Will Sunshack Reign Supreme?

The 12-year-old mare Suntrap is out of the breeding business ahead of her time, but she already has made her mark.

Mated with Rainbow Quest in her first trip to the breeding shed in 1989, Suntrap produced Raintrap, who won last year’s San Juan Capistrano Handicap.

Juddmonte Farms, which raced Suntrap, bred her back to Rainbow Quest the next year, and that resulted in the colt Sunshack, who has a good chance Sunday at Santa Anita to win the 58th running of the Capistrano. It would be rare indeed for full brothers to win a major stake in consecutive years.

Marlin, the high weight Sunday at 119 pounds, beat Sunshack by three-quarters of a length in the San Luis Rey Stakes on March 23, but that was at 1 1/2 miles. Sunshack, a 6-year-old with large lungs, might have the advantage at the Capistrano distance, which at nearly 1 3/4 miles is about a quarter of a mile longer.

The $400,000 San Juan Capistrano, which will be run on the second-last day of Santa Anita’s 86-day season, drew eight horses, including Sunshack’s stablemate, Bon Point, who will also be saddled by trainer Bobby Frankel. Bon Point, a 7-year-old who last won in the Oak Tree Championship at Santa Anita in October, finished fifth in the San Luis Rey.

Here is the post-position lineup for the Capistrano, with jockeys and weights:

Shanawi, Brice Blanc, 113 pounds; Awad, Pat Day, 117; Marlin, Chris McCarron, 119; African Dancer, Mike Smith, 113; Joy Of Glory, Julio Garcia, 111; Bon Point, Corey Nakatani, 115; Poliglote, Alex Solis, 117; and Sunshack, Kent Desormeaux, 118.

Bon Point races for Juddmonte, the stable name for Prince Khalid Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Juddmonte owns only 25% of Sunshack, having sold the rest of the horse to Californians Robert and Geri Witt, who raced him for the first time in the San Luis Rey.

As a runner, Suntrap wasn’t much. She was bred in Kentucky, a daughter of Roberto, the English Derby winner who was owned by the late John Galbreath. Galbreath once owned the Pittsburgh Pirates and named one of his best horses after his best ballplayer, the late Roberto Clemente.

In England, France and Ireland, Suntrap won only three of 11 starts and earned less than $30,000. She never won a stake. But as a broodmare, she and Rainbow Quest, an English champion who won the Arc de Triomphe, France’s biggest race, were a dashing couple. Their first offspring, Raintrap, was France’s champion 3-year-old colt in 1993. The next year, en route to California to join Frankel’s barn, Juddmonte dropped off Raintrap at Woodbine near Toronto and he won the $1-million Rothmans International.

Raintrap, a small-framed horse whose soundness problems have required special attention from Frankel, has raced infrequently and accomplished little in California, but he out-finished the mare Windsharp in last year’s San Juan Capistrano. Raintrap’s next start will be in the Elkhorn Stakes at Keeneland next Friday.

After Raintrap, Suntrap produced Sunshack. After that she was introduced to Sadler’s Wells, a preeminent stallion, but she lost that foal and in recent years has had problems getting in foal.

Horse Racing Notes

Deputy Commander, fifth in the Arkansas Derby, will skip the Kentucky Derby and be pointed for the Preakness at Pimlico on May 17. . . . Hollywood Park-based Touch Gold will run Sunday in the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland. . . . Glitter Woman, the probable likely favorite in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 2, is a possible for the Preakness. Laffit Pincay, sidelined since March 26, when he suffered three broken ribs in a spill at Santa Anita, hopes to return to action when Hollywood Park opens next Friday. . . . A victory by Funontherun in today’s $200,000 California Derby at Golden Gate Fields might rekindle .Kentucky Derby fever for his owners, Herb and David Alpert. Funontherun won the San Rafael Stakes at Santa Anita, beating Hello, a horse who’s Derby-bound, but in his last start, the Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park, he showed little. . . . Corey Nakatani has taken a Derby mount on Acceptable.