Once Again, This Is No Place for a Lady

Call the cops. Check and see whether this comes under the heading of domestic violence.

A pretty young lady with an upswept hairdo, these big brown eyes and four of the most gorgeous legs you will see this side of a model show got mugged yesterday by a gang of young toughs at Santa Anita.

Well, “mugging” is strong language. She did get knocked around a bit. And she got robbed, all right. They took $600,000 away from her. Plus, they interfered seriously with her opportunity to vie for an additional $2 million which she would still have been eligible for if she didn’t get waylaid here.

That’s not all. The Santa Anita Handicap had its chance to be politically correct Saturday too.

And blew it. Lost all chance to clean up its image, to get with the 21st Century.

All they had to do was get a faint whiff of chivalry. The kind that made Sir Walter Raleigh put his cloak down for the Queen of England to cross a mud ditch.

All they had to do was stumble a little bit. Falter. Spit the bit. Lug out. Lug in. Jump shadows. Let the little lady rush by them for gain and glory.

But did they? Are you kidding? This is the Wild West, where men are men and so, usually, are horses. They may not think a woman’s place is in the kitchen but they’re sure it’s not in the winner’s circle.

Women may win marathons these days. They medal in the shotput. They win other horse races. Kentucky Derbies. Santa Anita Derbies, Jockey Club Gold Cups. But not Santa Anita Handicaps. They’ve run this race 59 times now. Female horses have run in it 37 times. They’ve never won it.

Serena’s Song was the 37th to find the “Men Only” sign. The Santa Anita ‘Cap is a stag party.

It was thought she had the best chance in years to assert her rights. The No. 1 male chauvinist, Cigar, had dropped out. What he left was not exactly a cast of wimps but not exactly the bully boys of racing either.

There really wasn’t a clear-cut favorite to teach her a lesson. Not the riff-raff of the track but no Secretariats or Affirmeds either. If a female was ever going to win it, this looked like the spot. Even from this bunch, she got a break in the weights. A five-pound filly allowance dropped her in at 114 pounds. Not exactly a feather but not your basic hot stove, either.

There wasn’t what you would call a solid celebrity horse in the field, other than her. No one paid much attention to any of them. It was almost one of those allowance races they write. “Non-winners of $3,000 other than maiden or non- winners of two races” sort of thing.

But, any time you have a trainer such as Ron McAnally saddling a horse in this race, it behooves you to keep him in your rear-view mirror. Ron has saddled horses 22 times for this race, won it twice.

A couple of years ago, Ron McAnally thought his colt Mr Purple might be the best horse he had in his barn since John Henry.

They thought Mr Purple was a prospect for the Kentucky Derby and the other classics for a 3-year-old. He even won the Hollywood Juvenile as a 2-year-old beating--guess who?--Serena’s Song in the race.

They were so high on him, they sent him back to Churchill Downs for the Breeders Cup Juvenile. Mr Purple was Mr Red--as in embarrassment--after that. He got run over by horses like Timber Country and Tejano Run. In case you weren’t paying attention, Tejano Run ran second in last year’s Kentucky Derby and Timber Country ran third.

Mr Purple’s ambitions were adjusted downward. He looked for softer spots. By and large, he found them. Except when he over-matched himself. As he did when he took on Thunder Gulch the following July at Hollywood. Mr Purple finished seventh, 24 lengths behind Thunder Gulch. Thunder Gulch, you will recall, won the Kentucky Derby last year.

Mr Purple was now like a fighter who knows he’s going to be just a contender. He trimmed his expectations. He also modified his strategy. Where he used to fly with the front-runners, he began to stalk them from afar. Riders call it “rating” a horse. Saving him for a late run.

Sometimes, he over-did it. At the Strub Stakes last month, a championship for 4-year-olds, he found himself 30 lengths out of it at the half-mile. He only lost by four. He finished third.

For the Santa Anita ‘Cap, McAnally suggested Jockey Eddie Delahoussaye at least keep the frontrunners in binocular range. Delahoussaye did. He said later he was only 20 lengths back at the half. Trainer McAnally, who had him in the glasses all the way, thinks it was more like 12-14.

It was close enough. The leader at a mile was Serena’s Song buzzing along at 1:35 and change (the six furlongs in 1:10.5).

It probably never crossed Mr Purple’s mind that he was Mr Wrong and that was a lady up there winning the race till he and his cronies began abusing her.

MGM Grand will give $2 million to any horse who can win the ‘Cap, the Hollywood Gold Cup and the Pacific Classic at Del Mar. When you throw that kind of money around, chivalry is dead. Mr Purple is no gentleman. But then, the Santa Anita Handicap--like Central Park at midnight--is no place for a lady.