FAIRPLEX : Come On Get Happy Wins Late

Trainer Don Divine wasn’t too happy about the way Fernando Valenzuela was handling his horse on the narrow Fairplex Park turns, but he wasn’t complaining after the race.

Valenzuela, drifting wide on both turns of the five-eighths-mile oval, made up enough ground on the straightaways to bring Come On Get Happy home first and win the $50,000 Beau Brummel Stakes on Friday afternoon at Pomona.

Come On Get Happy, a 2-year-old colt owned by Jan, Mace and Samantha Siegel, was in seventh place after the final turn, but caught the leaders inside the 16th pole and edged Double Brass by half a length for the victory in the 6 1/2-furlong race.

Zipped the Message, the bettors’ choice with David Flores aboard, finished third, a nose behind Double Brass.

“I was a good three, four lengths out of it still, turning for home,” Valenzuela said. “But when I started getting into him, he really responded for me. I had a little trouble around the turns, but he overcame that.”

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In Friday’s co-feature, Scott Stevens survived a photo finish to win the $50,000 Las Ninas Stakes aboard Brite’s High.

Stevens, older brother of the better-known Gary Stevens, turned the 3-year-old filly loose down the stretch and caught Seattle Singer and Charlie’s Paradise on the outside at the wire.

Stevens nearly pulled off a twin stakes victory. He was aboard Double Brass in the Beau Brummel.

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Temperatures edged past the 100-degree mark again Friday, making it hot even by Pomona standards. And the first-stage smog alert didn’t help.

Fortunately for race fans, the grandstand seats are shaded, and the only running they have to do is to the betting windows.

For the jockeys it’s another matter.

“It’s tough, but it’s not that bad, I guess because I’m from Phoenix,” said Mark Hanna, who kicked off the thoroughbred portion of the 19-day meet Thursday with a victory aboard Payoff, a 48-1 shot. “But this is a different kind of heat; it’s a lot more humid.”