Respite May Fuel Santa Anita

The first sign that less might be more on the Southern California racing calendar is the list of probable horses for Wednesday’s opening-day Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita. If 11 horses run, it will be the biggest field for the race since 1992, and one of the largest for a stake that was first run in 1952.

The traditional day-after-Christmas start for the Santa Anita meet is set for eight days after closing day at Hollywood Park, which qualifies as a virtual sabbatical in the scheme of things. Although the California Horse Racing Board talks frequently about downsizing the year-round racing calendar to give the bettors some relief and to reduce the impact of a national horse shortage, this furlough from furlongs has been unheard of since 1980, when there was no fall season at Hollywood Park.

Santa Anita’s racing department is enthusiastic about how an eight-day respite might jump-start the 85-day meet in Arcadia.

“The break should help tremendously,” said Rick Hammerle, an assistant racing secretary. “The horses will all be fresh.”

Entries won’t be taken for the $200,000 Malibu and the other opening-day races until Sunday, but trainers Wayne Lukas and Ron McAnally, who have won the sprint before, are expected to run, and Bobby Frankel is also expected to have a starter.

The Lukas stable, virtually nonexistent in California after winning 10 races last winter at Santa Anita, has Yonaguska and Scorpion lined up to run in the 50th edition of the Malibu. McAnally’s hope will be Early Flyer, who will try to give his breeder and owner, Verne Winchell, his first Malibu win since Olympio in 1991.

Frankel, who has never won the Malibu, has won a country-leading 48 stakes this year and will try to nail down an 18th Grade I victory with Mizzen Mast, who’ll be making his dirt debut. Frankel also plans to run Marine and Blue Steller, the Bay Meadows Derby winner, in the Sir Beaufort, a supporting stake on Wednesday’s card.

Other Malibu probables are Brainy, Discreet Hero, Giant Gentlemen, Griffinite, I Love Silver, Mo Mon, San Nicolas and Until Sundown.

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Frank Stronach, whose Magna Entertainment Corp. owns Santa Anita, was quoted Friday by Blood-Horse magazine as saying that the Racing Network would be revived to facilitate race telecasts for phone bettors in California, but Jim McAlpine, president of Magna Entertainment, said that’s not the case.

“What we’re trying to do is telecast the races, through satellite and cable, but that’s not quite the same as bringing back [TRN],” McAlpine said in a phone interview.Although it would appear that the newly legalized account wagering--as phone betting in California is called--won’t be available to bettors until near the end of the Santa Anita meeting, in March and April, McAlpine is hopeful of introducing the system before that.

“The racing board’s regulations still have to be approved, and license applications have to be reviewed,” McAlpine said, “but I still think it’s possible to get this whole thing off the ground by late January or early February.”

In a $53-million deal--50% of it in cash--Magna bought an interest in the Racing Network in December of 2000 and became partners with Ladbroke Racing and Greenwood Racing, which owns Philadelphia Park. The network, using a bare-bones format that focused on the hard-core horseplayer, carried about 2,500 races a week, but subscribers were required to buy satellite dishes, and business never grew substantially. When the network folded in July, it had about 10,000 customers and was far short of the break-even mark.

Besides the Racing Network, Stronach’s 2000 deal also gave Magna ownership of Pennsylvania-based Call-A-Bet, which was Ladbroke’s account-wagering system. Call-A-Bet has survived, but because Magna doesn’t have agreements with other racing companies, among them Churchill Downs and the New York Racing Assn., customers can’t rely on the service to make bets on all tracks from all areas. McAlpine said that when Magna gets licensed to take bets in California, its customers will be able to place wagers via Call-A-Bet, telephone and the Internet.

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Slewpy, the son of Seattle Slew who sired 26 stakes winners, including Thirty Slews, a Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner, died Wednesday at Flag Is Up Farms near Solvang, Calif. He was 21.

Also dead, at 27, is Waya, who won the Eclipse Award for best older filly or mare in 1979. The French-bred mare, who won on both grass and dirt, raced mainly on the East Coast after leaving France in 1978, but she started three times at Santa Anita in the winter of 1979, winning the Santa Barbara Handicap.

Tranquility Lake, another mare that won on both surfaces, has been retired and will be bred next year to Storm Cat. Tranquility Lake, a yearling purchase for $250,000 in 1996, raced for Marty and Pam Wygod and trainer Julio Canani, winning 11 of 27 starts and earning $1.6 million.