SANTA ANITA : Lyin To The Moon Might Keep Racing

Motherhood might have to wait for Lyin To The Moon after her nose victory over Jacodra’s Devil in the $106,700 Buena Vista Handicap on Saturday at Santa Anita.

The Grade II race was to be the 6-year-old mare’s final start. She was going to be shipped to Kentucky to be bred.

“We might have to reconsider,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “But I suppose I can get a hold of the owners (Hollywood Park CEO R.D. Hubbard and Los Alamitos owner Ed Allred). I’ll give them a ring and see if they want to change their plans. They like to run.”

The 5-1 third choice in the field of five, Lyin To The Moon sat well off the pace set by runaway leader Rabiadella, then outbattled early trailer Jacodra’s Devil to win under Kent Desormeaux in 1:36 3/5 for the mile.

The first two finishers had clear sailing, but the same could not be said for 7-10 favorite Exchange. A lifetime .500 hitter coming in (14 victories in 28 starts), she broke in the air again--something she has made a habit of doing recently--then had nowhere to go through the stretch. She wound up beaten two lengths.

“She just had terrible luck,” jockey Laffit Pincay said. “At the head of the stretch, I planned to go around. But the horses in front of me started to drift out. So, I decided to stay inside and it looked like it was going to open up.

“Then the horse in front of me (Rabiadella) stopped and that was it. No question my mare was best. She was struggling a little bit early. I don’t think (the turf course) was to her liking. Then, she picked it up and really started running. She was just very unlucky.”

Obviously, Lyin To The Moon likes the Santa Anita grass. She has three victories in seven local starts and two this meeting.

“She’s very sound and she seems to have gotten a little better with age,” Mandella said. “She had been bothered by ulcers earlier in her career and I’m sure she still has some, but we’ve treated them and she’s gotten a little bit healthier and a little bit stronger with that treatment.

“I thought there was no way I could beat Exchange. I was trying to find somewhere to run her before I sent her to the farm, so we’d have been happy with a second. But she ran a great race.”

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The $300,000 Santa Margarita Handicap has belonged to trainer Ron McAnally in recent years and that doesn’t figure to change in 1995.

Successful four of the last six years in Santa Anita’s main event for older fillies and mares, McAnally will send out 40% of the field in today’s 58th running of the Grade I.

Paseana, the defending champion who also won the race in 1992, will probably be favored as she continues to try to become the richest filly or mare in history. At the moment, she ranks fourth with $3,021,425, but a victory would push her into second ahead of All Along and Lady’s Secret and leave only Dance Smartly ($3,263,836) to catch. She was to race coupled with Exchange, but the latter was scratched.

However, the lady to beat may be McAnally’s other starter, the much-improved Queens Court Queen.

Basically an allowance-caliber mare on the grass for most of her career, the 6-year-old daughter of Lyphard easily won the San Gorgonio Handicap over a good track on Jan. 14. She then proved it was no fluke with a 4 1/2-length victory over Paseana in the Santa Maria Handicap three weeks ago. She is the 8-5 second choice on the morning line.

The other three in the race are La Canada winner Dianes Halo, Klassy Kim, who figures to set the pace, and Wende.

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Hollywood Park’s schedule for its upcoming spring-summer season was approved by the California Horse Racing Board at its monthly meeting Friday at Albany.

There are some new wrinkles in the schedule for the 67-day meeting. Rather than open on Wednesday, April 26, two days after Santa Anita concludes, Hollywood Park will begin on Friday, April 28, and post time will be 7 p.m. The $125,000 Los Angeles Handicap will be the opening-night feature.

Back-to-back 14-race cards will also be offered on June 17-18. Post time on June 17 will be 4 p.m., then 1 p.m. the next day. There will be six Monday programs and three dark Wednesdays during the meet.

In other business at the meeting, the CHRB approved Santa Anita’s request for an additional race day (Monday, April 10) as a replacement for one of the three programs that were canceled last month because of heavy rain. The board also awarded the primary drug testing contract to Truesdail Laboratories in Tustin through June, 1996.

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Horse Racing Notes

Ron McAnally’s other two victories in the last six Santa Margaritas came with Bayakoa (1989-90) and he was second with Bayakoa behind Little Brianne in 1991 and second with Paseana behind Southern Truce in 1993. . . . Nobody was able to select seven or six winners in the National Best Seven Saturday, so there will be a carryover of nearly $40,000 next week. . . . With Corey Nakatani committed to Dramatic Gold, Kent Desormeaux will ride Slew Of Damascus in the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap on March 11. At the moment, the probable field for the Big ‘Cap: Best Pal, Slew Of Damascus, Dare And Go, Del Mar Dennis, Nancys French Fry, Urgent Request, Tossofthecoin and Nonproductiveasset. . . . John Atherton rode for the final time as an apprentice when he won the fifth race on Friday aboard Skerry. . . . Heavily favored Pirate’s Revenge won the $71,100 Winter Solstice, beating Siyah Nara by a head in 1:22 for the seven furlongs. Two races earlier, her older brother, Echo Of Yesterday, won a $62,500 claiming sprint on the grass.