Lit De Justice Gives Nakatani Rough Ride to Winner’s Circle

About 10 minutes before the running of Sunday’s $206,750 Bing Crosby Breeders’ Cup Handicap, the troublesome Lit De Justice dumped his jockey, Corey Nakatani, in the Del Mar walking ring.

Nakatani smiled, bit his lip and got back up. He has taken worse from trainer Jenine Sahadi’s 6-year-old gray.

Sahadi had isolated Lit De Justice in the paddock, sending him to an enclosure five stalls from the nearest of the other five starters in the Crosby.

When Lit De Justice put Nakatani on the ground Sunday, the horse’s owners, C.N. and Carol Ray, just looked over and shrugged. Like Nakatani, they had also seen this before.

Out on the track, Nakatani got Lit De Justice to the gate early, ahead of the other horses, then he dismounted voluntarily and an assistant starter backed the horse into the gate from the front end. All kinds of methods, including a blindfold, have been used to calm Lit De Justice before his races, but the front-end loading was a new twist.

After all that, the six-furlong race, and the rest was routine. In last place before he started passing horses on the far turn, Lit De Justice took the lead in mid-stretch and won by 3 1/2 lengths before 16,782. His time of 1:08 just missed the Crosby record of 1:07 4/5 and was only two-fifths off the track record of 1:07 3/5, set by King Of Cricket in 1973.

Lit De Justice carried 121 pounds, one more than Abaginone and three to five pounds more than any other starter. Paying $4.20 to win, Lit De Justice notched his ninth win in 34 starts and earned $126,750, increasing his total to $866,677. The Rays bought the son of El Grand Senor, an English champion, and Kanmary, a mare who won only one of 21 starts, for $40,000 as a weanling.

Concept Win, who got knocked around while running last in last year’s Crosby, finished second this time, a nose in front of Gold Land, who ran his best race since winning the 1995 Crosby, but is winless since then.

The 3-2 second choice, Abaginone, who won at Santa Anita in April while Lit De Justice was finishing fourth, was fourth Sunday after he threw his right front shoe when he bobbled leaving the gate.

After the race, Sahadi thanked Gary Brinson, the starter at Hollywood Park, and one of his assistants, Zane Baze, for their morning work in the gate that prepared Lit De Justice for the Crosby.

Lit De Justice hadn’t run in almost four months, and Sahadi was relieved at his performance.

“I’m just really tickled to death to know that he’s back,” she said. “You have your anxious moments, but when you know the potential’s there, you can sleep well at night. He’s got an unbelievable turn of foot. He’s always loved it here. The fans here are great. Everywhere I go, people ask me about him. He gets fan mail. I think the game appreciates a horse like this. They love to see a horse comes from dead last.”

Said Nakatani: “Sometimes they come back and they aren’t quite the same. But the good ones can come back like he did. I won [the Pat O’Brien Handicap] with him [at Del Mar] last year, and maybe we can do it again [at one additional furlong on Aug. 17].”

Pat Valenzuela, who won with Concept Win last year, has gotten the chance to ride him again.

“I heard [Lit De Justice] coming, but I couldn’t do anything about it,” Valenzuela said. “He went by me too fast.”

Horse Racing Notes

Corey Nakatani won on two other mounts Sunday, giving him two three-win days in the five-day-old meet. . . . Favored Exotic Wood pulled away in the stretch to win Sunday’s $175,000 Go For Wand Stakes at Saratoga, giving Marty and Pam Wygod’s 4-year-old filly her eighth win in nine starts. Shoop finished second and Frolic was third. Exotic Wood, who had never run as far as 1 1/8 miles before, posted a time of 1:49 2/5. She paid $3.80 to win in California. . . . Chris McCarron, who rode Exotic Wood, will be back at Del Mar today. One of his mounts is Ski Dancer, who is second behind Dixie Dancer on the morning line for the Bayakoa Handicap. . . . Alex Solis, who rode Underwater Love, the disqualified winner of Saturday’s first race, has been suspended by the stewards for five days, starting Thursday. . . . Matt Garcia’s three-day suspension started Sunday and Rafael Meza starts a three-day suspension today. . . . Seven grass runners are entered in Wednesday’s $70,000 Wickerr Handicap, including the 123-pound high weight, Megan’s Interco, the 7-year-old, Jenine Sahadi-trained gelding who won on dirt at Hollywood Park last month after a 7 1/2-month layoff. . . . Also on the card is the $100,000 Graduation for 2-year-old California-breds. Red, who was second to Swiss Yodeler in the Hollywood Juvenile on July 21, is part of the 10-horse field.