Some European Flavor for Stake

Sunday’s International Jockey Challenge comes with a bonus for a few Santa Anita trainers: They’ve been able to hire three of the four visiting European jockeys to ride in the $250,000 San Luis Rey Stakes, a turf race which is not part of the afternoon’s four-race competition between the foreign and U.S. riders.

Maybe it doesn’t make any difference who rides Kessem Power--he has won for three jockeys since trainer Mike Mitchell claimed him in 1997 for $50,000--but it was handy for Mitchell to draft Mick Kinane, a 10-time champion in Ireland, when Gary Stevens wasn’t available.

Because more of their races are longer, European jockeys are experts at pace, and Kessem Power has the kind of late punch common to many successful horses from abroad. A year ago, on the day the first Jockey Challenge was staged, Frankie Dettori, the English star, rode Kessem Power for the first time and pulled off a half-length victory in the San Luis Rey.

Other Sunday starters to be ridden by European jockeys are Dushyantor and Fragrant Mix. Olivier Peslier, a champion rider in France, has the assignment on Dushyantor, who finished third, at 58-1, in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf, and Cash Asmussen, the South Dakota-born, French-based champion who will be aboard Fragrant Mix.

The other European rider in the Jockey Challenge phase of the card is Kieren Fallon, England’s top rider in 1997 and 1998. The opposition for the Europeans will come from Santa Anita fixtures Kent Desormeaux and Alex Solis, Northern California kingpin Russell Baze, and Julie Krone, who with more than 3,500 wins is the record-holder among female jockeys. Steve Cauthen will “captain” the European contingent and Bill Shoemaker is in charge of the U.S. riders.

After Kessem Power ran third last April in the San Juan Capistrano Handicap, his career was derailed because of surgery for a chipped ankle. Back this winter, he ran fifth in the San Marcos Handicap before winning the San Luis Obispo on Feb. 15.

Training since 1974, Mitchell has done his best work in the claiming ranks, and he says he’s never made a better buy out of a race than Kessem Power, who was taken from trainer Randy Bradshaw after running second in a race at Del Mar on Aug. 15, 1997.

Since that claim, Kessem Power has won seven of 12 starts and earned about $470,000 for Mitchell and his owner, Bob Baron. Stevens got to ride the horse in the San Luis Obispo after Eddie Delahoussaye took ill, and now Kinane gets a one-shot chance, with Stevens busy with Silver Charm in Dubai.

Others entered in the 1 1/2-mile San Luis Rey are Alvo Certo, Lazy Lode, Plicck, Single Empire, Floriselli and Percutant.

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Trainer Ron McAnally, elected to the Racing Hall of Fame in 1990, has won two horse-of-the-year titles with John Henry and other Eclipse Awards with Bayakoa, Paseana, Tight Spot and Northern Spur. McAnally’s stakes accomplishments take up several pages in the record book.

Yet McAnally’s record in the Triple Crown has been a cipher. He has never had that good 3-year-old that might give him a win in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness or Belmont Stakes.

McAnally has made 11 trips to the Derby, his best finishes a couple of fourths with Super Moment and Water Bank in the early 1980s. His best Preakness finish, in three races, was Olympio’s fourth at Pimlico in 1991. And in three Belmonts, McAnally has never done better than fifth.

McAnally will saddle Apremont, a lightly raced colt, in Sunday’s $150,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct, and although the one-turn mile is considered a prep for the Wood Memorial and the Kentucky Derby, the trainer is making no rash projections.

“This is a good spot for him, but beyond a mile it’s hard to say what he can do,” McAnally said. “We’ll just have to see where this race takes us.”

Shin problems kept Apremont on the sidelines last year, but he came out running at Santa Anita, covering six furlongs in 1:08 3/5 to beat maidens on Jan. 31 and completing seven furlongs in 1:21 2/5 to beat a good allowance field on Feb. 19. Chris McCarron, who’s ridden the colt in both of his races, will be aboard again Sunday. McAnally has until March 27 to decide whether Apremont should be a late nominee to the Triple Crown, at a fee of $6,000.

Another horse familiar to Southern Californians will run in the Gotham, only for a different trainer. Louis Albertrani takes over for Randy Bradshaw with Aristotle, who ran second, behind Cape Canaveral and Exploit, in two sprint stakes at Santa Anita before a seventh-place finish in the San Rafael. Bradshaw gave up his horses to become the West Coast assistant for Wayne Lukas.

In a 12-horse field, Apremont drew the unfavorable No. 1 post. Also running is Successful Appeal, who won the Cowden at Belmont Park as a 2-year- old, but was fifth more recently in the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park.

Horse Racing Notes

Late Triple Crown nominees include Three Ring, the filly who won impressively in last Tuesday’s Bonnie Miss Stakes at Gulfstream after being scratched from the Florida Derby; and Jim’smrtee, who’s running today in the Rebel at Oaklawn Park. Three Ring’s trainer, Eddie Plesa Jr., still sounds as if he’ll run her in the Kentucky Oaks instead of the Kentucky Derby. . . . More jockey musical chairs: Gary Stevens will ride Real Quiet in the Oaklawn Handicap on April 3, while Kent Desormeaux stays with the filly Honest Lady in the Santa Anita Derby. Jerry Bailey takes over for Stevens aboard Silverbulletday in the Ashland at Keeneland. . . . Trainer Bob Baffert’s Santa Anita Derby riders are David Flores on Prime Timber and Chris McCarron on General Challenge. . . . Allen and Madeleine Paulson have paid more than $1 million for K One King, who will try to extend a three-race win streak in the Gallery Furniture Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., next Saturday. The colt will stay with trainer Akiko Gothard through the Triple Crown.