Bienamado Shapes Up With Victory in Turf Cup

His sire, Bien Bien, won the race on a foul, after the controversial disqualification of Fraise in 1992. Bienamado, a son of Bien Bien, didn’t need a vote from the stewards or anyone else Saturday, powering to a three-length victory in the $400,000 Hollywood Turf Cup and recharging the frustrated aspirations of his handlers.

This was a colt that was headed for the Epsom Derby in 1999, but took ill with a virus. This was a colt that went off favored in this year’s Arlington Million, but pinched a nerve in his back during the race and finished off the board. This was also a colt that might have spoiled Kalanisi’s party in last month’s Breeders’ Cup Turf, but was still fighting his way back from the Arlington debacle.

Now he has won the race that his sire won, and Bienamado has his owners--John Toffan, Trudy McCaffery and Robert Sangster--and trainer Paco Gonzalez pumped up for 2001.

“If we can just keep him sound,” Gonzalez said, after Bienamado put away the pace-setting Vergennes to give jockey Chris McCarron his eighth Turf Cup victory and first since Running Flame in 1996. Northern Quest, making up ground late, finished second, a half-length ahead of Lazy Lode in the eight-horse field. Lazy Lode, who had started only one other time this year, stalked Vergennes most of the way in the 1 1/2-mile test, but failed in his quest for a third consecutive Turf Cup victory.

“This was a great race for him after just that one race going a mile since last year,” said Brice Blanc, who rode Lazy Lode. “I was very much impressed.”

The winning time was 2:25 4/5, a second off the stakes record Itsallgreektome set in 1990. Favored for the fourth consecutive time, Bienamado paid $4 and earned $240,000.

“I was hoping that Lazy Lode would press (Vergennes) a little bit,” McCarron said, “but it was irrelevant, I guess. My horse was very aggressive the whole race. He got to Vergennes very comfortably. I let him pick up the pace leaving the three-eighths pole, and the race was on. From that point on, he was simply the best.”

A Kentucky-bred, Bienamado started his career in England, where Sangster, the 25% owner, resides. The plan all along was to eventually race him in the United States, and while his English trainer, Peter Chapple-Hyam, sent him to Gonzalez late last year with the highest regard, Bienamado arrived with at least one physical strike against him.

Problems aside, he had had two wins and three seconds in six European starts. Montjeu had beaten him by only a head at Longchamp. First time out of the box, and in his last start as a 3-year-old, Bienamado ran fifth in the Canadian International at Woodbine. This season, prior to the Arlington Million, he had geared up at mid-year to win the Jim Murray Memorial and Sunset Handicaps at Hollywood Park.

“Maybe we’ve gotten him right at last,” Toffan said with a touch of weariness. “It’s taken a long time to get him where he is. Now maybe next year we can have the year we thought we’d have this year.”

For six weeks after the Arlington race, Gonzalez did nothing but jog Bienamado.

“I took more time than normal, because I didn’t want to push him,” said Gonzalez, who also trained Bien Bien for Toffan and McCaffery. “The good thing was that John and Trudy didn’t push me. They said the horse is first.”

The Breeders’ Cup came and went, and so did the Japan Cup after that. Bienamado was probably a workout short for the trip to Tokyo.

“I know the race was a lot of money,” Gonzalez said, “but that’s a long trip and you don’t want to be going over there with a horse that’s less than 100%. This horse has the body and the stamina to be a good horse. I told John that he was really ready to run a big race today.”

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McCarron will try to win his eighth Native Diver Handicap today with Literal Prowler, who is winless in three starts this year and is 8-1 on the morning line.

The favorites in the race are Sky Jack, the California Cup Classic winner who is 5-2, and Casey Griffin, who is 7-2 after running second to Saint Wynn in the Skywalker Handicap at Santa Anita on Nov. 3. Saint Wynn, who had never run in a stake before the Skywalker, is 8-1 in the Native Diver.

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Exactly $552,571 ago, trainer Noble Threewitt claimed Theresa’s Tizzy from Vicky Vogt for $16,000.

That claim, at Del Mar on Aug. 9, 1998, was also 23 races and nine victories ago. Theresa’s Tizzy’s latest win for Threewitt, a hard-earned 1 1/2-length victory Saturday over Hookedonthefeelin in the $89,300 Corona Handicap, was worth $54,300.

Threewitt, 89, and Theresa’s Tizzy’s jockey, Laffit Pincay, who will be 54 on Dec. 29, have a combined total of more than 100 years in the game. Threewitt helped open Hollywood Park in 1938 and saddled a winner on the fourth day of the inaugural meet.

“As long as Laffit can keep going, I can,” Threewitt said.

Theresa’s Tizzy also won the Corona last year. She’s a daughter of Cee’s Tizzy, who also sired Budroyale and Tiznow.

“I started riding for (Threewitt) a long time ago,” Pincay said. “I remember one time somebody said how old he was, and I couldn’t believe it. Then they told me he saw Phar Lap run, and I couldn’t believe it. Amazing.”

Notes

Laffit Pincay said that while not agreeing with the stewards’ decision that disqualified Designed For Luck after his victory in the Early Times Hollywood Derby, he won’t appeal the five-day suspension. The penalty starts Wednesday and continues through next Sunday. . . . Hallowed Dreams, the filly who has won 17 of 18 starts, including 16 in a row to start her career, was scratched from the $60,000 Leggio Memorial Handicap at the Fair Grounds. Trainer Lloyd Romero said that Hallowed Dreams had a mild case of colic. . . . Trainer Steve Asmussen, whose Vergennes ran third at Hollywood Park, won the $150,000 Sam Houston Texan Juvenile with Fifty Stars. . . . Hal’s Hope, still winless since winning the Florida Derby in March, ran eighth as Miners Gamble won the Kenny Noe Jr. Handicap at Calder. . . . Dashing Knud, winning his seventh in a row, led the 10 qualifiers into the Los Alamitos Million on Dec. 16. Other quarter horses that qualified Friday night were Corona Cocktail, Heeza Motor Scooter, Make It Anywhere, First Down N Surfin, Thru Rebas Eyes, Shady Shenanigans, Tiny First Effort, Pecos Chicks and Lady Tenaya.