Bayakoa a Breeze for Flying Stevens

It was a day of fast trips for Gary Stevens. Tailwinds from Tokyo, where he had competed in an international jockeys’ ride-off, brought him back to California an hour early Sunday, and then Stevens boarded another jet in the $98,000 Bayakoa Stakes.

The unofficial time for the Tokyo-to-Los Angeles flight was 8 1/2 hours; Manistique, Stevens’ Godzilla-sized mount in the Bayakoa, completed the 1 1/16 miles in an official 1:42 2/5, not a bad clocking over the sloppy, gooey Hollywood Park main track.

Manistique, one of the biggest fillies who has ever run, is the kind of horse that a jockey doesn’t want to pass up. “She sure makes riding feel good,” Stevens said. “It was pretty effortless. She was fresh [in the paddock] from not running, but it didn’t seem to hurt her any. When we got to the gate, she was just looking straight down the racetrack and had her mind on business. Very professional.”

The two-length win over runner-up India Divina and only two others Sunday gave Manistique four wins in five starts. The Bayakoa was the 3-year-old filly’s first race since Aug. 22, when a throat infection compromised her chances and led to a third-place finish in the Alabama at Saratoga. Trainer John Shirreffs’ horse paid $2.80 to win Sunday, earning $60,000 for owner-breeder Marshall Naify.

“Her and Winning Colors are the biggest fillies I’ve ever ridden,” Stevens said. “Beyond those two, I haven’t ridden too many colts that are that big.”

Stevens, 35, has riding commitments in Hong Kong that will cause him to miss the rest of the Hollywood Park meet that ends Dec. 21. Despite surgery on both knees this summer, Stevens feels that this has been his best season, but he’s guarded about talking about winning an Eclipse Award, having been disappointed before in a brilliant career that has led to Hall of Fame enshrinement in 1997 but netted nary an Eclipse.

“Whatever happens, happens,” Stevens said. Ballots will go out later this month to approximately 300 turf writers, track racing secretaries and Daily Racing Form voters.

Total purses frequently influence the voters, although that yardstick didn’t matter in 1990, when Stevens led the country with $13.8 million and Craig Perret won the Eclipse. This year, with almost $18 million, Stevens has a clear lead over the field, but he may be victimized because racing’s two record-keeping agencies--the Racing Form and Equibase--are in disagreement over his total. At issue is the $2.65 million Stevens’ horses earned on Dubai World Cup day in March, including a win worth $2.4 million aboard Silver Charm.

Inexplicably, the Racing Form has given Silver Charm credit for his Dubai win, but hasn’t added the total to the records of Stevens and trainer Bob Baffert. In the Form, through Thursday, Stevens’ total is only $16.2 million, leaving him third in the standings behind Pat Day ($17.2 million) and Jerry Bailey ($17 million). Day has won the Eclipse Award four times, the most recent in 1991, and Bailey has won the award the last three years.

“I’m annoyed [about the discrepancy],” Stevens said. “What doesn’t make sense is that last year Bailey beat me out of the money title, and the difference was the money he won [with Singspiel] in the Dubai World Cup. Last year it counted and this year it doesn’t.”