainers to ride today.

Asked by Santa Anita’s publicity department about the post-race silence of the two riders, Chris McCarron said that he was unaware of any campaign to freeze out the press. Earlier Saturday, several jockeys gave interviews about the outcome of the bargaining with the TRA.

One of the issues in the guild’s bargaining was media rights, which were actually television rights--jockeys’ rights during national telecasts and simulcasts to venues for betting purposes. The guild claims that it’s owned these rights for more than 20 years, and has been waiving them in exchange for insurance coverage, but the new contract was signed with the TRA not recognizing those rights.

There were reports early Saturday that there was tension in the jockeys’ room between the guild members who were prepared to walk out and the replacement riders.

“Things are simmering,” said Pete Pedersen, a Santa Anita steward. “Gary Stevens, for one, seems to be taking this thing hard.”

Before he rode Blind Trust to a fifth-place finish in the Pasadena, Stevens discounted the suggestion that grudges might linger.

“There’s too much at stake in the races to be distracted,” Stevens said. “There aren’t going to be any problems. We’re going to move ahead now that a contract’s been signed.”

There were 40 jockey changes for today’s 71-horse program. When entries were drawn Friday for today’s card, several hours before the guild and the TRA agreed to a new three-year contract, many trainers listed backup jockeys. The alternates were the more-established riders, guild members who wouldn’t have ridden if there hadn’t been an insurance agreement.

Santa Anita officials have said that will pay jockeys varying amounts if they’ve been named on horses today and then are replaced.

Among the jockeys who will be replaced today is 57-year-old Don Pierce, who will be training Sneakin Jake in the Ack Ack Handicap instead of riding him. Before the jockeys’ settlement, Pierce transferred the five horses in his care to trainer Eddie Truman, clearing the way for Pierce to ride, but Pierce reacquired the horses for training purposes Saturday. In California, a trainer can’t also ride his horse.

Call Now, who won the Del Mar Debutante and was second to Serena’s Song in the Oak Leaf at Santa Anita, was making her first start since a fever knocked her out of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6.

Owned by Verne Winchell and trained by Ron McAnally, Call Now led all the way in the Pasadena, running six furlongs in 1:09 1/5.

“We could have given her bute (phenylbutazone) to knock the temperature down in Kentucky,” McAnally said, “But that would not have been fair to her. She came back home all right and hasn’t missed a day of training since she got here.”

Winchell had a chance to win another stake Saturday at Bay Meadows in the $100,000 Kyne Handicap, but Sea Cadet, making his last start before going to stud, ran last in a field of five, with the 5-1 Nancy’s French Fry scoring a 14-length upset while favored Sea Of Damascus finished fourth on a sloppy track.

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Horse Racing Notes

Dance Spot, the 4-5 favorite in the fourth race, was declared a non-starter by the stewards after she broke prematurely and was grabbed by an assistant starter. The filly lost contact with the field after only a few strides. More than $418,000 was returned to bettors, which is believed to be a California record for such an incident. “The gate man was doing the right thing, trying to protect the rider and the horse,” steward Pete Pedersen said. . . . Chris Antley won’t contest a five-day careless-riding suspension that begins today, but his agent, Bill Barisoff, is furious. “Darrell Vienna (a trainer who recently passed the state bar exam) said he’d take the case for nothing,” Barisoff said. “But how are you going to beat the stewards, even though there was a blind spot where the interference is supposed to have taken place and they couldn’t see anything. The stewards interviewed all the jocks involved, and they all said it was (Kent) Desormeaux’s fault, but they give my guy the days.”

John Sadler saddled three winners. . . . The National Best Seven Pool sank to a new low when only $88,000 was bet. No one had seven winners on a card that included two races from Santa Anita. Fourteen tickets had six winners and were worth $1,417.25 apiece. . . . Alex Hassinger Jr. is quitting as Allen and Madeleine Paulson’s West Coast trainer after three years. Hassinger, who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies with Eliza in 1992, will start a public stable in Kentucky this spring.