Lukas Furious in Defeat

If there were an Olympic event for racetrack program tossing, Wayne Lukas would be one of the favorites.

When Santa Anita’s three stewards ruled against disqualifying Antespend in Sunday’s $208,600 Santa Anita Oaks, costing Lukas’ Cara Rafaela the victory, the incensed trainer, standing on the track in front of the winner’s circle, flipped his program about 20 feet in the air. Then he stormed off.

After 3-5 favorite Antespend won by 2 1/4 lengths, stewards Ingrid Fermin, George Slender and Tom Ward lit the inquiry sign, huddled for about seven minutes and ruled there was no merit to a disqualification. Antespend, her winning streak reaching six races, earned $128,600 for owner-breeder Jack Kent Cooke, and Cara Rafaela’s owner, Gonzalo Borges Torrealba, settled for second money of $40,000.

Lukas and his jockey, Gary Stevens, thought that Cara Rafaela had been bothered three times by the front-running Antespend during the race, most significantly in mid-stretch, when Stevens angled his horse to the inside as the winner, under Chris Antley, drifted toward the middle of the track.

“[Antespend] came over three or four lanes in the stretch,” Lukas said. “It was a two-horse race by then, and only one of them could run straight. I spent an hour with the stewards once at Hollywood Park, and they gave me this business about a horse needing to run in a straight line. They made an issue out of eight inches on the TV screen. Where was this horse running in a straight line this time? We were going to outrun her fair and square without the interference.”

Stevens was also furious.

“It’s a travesty,” he said. “There are three yo-yos up there who don’t know what they’re looking at. I had to check three times. The horse in front of me kept going in and out. She was like a car out of control on the freeway . . . This decision was pathetic, an absolute joke.”

Ward explained the stewards’ decision.

“There was no doubt [Cara Rafaela] was bothered,” he said. “But her position at the finish was not compromised. Had she finished closer, then we might have given it more consideration. Antley came close to the line, but he didn’t cross it. He was race-riding, and there’s no law against race-riding.”

Lukas went to the paddock to saddle a horse in the race after the Oaks, picked up a house phone and was engaged in a long conversation with the stewards. The California Horse Racing Board no longer accepts appeals of judgment calls, and Lukas indicated that he wouldn’t go to court.

Ron McAnally, who trains Antespend, stood on the track, not far from Lukas, while the stewards looked at reruns of the race.

“I was very concerned,” said McAnally of Antespend, who has won seven of eight starts. “I saw Gary and Lukas go straight for the stewards’ phone right after the race. But Gary never had to take up, and I think that was important. It was a close call.”

“I was clear of the other horse all the time,” said Antley, who won four races Sunday, with Stevens finishing second in three of them.

Antespend paid $3.20 after running 1 1/16 miles in 1:43. Hidden Light finished third, beaten by 5 1/4 lengths, in the field of five.

The absence of Serena’s Song in the $300,000 Santa Margarita Handicap cleared the way for Twice the Vice, who couldn’t beat Serena’s Song in the Santa Maria Handicap last month. Trainer Ron Ellis celebrated his 36th birthday as his 5-year-old mare withstood late runs by Sleep Easy and Jewel Princess to win by a neck.

Sleep Easy finished second, a half-length better than Jewel Princess.

Horse Racing Notes

Brice Blanc rode Above the Table, the longest shot on the board, to a narrow victory in the $75,950 Irish O’Brien Handicap. Trainer Warren Stute’s mare, who paid $67.60, carried 111 pounds, nine less than Klassy Kim, who was beaten by a neck. . . . Privity, the shipper from California, ran seventh as the 5-2 favorite in the $200,000 Orchid Handicap at Gulfstream Park. Memories, who was 5-1, won in the rain, beating Caromana by a neck. . . . Scott’s Scoundrel, who has seven of his 10 wins at the Fair Grounds, won the $250,000 New Orleans Handicap by a half-length over Knockadoon. Kent Desormeaux finished sixth aboard favored Del Mar Dennis and Corey Nakatani was last with Gold and Steel.