Winner Is a Galloping Gourmet

Named after a Northern Italian restaurant in San Diego, Old Trieste was cooking on all cylinders Sunday at Hollywood Park.

The speedy 3-year-old colt clicked off six furlongs in 1:09 2/5, a mile in 1:34 1/5 and still had enough punch left to win the 1 1/8-mile Swaps Stakes by 12 lengths. This was the biggest winning margin in the history of the Swaps, first run in 1974.

Before Old Trieste, the Swaps record belonged to Precisionist, winner of the stake by 10 lengths in 1984. Chris McCarron rode both horses, and his win with Old Trieste was the centerpiece Sunday as the 44-year-old jockey booted home three stakes winners, one short of the national record.

Besides the $500,000 Swaps, McCarron also won the $125,000 Answer Do Stakes with Uncaged Fury and the $125,000 Valkyr Handicap with Spirited Jaclyn. The three victories give McCarron 52 wins, two more than Corey Nakatani, in the battle for the riding lead at Hollywood. The season ends today, with McCarron riding four horses and Nakatani six as McCarron tries to secure his first summer title at Hollywood since 1984.

McCarron now has ridden more winners of the Swaps--five--than any other jockey. Bill Shoemaker has four wins.

“Old Trieste allowed me to contain his speed today,” McCarron said. “He has a ton of ability. I really liked him last summer when I got on him as a 2-year-old, and he’s just gotten better and better.”

Gary Biszantz, who owns Old Trieste, admits that he made a mistake running the colt in the Kentucky Derby. Old Trieste, after leading the race for six furlongs, ran 10th at Churchill Downs. His tuneup for the Swaps was an easy win in the Affirmed Handicap on June 21.

“This was a quantum leap for this horse,” trainer Mike Puype said after the Swaps. “To run a mile and an eighth and then to run away from them was some accomplishment. I know the horses behind us were not the top of the (3- year-old) division, but it was still a big race to pull away from them like he did.”

Puype said that Old Trieste had been coughing daily since the Affirmed and his blood levels were also low.

“But looking at this lineup,” he said, “how are you not going to push on for this kind of race?”

Finishing up in 1:47, Old Trieste paid $4.60 as the favorite and earned $300,000 for his fourth win in nine starts. Grand Slam finished second, 3 1/2 lengths ahead of Old Topper, in the six-horse field.

Shot Of Gold, the second choice, was second for six furlongs before finishing fifth.

“He was soaking wet (in the paddock) and the motor was running a hundred miles an hour before I got on him,” jockey Gary Stevens said. “He just flat ran his race before I ever got out there.”

Puype said that Old Trieste would be given 10 days off before a decision is made about his next race. The $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar has been ruled out, because the 1 1/4 miles, the same distance as the Derby, is considered too far for the colt. Biszantz said that a possible race is the Del Mar Breeders’ Cup Handicap, at one mile, on Sept. 6.

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River Bay, continuing to thrive on Hollywood Park’s grass course, coasted to a 2 1/4-length win in the $350,000 Sunset Handicap.

In three starts at Hollywood, trainer Bobby Frankel’s 5-year-old has sandwiched wins in the Sunset and the Hollywood Turf Cup around a second-place finish to Storm Trooper in the Hollywood Turf Handicap.

“He’s not a hard horse to get ready for a race,” said Frankel, whose only previous Sunset win came with Roi Normand in 1988.

Alex Solis, who won the Sunset with Qathif in 1990, rode River Bay on Sunday. Solis and the French import were last going past the stands the first time, saving ground inside. On the backstretch, River Bay went to the outside as he methodically disposed of horses in front of him and he was clear of his stablemate, the front-running Star Performance, with an eighth of a mile to go.

“Last time, everything went wrong,” said Solis, referring to the lack of room and wide trip in the Turf Handicap seven weeks ago. “This time I saved ground, and when I got to the [4 1/2-furlong marker] I just tried to get him out in the clear, and that’s where I won the race right there.”

Frankel trains River Bay for Ecurie Chalhoub, who lives in Paris. The horse came off a layoff of more than five months when he ran second in the Turf Handicap, missing the Dubai World Cup in March because of minor problems.

The favorite and high weight for the Sunset with an impost of 121 pounds, River Bay paid $3.80, running 1 1/2 miles in 2:27 2/5, slowest clocking for the Sunset since 1989.

Lazy Lode, the Argentine-bred colt who was making his stakes debut in the United States, finished second, a neck better than Devonwood, the shipper from New York who balked at letting his jockey, Jerry Bailey, guide him through a narrow opening along the rail.

Horse Racing Notes

Yes It’s True, one of Wayne Lukas’ best 2-year-olds, gave the trainer his seventh win in the Hollywood Juvenile by rolling to a six-length win in the $102,700 race. An $800,000 auction purchase as an unraced colt in March, Yes It’s True won for the fourth time in five starts. Ridden by Jerry Bailey, Yes It’s True ran six furlongs in 1:09 2/5. One of Lukas’ other top juveniles, Tactical Cat, was ridden to victory by Bailey in the Tremont at Belmont Park on July 4.

Craig Dollase’s win with Six Point Eight was his 19th of the meet, assuring him of at least a tie for the training title. . . . Favorite Trick, running for the first time since his eighth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, beat Tomorrow’s Cat by a head to win the Long Branch Stakes at Monmouth Park. . . .Classic Cat, owned by Gary Garber and trained by David Cross, nosed out One Bold Stroke to win the Ohio Derby at Thistledown.