McAnally Has Picture-Perfect Oak Tree Opener

Shopping for Breeders’ Cup types in Europe recently, trainer Ron McAnally found the pool vastly overpriced. Talk about sticker shock: There were $2-million price tags all over the place, for horses with few credentials and that had barely run at all.

Until those prices go down, McAnally may have to make do with the stock he has, and he’s not complaining. He frequently makes an impression during Oak Tree’s fall stand at Santa Anita, and this year’s 27-day meet may fit the pattern. The season opened Wednesday with the $100,000 Autumn Days Handicap, after which McAnally was in the winner’s circle, posing for the picture that came with Madame Pandit’s narrow victory.

A photo for a photo. Madame Pandit beat Advancing Star, a familiar rival and the 6-5 favorite, in the 6 1/2-furlong grass race, reversing an outcome on dirt between the two 4-year-old fillies at Del Mar a month ago. Advancing Star won that day, by five lengths.

Timed in 1:13 4/5 Wednesday, Madame Pandit paid $12 as the third betting choice. “My filly got sloughed pretty good leaving the gate at Del Mar,” McAnally said. “Otherwise she might have been a shorter price today. I don’t know that we would have beaten Advancing Star without the bad start--that other filly ran the first five-eighths in 55 4/5 [seconds] and still had something left for the last furlong--but we would have been a lot closer.”

From the barns to the bar in the Turf Club, there was a new gleam to Santa Anita, the result of a $12-million remodeling, but relatively few people experienced the improvements on opening day. In 94 degree heat, the on-track crowd of 15,361 was down 11,000 from last year and was the smallest at an opener since 1970, the second year for Oak Tree.

Cliff Goodrich, president of Santa Anita and general manager for Oak Tree, was not flustered. The track’s traditional beer-stein giveaway was moved to Saturday this year, to give more people the opportunity to collect the souvenir.

“We estimated that this might cost us 15,000 people on opening day, so that figured just about right,” Goodrich said. “We hope to knock them dead with the giveaway Saturday. We’ll be comparing the Wednesday-Saturday totals, and after Saturday we’ll see how it works out. Even with 11,000 fewer people, we handled more than we did a year ago.”

Wednesday’s handle, including off-track betting, was $9.5 million, a record for an Oak Tree opener and about $200,000 more than last year. Promotions usually reduce per-capita betting considerably, one reason being that some people will click the turnstiles more than once, paying to pick up multiple copies of the giveaway item.

Eddie Delahoussaye rode Madame Pandit to victory, but it was David Flores who was the riding star of opening day, winning three races. Flores’ third victory came aboard Johnbill, trainer Bob Baffert’s highly regarded 2-year-old colt who easily won the nightcap to leave the maiden ranks on his fourth try.

Baffert is one of a number of Santa Anita trainers who welcomed the recent barn renovations.

“I just hope they haven’t taken the winning atmosphere out of my barn with the repairs,” he said.

One horse who may break down the barn if he doesn’t run soon is Silver Charm, who won two-thirds of the Triple Crown before Touch Gold knocked him off in the Belmont Stakes. A blood disorder prematurely ended Silver Charm’s season, and Baffert plans to bring him back to the races Dec. 26 in the Malibu Stakes, the opening-day feature at Santa Anita.

“He’ll be telling me he wants to run long before the Malibu,” said Baffert, still hopeful that Silver Charm’s Kentucky Derby-Preakness victories will earn him an Eclipse Award. “I think he’s got a good shot to be best 3-year-old, and he might even have an outside chance at horse of the year, especially if some horses keep dropping by the wayside and other top horses keep getting beat.”

The trainers of two of those top horses, Richard Mandella and David Hofmans, were unable to beat McAnally’s filly with their runners in the Autumn Days. Mandella’s Gentlemen, fifth in the Woodbine Mile on Sept. 20, is recovering from a throat ulcer and may resume working out in the next week. Mandella needs to know for sure about Gentlemen, because to run in the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Hollywood Park on Nov. 8 his owners must pay a supplemental fee of $800,000. One-third of that amount is due Oct. 27, and it’s nonrefundable should Gentlemen not run.

Hofmans trains Touch Gold, a well-beaten last in the Pegasus Handicap at the Meadowlands on Sept. 20.

Horse Racing Notes

Ron McAnally’s barn will be busy on two stakes fronts this weekend. He’s running Golden Arches in the $400,000 Queen Elizabeth II at Keeneland on Saturday, and Toda Una Dama in the $125,000 Las Palmas Handicap at Santa Anita on Sunday. . . . Famous Digger, who has won four in a row, including the Del Mar Oaks, won’t run in the Las Palmas. “I might enter her, just to take a look,” trainer Barry Abrams said. “But we’re shooting for the Yellow Ribbon [a $500,000 race Nov. 2].”