Owner’s Stock Rises as Donna Viola Wins

After Gary Tanaka bought Donna Viola three weeks ago, the question for the London stock manager and his European trainer, Christian Wall, was where to run the 4-year-old filly first.

For a time, they considered the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Woodbine, which would have been Donna Viola’s first adventure on dirt. “We decided that doing that would have been a recipe for disaster,” Wall said.

The next consideration was the $340,200 E.P. Taylor Stakes on grass at Woodbine, but that race also had drawbacks. The supplementary fee to run would have been about $11,000, and international equine regulations would have required that the filly be shipped back to Europe before she could be sent to Hollywood Park, where the $700,000 Matriarch will be run on Dec. 1.

So Wall skipped Woodbine altogether and Tanaka paid the $15,000 supplementary to make Donna Viola eligible at Santa Anita for Sunday’s Yellow Ribbon, a $600,000 race. It was a good choice. In her first start in a Grade I race, Donna Viola won as she had in Europe--coming on in the final 50 yards, and getting to the wire just in time.

“She likes to make you sweat,” said Wall after his biggest training victory. “It’s a good thing I’ve got a good ticker.”

Earning $360,000, which was about $150,000 more than she made while winning eight of 25 previous starts, Donna Viola paid $21.80 to win. The Irish filly, Timarida, the 9-5 morning-line favorite, was scratched because of a fever and might resurface in the Matriarch.

Wandesta, sent off as the 9-10 Yellow Ribbon favorite, finished fifth after being crowded into the fence with Corey Nakatani in the stretch. The second choice, Oak Tree Championship winner Admise, ran fourth, with Alpride, winner of last year’s Yellow Ribbon, finishing a troubled sixth after Julio Garcia subbed for the injured Chris McCarron.

Donna Viola, ridden by Gary Stevens for the first time, won by a half-length over Real Connection, a 20-1 shot who was a head better than the 21-1 Dixie Pearl, who looked like the winner until Donna Viola made her late surge.

Tanaka sidestepped the question about how much he paid for his filly, saying that the price was “something short of seven figures.” Donna Viola ran 1 1/4 miles in 2:00 3/5 on a firm course.

In the last start before she was sold, Donna Viola won a Group 2 race at Longchamps on Oct. 6.

Stevens won five races Sunday, including the two before the Yellow Ribbon. “I couldn’t believe that [Donna Viola] wasn’t getting any respect,” he said. “Nobody was talking about her before the race.

“The only thing we were concerned with was the lack of pace. At the quarter pole, they squirted away from me. I couldn’t keep up. At the eighth pole, she was just steadily starting to gain momentum, and I thought maybe I was going to be third. I hit her twice left-handed and she just re-broke. I knew at that point that she had a gear that I couldn’t really feel beforehand.”

Nakatani, riding Wandesta with a sore right elbow, took off his mounts after the Yellow Ribbon and went for X-rays.

“I tried to ride, and I just couldn’t do it well enough,” Nakatani said. “I thought that I’d be all right for this race, but she [Wandesta] got pinched a little way out. . . . I could never let her run.

“I just hope it didn’t cost her an Eclipse Award. It was just bad judgment on my part. I’m not going to make all the right decisions all the time. This was one of those days you wish hadn’t happened.”

Alpride lost for the seventh consecutive time since winning last year’s Yellow Ribbon, but trainer Ron McAnally would have preferred using regular rider McCarron, who hurt his back in a spill Friday. The stewards took McCarron off his mounts early Sunday, and after his condition improved, they couldn’t reinstate him because the changes had gone out to the off-track betting network.

“It was a bad trip for my mare,” McAnally said. “[Garcia] took a hold of her by the stands the first time, and again down the backside. I wish I would have had Chris. He was in the [jockeys’] room, but they wouldn’t let me use him.”

Horse Racing Notes

The Oak Tree meet ends today, when Chris McCarron is expected to ride Cecil’s Dernier Empereur, the 9-5 favorite, in the Carleton F. Burke Handicap. . . . Hollywood Park opens Wednesday.