Listening’s Victory Is Emotional

Hollywood Park has one of the largest winner’s circles in racing, and there was enough emotion to fill every inch of it Sunday after Janis Whitham’s Listening ground out a half-length win in the $108,200 Bayakoa Stakes.

Listening, a 3-year-old filly who is a granddaughter of Kentucky Derby winners Northern Dancer and Secretariat, was one of the last horses Frank Whitham bred before he was killed three years ago in the crash of his private plane in Kansas.

Before her husband’s death in December 1993, Janis Whitham and he campaigned the brilliant Bayakoa, the Argentine-bred who won Eclipse Awards in 1989 and 1990. Hollywood Park renamed the Silver Belles Handicap the Bayakoa in 1994.

“This is real special,” Janis Whitham said after Listening finished the year with a $64,923 payday and her sixth victory in eight starts. “I’m very proud of this filly, and very proud to win the Bayakoa.”

Sunday’s win in the 1 1/16-mile Bayakoa was in doubt 40 yards before the wire, with Listening, the 9-10 favorite, trying to outrun three other fillies. Under Chris McCarron, she had trailed by 5 1/2 lengths after the first half-mile, and her rally from the outside was made tougher when Cat’s Cradle, the co-high weight at 120 pounds, came on again next to the fence after Listening had passed her to gain third place on the turn.

In the three-horse photo for second place, Cat’s Cradle beat Belle’s Flag by a nose and it was another head back to Traces Of Gold in fourth place. Listening’s time was 1:42 3/5. She paid $3.80 for $2.

This was the fourth victory in the stake for trainer Ron McAnally, who won the first running of the Silver Belles with Happy Guess in 1981.

McAnally plans to have her ready for the La Canada series for 4-year-olds at Santa Anita this winter.

“We felt all along that she was a good filly,” McAnally said. “She’s proving it now by beating older fillies.”

McCarron won the stake for the fifth time.