Marlin and McCarron Are a Winning Hookup

Trainer Wayne Lukas was five minutes away from calling jockey John Velazquez in New York the other day when Scotty McClellan came running into his barn office at Santa Anita.

McClellan, who books mounts for Chris McCarron, told Lukas that their scheduled mount for the San Luis Rey Stakes, Poliglote, was sick. This freed McCarron to ride Lukas’ horse, Marlin, in the $266,600 race.

McCarron has a history of winning important races with first-time assignments. Exhibits A through D are Danzig Connection in the 1986 Belmont, Sunday Silence in the 1989 Breeders’ Cup Classic, Pine Bluff in the 1992 Preakness and Go For Gin in the 1994 Kentucky Derby.

Add Sunday’s San Luis Rey to the list.

Riding what Lukas called “a smart race,” McCarron and Marlin were three-quarters of a length ahead of Sunshack at the end of the 1 1/2-mile race, giving owner Michael Tabor a victory worth $166,600.

Both Lukas and McCarron expected Marlin to lead, but instead he was in fourth place, behind Rainbow Dancer, Big Sky Jim and Bon Point. On the turn for home, just as Big Sky Jim was shedding the fading Rainbow Dancer, Marlin passed them both on the outside. Then the winner withstood the bid by Sunshack, who was 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Peckinpah’s Soul while the three early leaders all finished farther back. Peckinpah’s Soul, a French horse making his first start in the U.S., was vanned off the track after the race. He suffered a fractured sesamoid in his right foreleg.

Favored Marlin paid $6. His time of 2:28 was the slowest for a San Luis Rey winner since 1975.

“He’s a big, kind horse,” McCarron said. “Instead of breaking in front, he totally shut it off and just galloped around there. He had great position. I wasn’t going to press the issue if he didn’t want the lead. He exploded right when I needed him to. I could hear [Sunshack] coming, and I thought he was going to catch us. But somehow Marlin was able to grind it out and find some more.”

Marlin has had different jockeys in his last six races. Velazquez rode him in his last victory, in the Hollywood Derby on Dec. 1.

McCarron won two other races on the card, one a victory aboard Wealthy in the Opening Bid Stakes.

The San Luis Rey was the first race for Marlin since his fourth-place finish in the Santa Anita Handicap, which was a rare dirt start for the 4-year-old colt. The San Luis Rey was a rare turf victory for Lukas, who doesn’t have another grass runner in his barn. Of Lukas’ 19 Eclipse Awards winners, only Steinlen was a horse who raced on grass.

Marlin had been winless since the Hollywood Derby, running second in the Hollywood Turf Cup and third in the San Marcos Handicap before the Big ‘Cap. He has now won six of 19 starts and earned $1,156,880.