General Challenge Makes Himself at Home in Strub

Trainer Bob Baffert’s mock campaign to run General Challenge in the $6-million Dubai World Cup began minutes after the headstrong gelding had won Saturday’s $500,000 Strub Stakes by 9 1/2 lengths at Santa Anita.

“Hey, John,” Baffert said, pointing in the direction of John Mabee, General Challenge’s co-owner, “you’d look great on a camel.”

John and Betty Mabee, who bred General Challenge at their Golden Eagle Farm in Ramona, are used to Baffert’s sense of humor.

“I’m going to Dubai,” John Mabee said, “but not with the horse.”

That’s good news for the Santa Anita Handicap--the $1-million race on March 4. Santa Anita’s showcase race has taken some serious hits since Sheik Mohammed introduced his race in the United Arab Emirates. For example, the Baffert-trained Silver Charm won the Dubai race in 1998 after a victory in the Strub.

But Baffert knows that General Challenge does his best running in California. The Strub was the horse’s eighth win in 11 starts in his home state. After getting off planes, the results for General Challenge have been abysmal. He has lost all three of his races out of state, including an 11th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby and a 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park.

“I just wish the trip to Dubai was only five hours,” Baffert said. “This horse just wouldn’t be able to handle the trip the way it is. He’s a tough horse to train, tough to saddle, and we’ve been trying to find the right rider for him. The odds of going to Dubai are slim and none.”

For the 1 1/8-mile Strub, Corey Nakatani became General Challenge’s fourth jockey. With the scratch of Cape Canaveral, who has an ankle injury, the field was reduced to four--the smallest turnout since Spectacular Bid beat three rivals in 1980. Nakatani elected to let the other three horses do the early running as General Challenge fell 10 lengths behind after the first half-mile.

“I was wondering if he was too far back,” Baffert said. “I thought he had been training well, but I saw the fractions and knew the others were pretty good horses. I was hoping that he wouldn’t throw in a clinker.”

Nearing the quarter pole, as Luftikus replaced Cliquot and Saint’s Honor on the lead, General Challenge swung around from the outside and stormed past all of them. General Challenge, the 3-5 favorite, reached the wire in 1:48 4/5 in earning $300,000, which puts him about $3,000 short of $2 million. Luftikus finished second, three lengths in front of Saint’s Honor.

General Challenge’s margin was the third-biggest since the Strub was first run in 1948. Gun Bow won by 12 lengths in 1964 and Affirmed was a 10-length winner in 1979.

“What a special horse he is,” Nakatani said. “He’s really strong and this was pretty awesome. At the start, I wanted to hustle him and keep in touch with the field, so the dirt wasn’t hitting him in the face. But it just wasn’t going to happen. So I just let him drop back far enough to where the dirt [still] wasn’t hitting him. He doesn’t like dirt, but at [the 4 1/2-furlong pole] I started getting him gathered up, and he ran right through the [flying] dirt and did everything right.”

The Mabees became the first owners to win the Strub three times. Their first win was with Best Pal, another California-bred gelding, in 1992, and Nakatani rode their Event Of The Year to victory last year. Only two other jockeys had won consecutive Strubs, none since Bill Harmatz with Spinney and Round Table in 1957-58.

“General Challenge finally ran like he can in this one,” John Mabee said.

Chris McCarron, who had ridden General Challenge in his two previous starts, was aboard Luftikus, who made his stakes debut.

“I looked back several times just to see where [General Challenge] was,” McCarron said. “When I looked at the three-eighths pole, he was a lot closer than the last time I looked. I knew then that I was in trouble.”

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Earlier on the Santa Anita card, Archer City Slew, a colt that David and Holly Wilson of Laguna Beach had bought privately in December, rallied in the stretch to beat Joopy Droopy by a neck in the $150,000 San Vicente Stakes, an early prep for the Santa Anita Derby.

Anchor City Slew ran seven furlongs in 1:22 and paid $21.20 in also defeating Malabar Gold, the 13-10 favorite who was fourth, and Baffert’s Gibson County, who was third.

Archer City Slew, whose career began with two wins in seven starts in Northern California, had run his first race for a $50,000 claiming price at Golden Gate Fields. In his previous start for new trainer Vladimir Cerin, Archer City Slew beat only one horse in the San Miguel Stakes on Jan. 8.

Kent Desormeaux, who rode Archer City Slew for the first time, has won six of 17 races aboard Cerin-trained horses at the meet.

“Vladimir wanted me to keep him more contentious,” Desormeaux said, “and he was working to stay contentious. You would have thought that maybe he would be a little lackluster turning for home, but as soon as I really encouraged him, he really stuck his neck out.”

Malabar Gold had been a fast horse with speed-crazy tendencies in his other three races.

“The plan was to take him back,” Nakatani said. “He was fighting it, throwing his head in the air. This colt still has a lot of maturing to do to get to the [Kentucky] Derby road. I think he’s got ability, but he just needs to put it all together.”

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Horse Racing Notes

Stephen Got Even, a Triple Crown bust last year with a 14th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, a fourth in the Preakness and a fifth in the Belmont, fought off Golden Missile through the Gulfstream Park stretch to win the $500,000 Donn Handicap by three-quarters of a length. Behrens, the 12-5 favorite, was third, beaten by 5 1/4 lengths. Stephen Got Even, trained by Nick Zito and ridden by Shane Sellers, was a stakes winner for the first time since the Gallery Furniture at Turfway Park last March. Stephen Got Even ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:48 2/5 and paid $8.60. . . . With Laffit Pincay aboard, Foggy Day--trained by Jose Silva--beat Takarian by a neck to win the $150,000 Turf Paradise Breeders’ Cup Handicap. In another stake at the Phoenix track, Pincay finished third with Hoover Tower as Gilty Moment, ridden by Luis Jauregui for trainer Richard Mandella, won the $100,000 Turf Paradise Derby. . . . Chris McCarron, riding Here’s To You for the first time, scored a two-length win with trainer Pat Gallagher’s filly in the $150,000 Pro Or Con Handicap at Santa Anita. . . . At Bay Meadows, Guinevere beat Royal Terminal by 1 1/4 lengths in the $100,000 Brown Bess Handicap. . . . Budroyale is 8-5 on the morning line and Cat Thief is 9-5 for today’s San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita.