Early Cushion Helps Listening in Bayakoa

Listening had some help when she won the Bayakoa Handicap at Hollywood Park last Sunday. The 3-year-old filly had an equipment change of sorts.

Because Listening is an anxious horse just before the break--she broke in the air at Saratoga last summer, compromising her chances in the Alabama Stakes--the starting-gate crew at Hollywood rigged her stall with protective pads on both sides.

The experiment was such a success that Gary Brinson, Hollywood’s official starter, believes other tracks also may use the homemade buffers.

“Some horses will lean one way, then the other, while they’re waiting for the doors to open,” Brinson said. “I’ve seen some of them do that so much that they’ve rubbed themselves raw in back.”

To accommodate trainer Ron McAnally, Brinson’s crew also delayed Listening’s loading, even though she had drawn the No. 1 post position and normally would have been the first horse in the gate.

The gate pads are the creation of Alton “Junior” Hungerford, one of Brinson’s assistant starters. Hungerford inserted sponge cushioning in the pads, making each about two inches thick.

The current Hollywood Park meet has been eventful for the gate crew. On Nov. 22, a grass race was run with a walk-up start because the rear wheels of the turf gate had locked, and a week before that jockey Corey Nakatani escaped with only bruises when one of his mounts reared before a start and slammed his right leg against the gate.

Brinson helped extricate horse and rider from the gate in that incident, but he needed 35 stitches to close a severe cut between his right thumb and index finger.

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Bayakoa has had a tough time in the breeding business.

The champion older distaffer of 1989 and 1990, and the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff both of those years, Bayakoa missed an entire breeding season because of colic and underwent surgery twice. Then the next year, after being bred to Seattle Slew, the Argentine mare was late in her pregnancy when she lost the filly foal.

Bayakoa is doing better now. She’ll be a 13-year-old by the time she drops a Broad Brush foal in April at Frank Penn Farm in Lexington, Ky.

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The Unbridled’s Song saga continues. On the verge of being retired two weeks ago, the troubled colt worked six furlongs Wednesday at Florida’s Gulfstream Park in 1:14.

Owner Ernie Paragallo, a man of many moods, has reversed his retirement plans and trainer Nick Zito will be preparing Unbridled’s Song for a 4-year-old campaign that begins this winter at Gulfstream.

In his debut for Zito, in an allowance race at Aqueduct last month, Unbridled’s Song finished second in a field of second-raters. He bled from the lungs in the race, which has given Paragallo reason to push on.

“The bleeding last time was significant,” Zito said. “The next time, we’ll see the real Unbridled’s Song. About 75% of this horse’s problems is mental.”

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A rematch between Alphabet Soup and Louis Quatorze in the Santa Anita Handicap in March isn’t going to happen.

“Louie looks great, but he’s going to get a good rest,” Zito said. “He’s just jogging now. I might run him once at Gulfstream, but it won’t be until March. He ran the race of his life in the Breeders’ Cup [he was nosed out by Louis Quatorze in the Classic at Woodbine], but he’s been training hard all year and needs the time off.”

Horse Racing Notes

Through his attorney, Darrell Vienna, jockey Pat Valenzuela pleaded not guilty Thursday to two misdemeanor charges in Santa Anita Municipal Court in Monrovia. Valenzuela was arrested Oct. 31 and charged with vandalism, and the next day he was arrested for allegedly being under the influence of a controlled substance. Valenzuela’s case also has been referred to the Los Angeles County Probation Department for review. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for April 28. Valenzuela, whose state riding license expired Oct. 31, has not ridden since Oct. 24. . . .

Jockey Corey Nakatani’s six-day suspension ends Saturday. Nakatani was suspended by Japan Racing Assn. officials after an interference incident during a race in Tokyo on Dec. 2. . . . Wandesta, the winner of the Matriarch, will be bred to Distant View, the 1994 champion 3-year-old colt in England.

Listen Well, who is Listening’s dam, will be bred to Arazi next year. . . . Luna Wells, recently sold at auction in England for $3 million, is headed for trainer Richard Mandella’s barn. . . . Jockey Michael Hunter will be out two weeks after suffering a small crack in his right collarbone in a spill last Saturday.