Megan’s Interco Can Show Sahadi Winner’s Circle

Long before Jenine Sahadi became the first female trainer to win a Breeders’ Cup race, she was the first woman to saddle a winner in the California Cup. The horse that gave her the local distinction, Megan’s Interco, is a 7-year-old gelding who still is racing. Today, he moves into the Cal Cup’s richest race, running as the even-money favorite at Santa Anita in the $250,000 Classic.

Megan’s Interco isn’t the only shot the Sahadi barn will fire on the nine-race Cal Cup card that offers $1.1 million in purses to state-breds. Creston, whose troubled career dates to a last-place finish in the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, will try to derail Letthebighossroll in the $125,000 Sprint, and Skywalker’s Choice bids for his first stakes win in the $175,000 Mile on grass, the race that has belonged to Megan’s Interco two of the last three years.

The Cal Cup, which since its start in 1990 has accounted for some of the Oak Tree Racing Assn.’s best crowds, including a turnout of 34,000 last year, follows a week after Sahadi’s victory with Lit De Justice in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Woodbine.

“I was speechless after that one,” Sahadi said.

“Jenine’s never speechless,” said C.N. Ray, who campaigned Lit De Justice with his wife, Carol. Creston and Skywalker’s Choice also run under their Evergreen Farm banner.

Lit De Justice, who has been retired to stud at Frank Stronach’s farm in Kentucky, and Megan’s Interco represent two of the 33-year-old Sahadi’s finest training efforts. The sore-footed Megan’s Interco was a difficult horse to load early in his career, and getting Lit De Justice into the gate was an adventure right to the end. He was backed into the gate before his 1 1/4-length win at Woodbine.

Megan’s Interco’s first won the Cal Cup Mile in 1993, when he finished 7 1/2 lengths ahead of Journalism, the favorite who ran third. The next year, Megan’s Interco was a legitimate contender for the Breeders’ Cup Mile and finished fourth at Churchill Downs, behind Barathea, Johann Quatz and Unfinished Symph.

Last year, Megan’s Interco didn’t get to the races until July, and off three 1996 starts he repeated in the Cal Cup Mile, coasting home by 4 1/2 lengths.

It took a course-record performance by Urgent Request to beat Megan’s Interco on Oct. 5 at Santa Anita, and after considering the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Woodbine, Sahadi decided to return her horse to dirt. Megan’s Interco is eight for 16 on grass and five for 12 on dirt. He has run only twice on dirt in the last two years, his last main-track start a victory in the Super Diamond Stakes at Hollywood Park in June.

Carrying high weight of 123 pounds, Megan’s Interco will have five horses to beat, one of whom is Ready To Order, who is four years younger and will carry seven fewer pounds. Ready To Order, second to Cavonnier in last year’s Cal Cup Juvenile, has won his last two races, the most recent the Pomona Derby at Fairplex Park. That was his first start at today’s distance of 1 1/8 miles. Megan’s Interco has never run that far.

In other Cal Cup races:

--Klassy Kim, who has won only one of nine starts since winning last year’s Distaff, will try for a repeat against a field that also has been inconsistent this year. David Hofmans, who has won five Cal Cup races, three with His Legacy, saddles the 8-5 favorite, Cat’s Cradle, for Georgia Ridder. That’s the same team that won the Breeders’ Cup Classic with Alphabet Soup.

--Free House, who won the Norfolk and then bypassed the Breeders’ Cup because it would have required a $120,000 fee to make him eligible, heads a 14-horse field in the Juvenile.

--Undefeated Belle’s Flag goes for her fourth in a row in the Matron.

--Bob Baffert, who has won five Cal Cup races, will try to win the Sprint for the second time with Letthebighossroll, an 8-year-old gelding making his 52nd start. Letthebighossroll is the 5-2 favorite against Wild Gold and Uncaged Fury, who have won the Sprint the last two years.

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The day started with Eddie Delahoussaye in Arcadia Methodist Hospital, near Santa Anita, and it ended with Chris McCarron there too, after his mount, Flight Line, broke down at the top of the stretch in the fifth race.

X-rays were negative for McCarron, who complained of back pains after the spill and remained overnight for observation.

Winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic with Alphabet Soup, McCarron has ridden horses that have earned $12.9 million this year, which ranks him second behind Jerry Bailey, the national leader with $18.8 million.

Delahoussaye, second in the standings at the Oak Tree meet, is suffering from stomach pain. He is expected to be in the hospital for three or four days and could be sidelined for as long as two weeks.

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McCarron is scheduled to ride Alpride on Sunday in the $600,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes. They won the race last year, but the 5-year-old mare has been winless since then and was beaten in this year’s Beverly D at Arlington International by Timarida, who is also in Sunday’s nine-horse field.

Timarida, an Irish horse owned by the Aga Khan, is a winner in five countries and has won 10 of 14 starts. She runs for trainer John Oxx and jockey John Murtagh, the same team that won the 1995 Breeders’ Cup Mile with Ridgewood Pearl.

Here is the Yellow Ribbon field, in post-position order with jockeys: Wandesta, Corey Nakatani; Dixie Pearl, rider TBA; Alpride, Chris McCarron; Timarida, John Murtagh; Donna Viola, Gary Stevens; Real Connection, Goncalino Almeida; Admise, Kent Desormeaux; Ski Iberia, Alex Solis, and Chelsey Flower, Laffit Pincay. Delahoussaye had been scheduled to ride Dixie Pearl. All of the horses will carry 122 pounds for the 1 1/4-mile grass race.

Times staff writer Bob Mieszerski contributed to this story.