Captain Steve Making Case for Eclipse

The National Thoroughbred Racing Assn. hasn’t been handling the Eclipse Awards very long, but already it needs to rethink the process.

Perhaps Anees deserves the Eclipse for best 2-year-old male--he was a convincing winner in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile for his only stakes win--but Captain Steve, who won two races after ballot information was mailed out, deserves a better shake. Mailed ballots must be received in New York by Monday to be counted, and few voters could honor that deadline while also considering Saturday’s Hollywood Futurity, which Captain Steve won in a strong performance.

“It would be terrible if this horse didn’t win [the Eclipse],” said Steve Thompson, a Louisville police detective for whom the horse is named. “This horse deserves it. If the public had a vote, I know this horse would win it.”

Via a last-minute update to the horses’ records, voters received information in late November that Greenwood Lake, another leading 2-year-old, had won the Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct on Nov. 27. But Captain Steve’s win the same day in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes wasn’t included in the insert.

Mike Pegram, whose friendship with Thompson stems from the detective’s help after a breach-of-security charge at the Louisville airport a few years ago, also owns Real Quiet, who used a Hollywood Futurity win as a foundation for victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 1998.

“This colt reminds me of Real Quiet,” said trainer Bob Baffert, who with Pegram has moved from quarter horses to thoroughbred luster. “At this stage they were freaks, but they were awfully green. Neither one knew how good he was.”

Irrespective of the ballot controversy, Captain Steve weakened his Eclipse chances when he ran 11th in the Breeders’ Cup. Baffert is front and center in accepting blame.

“I messed up,” he said. “Of all the races I didn’t win that day, I was more upset with that one than anything else. There was a track bias in favor of front-runners, and I told [jockey Garrett Gomez] to go with the horse. He did exactly what I told him to do, but it was the wrong strategy. This horse wants to run relaxed.”

In the $409,000 Futurity, it was Malabar Gold that tried to run off with jockey Eddie Delahoussaye, while Captain Steve and his rider, Robbie Albarado, stayed back. Malabar Gold, whose hopes ended on the far turn, wound up last in the six-horse field. The 1 1/16-mile stake became a match race between Captain Steve and High Yield at the quarter pole. High Yield, on the outside, lost a half-length lead coming out of the turn and Captain Steve won by four lengths, even though he threw up his ears and alternately gawked at the tote board to his left and the crowd to his right before reaching the wire.

High Yield, who was third in the Breeders’ Cup and sixth in the Kentucky Jockey Club, was 11 lengths better than Cosine, the third-place finisher, who had unseated his jockey, Pat Day, minutes before post time. Captain Steve’s time was 1:43 1/5, slowest for a Futurity winner since 1992. The $70,000 yearling purchase paid $4.60 as the favorite and earned $245,400.

Captain Steve and High Yield were both stabled at Santa Anita, but while Baffert worked Captain Steve once at Hollywood, Wayne Lukas, High Yield’s trainer, kept his horse across town.

Baffert, who has a division of his stable at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans, plans to send Captain Steve there for the start of his 3-year-old campaign. The real Captain Steve’s bags are packed.

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Laffit Pincay Jr. is giving the man who changes the yellow sign atop the tote board a frequent workout.

In bold black numbers, the sign reminds the public of Pincay’s record all-time victory total, and Saturday the number reached 8,842 after he won three more races. Pincay has won eight in the six racing days since breaking Bill Shoemaker’s record of 8,833 on Dec. 10.

Pincay’s third winner Saturday was Theresa’s Tizzy for trainer Noble Threewitt in the Corona Handicap. Threewitt is 88 and Pincay will turn 53 on Dec. 29. Threewitt saddled his first winner in Mexico in 1932 and Pincay rode his first winner in Panama in 1964.

Theresa’s Tizzy, best by 3 1/2 lengths, gave Pincay his 30th win of the meeting, moving him past Pat Valenzuela into first place in the standings. Valenzuela rode two winners apiece on Wednesday and Thursday but has been stuck at 28 the last two days. Pincay, trying for his first meet title in Southern California since he led the Hollywood Park spring-summer standings in 1991, will ride in 13 races today and Monday, the last two days of the season. Valenzuela has 14 mounts remaining.

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Corey Nakatani, who has three wins and one second-place finish in the last four Hollywood Starlets that he has ridden in, will be aboard Abby Girl, one of five fillies trying to knock off Lukas’ Surfside, in today’s 19th running of the stake.

Abby Girl, trained by Craig Dollase, finished second behind the then-undefeated Chilukki in the Oak Leaf at Santa Anita in October, and was second at 3-5 to Classic Olympio in the Moccasin at Hollywood Park on Nov. 14. Classic Olympio, who has won three in a row, also is in today’s race. Surfside, who’ll run for the first time in California, has three wins, one second and one third in five starts and is the 4-5 favorite on the morning line. In her last start, Surfside had a wide trip before finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Notes

The Futurity was Bob Baffert’s 19th Grade I win this year, but he has run out of time in trying to break the record, which was set in 1987 by Wayne Lukas with 22 Grade I’s. . . . With the quarter horse version of horse of the year on the line, 10 horses with almost $2.5 million in earnings will run tonight in the $350,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos. Owner Henry Brown’s entry of Honor Ease and Corona Cash is the 2-1 morning-line favorite, with Old Habits next at 3-1. Corona Cash, a 4-year-old mare, has earned $1.4 million, the most of any horse in the field. Third in last year’s Champion of Champions, she goes into tonight’s stake with a three-race winning streak.