This French Connection Is Solid : Horse racing: After Tuzla is sold for $1.3 million and wins Saturday stake, Canani and Milch come back with another import, Val Royal, who wins Del Mar Derby.

One’s a colt and the other’s a mare, but both French-breds like to run on grass and Val Royal makes for a solid replacement for Tuzla in trainer Julio Canani’s barn.

Among other things, this will be remembered as the Del Mar summer when Canani’s client, David Milch, sold Tuzla and she went on to win the Ramona Handicap for trainer Bob Baffert and new owners Robert and Janice McNair.

The Ramona was run on Saturday, and Canani showed up with reinforcements Monday when Val Royal, in his first start in the U.S., won by a half-length in the $300,000 Del Mar Derby. Val Royal is also owned by Milch, the television producer-writer who bought him last month for what bloodstock agent Hubert Guy said was in the $1-million range.

Shortly after the purchase of Val Royal was completed, the colt was put on a plane from Paris to LAX, and he arrived at Canani’s barn here Aug. 25. The price Milch received for Tuzla was $1.3 million, but Canani said that the two deals were not related.

“We had been looking at this colt ever since he won by five lengths [on May 3 in Chantilly],” Guy said. “He’s a horse with a ton of class. The only bad race he’s run was in the Epsom Derby [an 11th-place finish], and that’s because the mile and a half was too far for him.”

In Europe, Val Royal had four wins and one second in six starts. His last race for trainer Andre Fabre was a victory in a Group 2 race at Deauville on Aug. 14.

Val Royal, ridden by Corey Nakatani, was the second consecutive Del Mar Derby win for Canani, who won the stake last year with Ladies Din. Since the first running of the race, in 1945, only two other trainers--Farrell Jones in 1974-75 and Ron McAnally in 1989-90--have won it in succession. Canani also won the Del Mar Derby with Silver Circus in 1988. Canani claimed both Ladies Din and Silver Circus for $32,000 apiece.

Val Royal was last, more than seven lengths behind pace-setting Domination, after the opening half-mile of the Del Mar Derby. Nakatani moved him from the rail to the outside on the far turn, but he was still fourth with an eighth of a mile to run. Val Royal ducked in when he took aim on the leaders, and Nakatani went to a left-handed whip as he regained his path in the closing yards.

“He ran like a typical French horse, he was a little green,” Nakatani said. “I worked him the other morning and he didn’t handle the turns too well. When I got him running in the stretch, he changed [lead feet] on me and wanted to go left. But there wasn’t any room there. I got him to go back outside and he got it done.”

Fighting Falcon finished second, 1 1/4 lengths ahead of In Frank’s Honor. Val Royal, who went off as the 3-2 favorite, ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:48 2/5, the same time as Ladies Din last year. The win was worth $180,000.

Horse Racing Notes

Jockey Kent Desormeaux suffered a broken right wrist and a deep bruise in his upper left leg after a 10th-race spill aboard The Key Rainbow, who went down after trying to go between horses in the stretch. Desormeaux was taken to a La Jolla hospital and will be sidelined indefinitely. The Key Rainbow returned to the barn under his own power. Zippersup, ridden by David Flores, was disqualified from third to last for interference. . . . Laffit Pincay’s ninth-race win aboard Mind For Gold was the 8,787th of his career. Pincay, who has ridden 21 winners at the meet, is 46 wins short of Bill Shoemaker’s record 8,833. . . . Forever Untamed became the ninth fatality of the meet when the $550,000 yearling purchase didn’t survive injuries suffered in the third race. . . . Horses trained by Bob Baffert won two stakes Monday. Stormy Jack was a 3 1/2-length winner in the $106,000 I’m Smokin Stakes at Del Mar and Del Mar Gray won the $125,000 California Turf Championship at Bay Meadows. Stormy Jack was the ninth stakes winner of the meet for Baffert, who set the Del Mar record with 10 wins last year. Baffert has entered three colts--Cameron Pass, Captain Steve and Forest Camp--against expected favorite Dixie Union in Wednesday’s meet-ending feature, the $250,000 Del Mar Futurity. . . . Gary Stevens, who won three races at Del Mar Sunday, was at Saratoga Monday to ride Crafty Friend, who won by a neck over Affirmed Success in the $250,000 Forego Handicap. . . . A Delightful Dasher, ridden by Joe Badilla for trainer John Bassett, beat favored Chicks Call Me by a head to win the $1.85-million All American Futurity at Ruidoso (N.M.) Downs. The win in the quarter horse race was worth $1.04 million to owner-breeder Gwendolyn Eaves.