Da Gulch Is the Horse in This One : Hollywood Park: Lukas’ colt, ridden by Stevens, beats Da Hoss in $500,000 Swaps Stakes.

Randy Bradshaw, who used to work as an assistant for Wayne Lukas, hung around after Sunday’s $500,000 Swaps Stakes to congratulate his former boss in the winner’s circle.

Lukas’ Thunder Gulch, making his first start since a Triple Crown campaign that brought victories in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes and a third-place finish in the Preakness, beat Da Hoss by two lengths in the Swaps, with Bradshaw’s Petionville running third, three-quarters of a length farther back.

“Wayne’s horse just doesn’t have any quit in him,” Bradshaw said.

Petionville, winner of the Louisiana and Illinois derbies and ridden by Chris Antley, tried squeezing Thunder Gulch between him and the front-running To Be Khaled going down the backstretch.

“Petionville bumped my horse,” Lukas said. “But that just made the little horse mad.”

Thunder Gulch, winning for the fifth time in seven starts this year, and the seventh time in 13 tries overall, went over the $2-million mark with the $275,000 Swaps purse. Making his first start in six weeks and carrying 126 pounds, he overcame a weight disadvantage of between four and 14 pounds, outrunning Da Hoss through the stretch after the Jersey Derby winner was able to find room on the rail on the turn for home. Thunder Gulch, owned by Michael Tabor, who bought him privately last November for $475,000, was timed in 1:49 and paid $3.80 to win. “I think he’s a better horse now than he was in the Triple Crown,” Lukas said. “He’s growing up. He doesn’t draw off on horses. He’s not going to put on any Secretariat moves. But he gets down on his belly and runs.”

Thunder Gulch was again ridden by Gary Stevens, who a half-hour before had won another major race when he rode Private Persuasion, at 9-1, to a three-length victory in the $300,000 Vanity Handicap. Paseana, who needed a victory in the Vanity to go over the $3.2-million mark and break Dance Smartly’s record for distaffers, finished fifth, beaten by 11 lengths.

Thunder Gulch was virtually even with Da Hoss with an eighth of a mile left, and Da Hoss passed Stevens’ mount a few strides later.

“What a fighter, and he just loves it,” Stevens said. “He loves the battle. When he got head and head with Chris McCarron [on Da Hoss], even though it looked like there was going to be a battle, that was all I needed for confidence. When he gets head and head, he’s not going to lose the race. Chris might have got almost a length in front of me, but Thunder Gulch saw him. So he went up next to him, got a head in front of him, threw his ears up and actually just cantered away from him. So he wasn’t fully extended. He pulled up after the race, looked down at the racetrack and didn’t take a deep breath. It looked like he’d been out for a morning gallop rather than sweating from the heat.”

The 1 1/8-mile Swaps, run in 82-degree heat, took its toll on other horses. Mr Purple, the second choice at 2-1 and undefeated in four dirt starts at Hollywood Park, was an early contender before finishing last in the seven-horse field. Trainer Ron McAnally suspected that Mr Purple might have bled from the lungs and the colt was to be checked after the race.

T.J.’s Gold, who finished fourth, was bleeding from the mouth when he came back. Da Hoss, en route to the barn after the race, collapsed twice in front of the grandstand before he was vanned off. He was reported to have recovered by the time he reached the barn.

Da Hoss made his first start in California and was ridden by McCarron for the first time. While T.J.’s Gold was fidgeting from his inside stall before the start, Da Hoss was acting up in his No. 6 position.

“He was a little fractious and froze up a little bit,” McCarron said. “Consequently, he didn’t get away well. But he settled nicely behind the leaders. I got through on the turn and thought we were going to win it. I knew Gary was really riding his horse, but that’s kind of an illusion. That horse isn’t doing his best until Gary really puts the pedal to the floor. But at the quarter pole I really did think I had a very good shot.”

Lukas said that Thunder Gulch will be flown to New York on Thursday, to prepare for the $750,000 Travers at Saratoga on Aug. 19. Timber Country, who won the Preakness, beating his stablemate by three-quarters of a length, worked a half-mile Sunday morning at Monmouth Park in :47 3/5, but Lukas said that Aug. 19 would be too soon for him to run 1 1/4 miles.

As for Randy Bradshaw, his first time against Thunder Gulch was enough.

“We’ll look around at some other races, to see where [Petionville] fits,” Bradshaw said. “That Molson Million [Sept. 17 at Woodbine] is a possibility. Wayne wouldn’t ship a horse all the way up to Canada, would he?”

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Horse Racing Notes

Thunder Gulch ran in green silks with white polka-dots because owner Michael Tabor’s blue-and-orange silks hadn’t arrived from Belmont Park, where the colt last raced. “It was my fault and it was embarrassing,” trainer Wayne Lukas said. “This horse has won enough money that we ought to be able to buy two pair of silks for him.” . . . Trainer Ron McAnally, who said before the Vanity that he would recommend that Paseana be retired if she won, said after the race that a decision on the 8-year-old mare’s future would be made after she’s shipped to Del Mar this week. . . . Private Persuasion gave trainer Dan Hendricks his first Grade I victory. Hendricks, who took out his license in 1987 after nine years as an assistant to Richard Mandella, thought Top Rung would furnish the early speed, but she broke slowly and was second all the way around. “As soon as they hit the backside and my filly was four or five in front, I started feeling pretty good,” Hendricks said. “Once they got to the eighth pole, I knew they wouldn’t catch her.”

Pat Valenzuela, whose career has been marred by frequent no-shows and run-ins with stewards over drug-related offenses, didn’t make it to Arlington International on Sunday and his substitute, Aaron Gryder, rode Gold And Steel to a 1 1/4-length win over Torrential in the $300,000 American Derby. According to Rene Riera, the chief state steward at Arlington, Valenzuela called the track about two hours before the race and told the clerk of scales that he had taken the wrong flight from Los Angeles and was in Dallas, unable to get a connection to Chicago in time. “The horse won, so we’re satisfied with that explanation,” Riera said. . . . The Hollywood Park stewards have fined trainer Jean Pierre DuPuis $1,500 after his horse, Talent To Amuse, tested positive for Naphazoline, a decongestant that DuPuis told them he had been using as a throat wash. Talent To Amuse finished second in a race on May 18. . . . The meet ends today with Lukas saddling Hennessy, the 6-5 favorite in the Hollywood Juvenile.