Afternoon Deelites Makes Winning Return : Horse racing: Mandella-trained colt, out seven months with tendon injury, wins Malibu Stakes as Santa Anita opens its 59th season.

Brereton Jones went to one knee, perhaps the first governor to genuflect in the winner’s circle.

“Dick, you’re the best,” Gov. Jones of Kentucky said as trainer Richard Mandella approached. Jones, a prominent breeder, has a major post-racing interest in Afternoon Deelites, and Mandella had just returned the talented 3- year-old colt to action in resounding fashion.

Idle for almost eight months, recovered from a tendon injury, Afternoon Deelites came from behind, sweeping around four overmatched rivals in mid-stretch Tuesday, to win the $160,000 Malibu Stakes by two lengths as Santa Anita opened its 59th season with an on-track crowd of 30,898.

On a clear, sunny day when the unexpected became the norm--one winner disqualified by the stewards, another horse destroyed after a grisly breakdown in front of the grandstand, and a procession of longshots topped by a $231 win payoff--Afternoon Deelites went off a 4-5 favorite and never gave his supporters any doubt.

“I wish there was some way to explain how it feels to be sitting on a ton of animal like this,” said Kent Desormeaux, Afternoon Deelites’ jockey. “It’s an exhilarating feeling.”

Desormeaux hadn’t ridden Afternoon Deelites in a race since the Kentucky Derby in May, which was an eighth-place finish for the colt whose undefeated string had ended a month before, when he lost by a head to Larry The Legend in the Santa Anita Derby.

“He probably had the tendinitis in the Santa Anita Derby,” Mandella said. “But it wasn’t [bad] enough for us to find it.”

The injury was discovered after the Kentucky Derby and, after surgery and a long layoff, Mandella brought Afternoon Deelites back with a three-month training program pointed toward the Malibu. The alternative was to send Afternoon Deelites to Kentucky for an early breeding career.

“This was a great Christmas present to have him back,” Mandella said. “This was the major obstacle today.”

The scratches of Mr Purple and Adams Trail reduced the Malibu field to nine, and the second choice in the betting, Score Quick, finished second, 1 3/4 lengths ahead of High Stakes Player. Afternoon Deelites completed seven furlongs in 1:21 3/5, paying $3.60 and earning $100,000 for his breeder and owner, Burt Bacharach. This was Afternoon Deelites’ sixth win in eight starts, and his first win since the San Felipe at Santa Anita in March.

The Private Terms-Intimate Girl colt used to run closer to the lead, but he was taken out of that mode after the Santa Anita Derby and, for his comeback, Mandella had trained him with the idea of closing behind horses.

In the Malibu, Afternoon Deelites was in sixth place after a half-mile, four lengths behind the leader, Hoopstar. He steadily advanced on the leaders from the inside and, faced with a wall of horses at the quarter pole, Desormeaux angled to the outside. There was no need for the jockey to use his whip once they got clear.

“The competition disappeared, and then he put his antennas up,” Desormeaux said. “He’s an amazing horse. You just aim him in the right direction, and every question you give him, he answers it. I thought he was much more mature than before the time off. I didn’t take him back. I just held on to loose reins. Where he was in the race was where he wanted to be. He’s learned to relax. That’s what maturity has done for him. Richard Mandella is the master at that. He’s turned a raging bull into a docile lamb.”

The next stake in the three-race Strub series is the San Fernando, at 1 1/8 miles on Jan. 13, but Mandella ruled that out, saying that it comes up too soon. He mentioned the Strub Stakes, at 1 1/4 miles and worth $500,000, on Feb. 4.

“Distance will not be a problem,” Mandella said. “He has no limits. It’s just a matter of keeping him healthy and sound. He’s so gifted. He’s as good as it gets.”

Mandella also saddled On The Lawn, the maiden winner of the second race on the card. Jose Valdivia, who had ridden On The Lawn, was atop Strawberry Soldier a race later when Strawberry Soldier snapped his left foreleg in the stretch. Strawberry Soldier was destroyed. Valdivia returned to ride. Purdue Cadet, at 114-1, won the race.

Purdue Cadet, who had won one of 14 starts, triggered record Santa Anita payoffs for an exacta, quinella and trifecta, which was worth $80,883.40.

The race before, The Exeter Man, the favorite, drifted out badly in the stretch, enough for the three stewards to disqualify him to third place and move up Summer At Saratoga to first.

“A horse is supposed to maintain a straight course,” steward Pete Pedersen said.

Bobby Frankel, the training champion at the Hollywood Park meet that ended Sunday and trainer of The Exeter Man, was not convinced.

“It’s incompetence and inconsistency,” Frankel said. “Whatever happened happened only three jumps before the wire.”

Horse Racing Notes

Target dates for comebacks are Gary Stevens on Sunday and Laffit Pincay on Jan. 10. Stevens is recovering from knee surgery and Pincay cracked three ribs in a spill at Hollywood Park on Dec. 17.