SANTA ANITA : Proving Stute Astute, Klassy Kim Easily Wins the El Encino Stakes

Even though Klassy Kim finished fifth of seven in her first try around two turns, Mel Stute felt the 4-year-old filly deserved another chance at a distance.

Taking to a slick main track that her pedigree indicated she would like, the 4-1 second choice Sunday proved her trainer correct.

Going immediately to the front under Kent Desormeaux, the daughter of Silent Screen had more than enough left at the finish to beat heavily favored Twice The Vice by almost two lengths in the $100,000 El Encino Stakes at Santa Anita.

A $42,000 purchase by owner Bill Thomas a year ago, Klassy Kim completed the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42 2/5 over a surface labeled good. She now has six victories in 18 starts and has been worse than third only twice. Sunday, she paid $10.80 and earned Thomas $61,400.

“We got lucky in the way the race came up,” said Stute, who has had a great deal of success in the mud. “I thought mud would help her. I don’t believe Twice The Vice handled the track well, even though she was second.

“It just didn’t look to me like she was her real self when she turned for home. But she might have been. I don’t know.

“In the Bayakoa (Klassy Kim’s other distance try on Dec. 3), I had never even worked her a mile before that race. It came up kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing. I wanted to try her long, and that race looked like the spot and I just put her in. She was in front all the way and bled a little at the end. I figured she would go this far.”

The beaten favorite in the seven-furlong La Brea Stakes nearly three weeks earlier, Twice The Vice had missed some training because of the recent bad weather. She should be tougher in the longer La Canada (1 1/8 miles) on Feb. 4.

Still, she finished 5 1/2 lengths in front of 9-2 third choice Crissy Aya, who was closest to the winner through 23 2/5, 47 2/5 and 1:12 splits.

“She ran great, particularly considering she had missed a couple of works,” said Twice The Vice’s jockey, Eddie Delahoussaye, who lost on favorites in three of the four weekend stakes. “The winner was going so slow, but I didn’t want to go after her right away. (Trainer) Ron (Ellis) said to just sit there and make one run. That’s what I did, but the other horse was out there easy. This should set her up for the La Canada. I sure hope so.”

*

The entry of Key Phrase, unbeaten in four starts, and Pirate’s Revenge, who has four victories in nine starts, is the 2-1 favorite in today’s $150,000 Santa Monica Handicap.

Successful in all three of her races early last year, Key Phrase returned from a seven-month layoff to win the $60,000 Market Basket Handicap, beating Pirate’s Revenge by a length. The two 4-year-old fillies are trained by Ellis and owned by Mr. and Mrs. Martin Wygod.

The winner of the Pine Tree Lane Handicap on Dec. 11 at Hollywood Park in her first start on dirt, Marina Park is the 5-2 second choice. Since coming to the United States from Great Britain, the 5-year-old mare has two victories and a second in three starts. Gary Stevens will ride for trainer Ian Jory.

The rest of the field includes Borodislew, Malibu Light, Arches Of Gold, second in this race last year, Starolamo, Desert Stormer and Tricky Code.

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Bob Baffert had three winners Sunday--Texinadress in the fourth, Famegame in the sixth and Personal Chief in the ninth. . . . Hishi Amazon, the world’s all-time leading money-winner among fillies or mares, is scheduled to run in two races later in the Santa Anita meeting. The U.S.-bred but Japanese-raced filly is nominated for both the March 18 Santa Ana Handicap and the April 9 Santa Barbara Handicap. She has earnings of approximately $4.8 million, with eight victories and four seconds in 12 starts.

Hollywood Wildcat worked a half-mile in 52 flat Saturday morning getting ready for her first start of 1995. . . . Wekiva Springs, Dramatic Gold, Dare And Go and Strodes Creek, the first four finishers in Saturday’s San Fernando Stakes, all are likely to return in the $500,000 Strub Stakes on Feb. 5. . . . Numerous, scratched from the San Fernando, will run in Sunday’s San Pasqual Handicap. That race also will bring out Best Pal, Del Mar Dennis, Nancys French Fry and Tossofthecoin.