Ramser Handicap Win Is Breathtaking

Maybe it’s a good thing that Silver Ending ran fifth instead of winning the Kentucky Derby in 1990. It might have taken an ambulance to get Debbie McAnally, one of his owners, to the winner’s circle.

Prevailing in Sunday’s $111,800 Harold C. Ramser Sr. Handicap at Santa Anita with Olympic Charmer was difficult enough for a hyperventilating McAnally. Standing in the winner’s circle with trainer and husband Ron McAnally, Debbie McAnally finally said: “I better find a place to sit down. My knees feel kind of funny. My heart’s beating out of my chest. It feels like I’ve won the Kentucky Derby.”

Olympic Charmer, whose only previous start on grass produced a convincing win at a mile on Oct. 3, was the 9-10 favorite in the Ramser at the same distance, but the McAnallys had to sweat out a furious stretch rally that left Camargo a neck short at the wire. Bright Magic finished third in the field of 10, running three-quarters of a length behind Camargo. Olympic Charmer, paying $3.80 and timed in 1:34 1/5, carried high weight of 118 pounds, including jockey Chris McCarron.

McCarron has ridden the 3-year-old Olympio-Light A Charm filly in all 10 of her races, which have produced five wins, three seconds and $326,265 in purses.

“We didn’t want to go head and head with Bright Magic,” McCarron said. “That wouldn’t have done either one of us any good. I let that horse go and tried to see if my filly would settle and make a run. She cooperated very nicely.”

Bright Magic was 3 1/2 lengths ahead of Olympic Charmer after the opening half-mile, but McCarron stuck to his plan. Olympic Charmer had been on the lead in her other races, except for a 10th-place finish in the Test Stakes at Saratoga in July. “She had an inside post and they ran the first quarter in :44,” Ron McAnally said. “Also, the track was real sandy and cupping out. It was a lot like the track was the day she ran in Florida.”

That was in March, when Olympic Charmer finished second but was beaten by 6 1/4 lengths. The winner was Three Ring, who was one of the best 3-year-old fillies in the country before she died after a paddock accident at Belmont Park a few months later.

Olympic Charmer was introduced to grass this summer at Del Mar, where McCarron took her out for some morning workouts.

“Chris said she handled it well, so we decided to try her,” McAnally said. “She’s bred to handle grass on both sides. Olympio was good on both dirt and grass.”

Camargo, ridden by Alex Solis, was eighth at the quarter pole, about seven lengths from the lead. She was an improved filly off of two seventh-place finishes at Del Mar.

“She was a little keen in the early going,” Solis said. “I didn’t really have anywhere to go in the stretch, but she almost got there.”

It was a good weekend for Ron McAnally, who picked up a top contender for the Breeders’ Cup Turf when one of his clients, Charles Cella, bought Dark Moondancer from European interests.

Dark Moondancer, an English-bred 4-year-old colt, has won Group One races in both Italy and France and was a probable this month for the Arc de Triomphe, France’s biggest race, before a fever sent him to the sidelines. He has won his last three starts and seven of 14 overall.

The Turf will be run, along with seven other Breeders’ Cup races, at Gulfstream Park on Nov. 6.

“This horse should have a good chance,” McAnally said. “The last race was his best. He beat Dream Well, who was second in the Turf Classic [at Belmont Park], and Croco Rouge, who was third in the Arc. It all depends on how well he travels [to Florida], and if he can handle the sharp turns at Gulfstream.”

Cella, who owns Oaklawn Park, and McAnally teamed up in 1995 to win the Breeders’ Cup Turf with Northern Spur at Belmont Park. The win clinched the Eclipse Award for male turf horses.

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River Keen, being treated for a cracked hoof at Belmont Park, has resumed training and appears likely to run in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“He’s looking great,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “He’ll work Tuesday, and he’s got the green light.”

River Keen, winner of the Woodward and the Jockey Club Gold Cup, is scheduled to be flown to Florida on Nov. 2.

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Budroyale, 125 pounds, and General Challenge, 124, are the high weights for Saturday’s $250,000 Wells Fargo California Cup Classic at Santa Anita, but they’re both headed instead for the Breeders’ Cup Classic. General Challenge, in particular, could become the first California-bred to win a Breeders’ Cup race.

At Santa Anita, Baffert, who trains General Challenge, might start the 6-year-old gelding Cavonnier, who will be the high weight, at 120 pounds, if he runs. Cavonnier won the Santa Anita Derby in 1996, then missed by a nose, against Grindstone, in the Kentucky Derby. Cavonnier has run only twice since he suffered a tendon injury in the 1996 Belmont Stakes. In his last start, in March, he ran sixth on grass at Santa Anita.

Other probables for the Cal Cup Classic are Bagshot, Cliquot, Del Mar Gray, Lester’s Boy, Smoky Cinder and Warm April.

Horse Racing Notes

Eddie Delahoussaye called in sick and didn’t ride Sunday. . . . Chris McCarron, subbing for Delahoussaye, won another race for Ron McAnally when he clicked with King Clef in the fourth race. . . . Besides Dark Moondancer, McAnally’s other Breeders’ Cup probables are Brave Act in the Mile and Bonapartiste in the Turf. It’s not definite that Bonapartiste will qualify for the Turf, which is expected to draw more than the 14-horse maximum. He was ninth in the race last year at Churchill Downs.