Helmsman, 3-1 Favorite, Draws Post Position No. 4 for Big ‘Cap

When the call went out Thursday morning for Santa Anita Handicap trainers to participate in the post-position draw, Wally Dollase stood up at his breakfast table and said: “If you give me No. 7, I’ll do it.”

With Dollase and Charlie Whittingham doing the drawing for Saturday’s $1-million race, the best Dollase’s Helmsman could do was No. 4 in a 12-horse field. There are worse places to be in a 1 1/4-mile race. Urgent Request, winner of the Big ‘Cap last year and the only horse eligible to match John Henry’s feat of successive victories in 1981-82, drew No. 1, a post that has produced only one winner in the 58 previous runnings.

“If my horse had drawn the four earlier in his career, I would have said that it was bad,” Dollase said. “The horse was too much on the muscle then. But in his two starts on dirt, Chris [McCarron] has shown that he can be rated. So I’d say that the four is only a slight disadvantage.”

The absence of the sore-footed Cigar has turned the Big ‘Cap upside down. Instead of having an odds-on favorite, the race is inscrutable, and if Jeff Tufts’ morning line holds up, Helmsman, at 3-1, will be the longest-priced favorite in 20 years. Afternoon Deelites, who was second, two lengths behind Helmsman, in the Strub a month ago, is next on the line at 7-2, followed by Alphabet Soup, 5-1 and untested at the Big ‘Cap distance; and Serena’s Song, 6-1 and trying to become the first female to win the race.

Wayne Lukas, Serena’s Song’s trainer, has been known to take the microphone at these public draws and never let go, and Thursday he gave the ceremony the pizazz that his champion filly is expected to give the Cigar-less race.

“MGM, does that stand for Mighty Great Mare?” Lukas said. He was playing off MGM Grand’s sponsorship role in all of this. The Santa Anita Handicap is the start of a $2-million bonus series that includes the Hollywood Gold Cup and the Pacific Classic at Del Mar. Before his hoof problem, Cigar opened at 8-1 and then dropped to 3-1 to sweep the series, and now the lowest price on a sweep is Helmsman at 18-1.

If Serena’s Song is to do in the Big ‘Cap what 36 distaffers before her couldn’t do, she will have to win from the No. 12 post, on the far outside. Gary Stevens, who has ridden half of the Big ‘Cap winners in the last six years, including the victory aboard Urgent Request last year, likes his post. Stevens won in 1990 with Ruhlmann, who led all the way from the outside post in a 10-horse field.

“I don’t think we could have drawn any better,” Stevens said. “It gives me all kinds of different options.”

In winning 15 races, nine for Stevens, Serena’s Song has consistently broken from the gate on cue and been in a good tactical position.

The supplementary contenders in the field are Urgent Request and The Key Rainbow, whose owners are paying penalties of $25,000 apiece in order to run. The Key Rainbow, an Irish-bred, French-raced colt who joined trainer Bobby Frankel’s barn late last year, had never run on dirt until he finished third while Helmsman was winning the San Fernando Stakes on Jan. 13. The Key Rainbow was fifth in the Strub. Frankel, who has never won a Big ‘Cap, is bringing in Mike Smith from Florida for the ride. Smith rode horse-of-the-year Holy Bull in 1994.

Stewart Aitken, the Scottish casino owner, made enough money on last year’s race to afford the supplementary payment, but he’s still nonplussed about his Urgent Request not being nominated.

“It defies comprehension,” said Aitken, who besides the winner’s $550,000 share of the purse last year also made a parimutuel score. Minutes before the race, Aitken made a $90,000 win bet on Urgent Request, dropping the odds from 9-1 to 3-1. Aitken also made a $30,000 show bet, and his total profit was $294,000.

For trainer Rodney Rash, Urgent Request ran sparingly and poorly after his Big ‘Cap win. He lost four in a row before he finally returned to the winner’s circle on Jan. 21 in the San Marcos Handicap, a race that was switched from grass to dirt because of a soggy turf course.

Aitken didn’t bet that race, asking a mutuel clerk to cancel his $20,000 ticket just before post time, and he’s leaving his options open for Saturday.

“Who knows?” he said Thursday, before leaving Santa Anita for a round of golf. “I might go for it, and it might be hello, dolly, all over again.”

Horse Racing Notes

The Santa Anita Handicap will be the seventh race Saturday, with a scheduled post time of 3:47 p.m. The first-race post is 12:15 p.m. . . . Cezind is the 65th starter for Charlie Whittingham in the Big ‘Cap. Whittingham, first represented in the race in 1955, has won it nine times, most recently with Sir Beaufort in 1993. . . . The fifth race Saturday is the $200,000 San Rafael Stakes for 3-year-olds, with Honour And Glory the 2-1 favorite. Others running in the one-mile race are Halo Sunshine, Cantbetouched, Cavonnier, Smithfield, Ready To Order, Matty G, Zanferrier, Afleetaffair and Ayrton S. . . . In other stakes on the card, Lit De Justice will carry 123 pounds, four more than Dramatic Gold, in the $150,000 San Carlos Handicap, and Matiara, a major winner in France, is the 119-pound high weight in the $125,000 Buena Vista Handicap.

Wekiva Springs, carrying 117 pounds, is the 8-5 favorite in Saturday’s $500,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap.