Saint’s Honor Can Make Strub Father-Son Event for Dollases

A couple of Jones boys--Jimmy and Gary--have saddled winners of the Strub Stakes, but they weren’t related. The Stute boys--Warren and Mel--have also trained Strub winners and they are related, being brothers. A father and a son have never both won the Strub, an omission that could be corrected today if Saint’s Honor turns back his four rivals in the 53rd running of one of Santa Anita’s most prestigious races.

Saint’s Honor is trained by Craig Dollase, whose father Wally won the 1996 Strub with Helmsman. Craig Dollase, 29, was an assistant trainer for his father that Strub day.

Since then, the Dollases have been like ships that pass in the night, Craig having become the youngest trainer--and the first Dollase--to win a Breeders’ Cup race, and Wally regrouping after Prince Ahmed Salman’s high-powered Thoroughbred Corp. fired him as its private trainer about a year ago.

“That’s the way it goes when somebody pulls the rug on you,” said Craig, who grew up learning how fickle the game can be. He wasn’t far from his father’s command when Wally was winning big races with Itsallgreektome, Jewel Princess, Deputy Commander, Sharp Cat and others in the 1990s.

Craig can identify with his father’s struggle to revive his stable.

“I’ve been there,” the younger Dollase said. “But it shouldn’t take him very long to make it back. He’s got 25 horses now and 12 babies [2-year-olds] that look pretty good.”

Helmsman and Saint’s Honor are not related, but they have much in common. Both are sons of Irish Derby winners, Helmsman by El Gran Senor and Saint’s Honor by St. Jovite, who was also Europe’s horse of the year in 1992. Helmsman and Saint’s Honor both won the San Fernando Stakes, Wally’s colt taking the race in his first dirt start three weeks before the 1996 Strub.

Saint’s Honor ran twice on turf before his San Fernando win, and Craig could return him to that surface later in the colt’s career.

“He’s bred to go either way,” Craig said. “I’ve always had high hopes for him. He chipped a knee in last year’s Arkansas Derby, and the time off--3 1/2 months--gave him time to mature. He was very immature when he was younger, but when he came back he was more focused. I think he’s peaking at the right time.”

Saint’s Honor, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, was 24-1 in the San Fernando, not having run on dirt in nine months and untested in stakes except for the ill-fated Arkansas Derby. General Challenge, who finished fourth, beaten by less than three lengths, despite a rough trip in the San Fernando, probably will be favored today, with Chris McCarron having been replaced by Corey Nakatani, who is Craig Dollase’s brother-in-law.

John and Betty Mabee, who bred and race General Challenge, won last year’s Strub with Event Of The Year and Nakatani, who has the chance to become the first back-to-back winner of the race since Bill Harmatz won with Spinney and Round Table in 1957-58.

“Kent got a perfect trip in the San Fernando,” Craig Dollase said. “That was our plan, to stay out of trouble. That was the first time Kent had ridden him, although he had worked him last year and was supposed to ride him in the Hollywood Derby, but then we never drew in to the race.”

Craig’s barn is already stocked with more than two dozen horses, and might be bolstered later in the year with the return of Reraise, who won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in 1998, when his trainer was only 27.

“Craig was raised on our farm,” his father said. “Horses have been his life since he was 15 years old. Then he learned from that long run as my assistant. And he loves what he’s doing.”

The Dollase name didn’t hurt, and Craig’s father turned over many of his horses to his son when he went private with Thoroughbred Corp. Flora Munoz, who was Helmsman’s groom, followed the younger Dollase when he went out on his own, and she also rubs Saint’s Honor.

“Coming up with my dad, and then getting some decent horses at the start, all that helped my confidence going in,” Craig said.

With Deputy Commander in 1997, Wally won the Travers at Saratoga and the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs, but the Strub win, by two lengths over the favored Afternoon Deelites, has a place of its own.

“A month later, in the Santa Anita Handicap, he flipped his palate,” Dollase said. “He wasn’t the same horse after that, but he still gave us the Strub. That’s still the biggest race I’ve ever won at this track.”

Horse Racing Notes

General Challenge is 7-5, followed by Saint’s Honor at 2-1, on the Strub morning line. . . . Malabar Gold, who finished last in the Hollywood Futurity, gets another chance in today’s San Vicente Stakes and is the 8-5 morning-line favorite. At 2-1 is Joopy Doopy, another fast horse who won the Sunny Slope at Santa Anita last year with a 1:08 4/5 effort for six furlongs. . . . Trainer Wayne Lukas’ decision to run Cat Thief on Sunday instead of in the Strub means the $300,000 San Antonio Handicap will feature the 1-2 finishers from last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic. Budroyale, who trailed Cat Thief across the line at Gulfstream Park, will carry high weight of 121 pounds, one pound more than Cat Thief, in the San Antonio. Others running are Elaborate, Dixie Dot Com and Moore’s Flat. . . . In Sunday’s $200,000 La Canada Stakes for 4-year-old fillies, Smooth Player, winner of last year’s Hollywood Oaks, will share high weight, at 117 pounds, with Flirtacious Girl, a shipper from Northern California. Others running are Her She Kisses, who has five wins and three seconds in eight starts; The Seven Seas, Dianehill, Scholars Studio and West To East.

Trainer James Bond may run either Behrens or Pleasant Breeze in the Santa Anita Handicap on March 4. Bond plans to run one of the horses today in the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park. . . . Laffit Pincay, who won Friday’s feature at Santa Anita with Dancing Afleet, will be at Turf Paradise today, to ride Foggy Day in the $150,000 Turf Paradise Breeders’ Cup Stakes and Hoover Tower in the $100,000 Turf Paradise Derby. . . . The stewards weren’t happy about jockey Pat Valenzuela’s absence Friday. “His agent [Nick Cosato] called in and said he had personal problems,” steward Pete Pedersen said. “We were disappointed that Pat didn’t call in himself. We don’t want to rush to judgment and everything else is speculative. Pat had a minor injury [to his neck] in a gate thing [Sunday], but he’s ridden since then. Because of his history, there’s bound to be concern when he’s not here.” Valenzuela, whose career has been interrupted seven times by stewards’ suspensions, has a history of drug and alcohol abuse.