Wooden Phone Has Answer for Tiznow

At Gulfstream Park, trainer Bob Baffert had already pocketed a $500,000 race with Captain Steve, and now he was in the directors’ room, watching on television as his Wooden Phone took on the reigning horse of the year, Tiznow, in the $500,000 Strub Stakes from Santa Anita.

Baffert won that one too, Wooden Phone cruising home by two lengths Saturday in one of the biggest upsets in the Strub’s 54-year history. Tiznow’s second-place finish, after he was sent off the 3-10 favorite, ended his four-race winning streak and came only four days after he had been honored as the national champion.

The cheers from South Florida for Wooden Phone, a 7-1 shot, may have carried all the way to Arcadia. “We were due for a day like this,” Baffert said on the phone. “Tell them Godzilla is back.”

Captain Steve’s win, by 1 1/4 lengths over Albert The Great, came in the Donn Handicap. The bicoastal double was worth $600,000 in purses--$300,000 a race--for Baffert’s owners. Baffert will continue to race his 4-year-olds apart, sending Captain Steve to the United Arab Emirates for the $6-million Dubai World Cup on March 25 and leaving Wooden Phone in California for the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap on March 3.

Baffert became only the fourth trainer to win the Strub three times, joining hall of famers Bill Molter, Charlie Whittingham and Laz Barrera with that distinction. Baffert has put together his Strub triumvirate in only four years, winning the stake in 1998 with Silver Charm and last year with General Challenge.

Wooden Phone’s $16.40 upset was also jockey Corey Nakatani’s unprecedented third consecutive win in the Strub. Besides General Challenge, Nakatani also won in 1999 with Event Of The Year; his first Strub win, with Siberian Summer, was another big upset in 1993. Before Nakatani, the only jockeys to even win two consecutive Strubs were Eddie Arcaro in 1952-53 and Bill Harmatz in 1957-58.

Chris McCarron, who won four races Saturday, including the other two stakes on the Santa Anita card, couldn’t bring Tiznow from behind in the stretch. Tiznow was the first odds-on Strub favorite to lose since Bertrando, who finished second to Siberian Summer.

“That’s why they run these races,” McCarron said. “I honestly have no excuses. There’s nothing I could put my finger on. He just ran kind of lackluster.”

Tiznow, winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, made his 2001 debut with a win in the San Fernando Stakes three weeks ago. Wooden Phone finished third in the San Fernando, beaten by two lengths.

“At the three-eighths pole that day, he acted like he wasn’t going to fire, but he did,” said Jay Robbins, who trains Tiznow. “Today he just kind of galloped. He never punched it in. He didn’t fire.”

Wooden Phone, a gelding who was bought in the summer of 1999 by Baffert on behalf of Texans Jim and Marilyn Helzer and their neighbor, Tom Durant, had run five times but never appeared in a stake until he hung up a pair of thirds in the Malibu on Dec. 26 and in the San Fernando. The Helzers, who race both thoroughbreds and quarter horses, won a couple of quarter horse world championships with Refrigerator in the early 1990s.

Jim Helzer put together the deal to buy Wooden Phone the day after Baffert had saddled his Joe Who to win the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar. Baffert said they paid “something like $300,000 or $400,000” for Wooden Phone, who had just broken his maiden at Calder Race Course in Florida.

“It was a tough sell, because he was a gelding,” Baffert said. “It’s tough to tell a guy that he’s going to get out [turn a profit] when he’s buying a gelding. I didn’t win an Eclipse award [for training] last year, but these two wins mean more than one Eclipse award, because the owners of both horses are such great people. It’s more exciting winning a Strub knowing that you beat a horse of the year to do it, but I can feel for Jay Robbins. I’ve been there. I’ve lost some of these big races with big horses the same way he has.”

Captain Steve, ridden by Jerry Bailey, races for Mike Pegram, whose Baffert-trained Real Quiet won the first two legs of the Triple Crown--the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness--in 1998.

“We’ve got six million reasons to go to Dubai,” Pegram said from Florida. “If we can get our visas, that’s where we’re going to be.”

Before Captain Steve’s win Saturday, as the 7-5 favorite, Baffert had lost nine consecutive races at Gulfstream--eight in the 1999 Breeders’ Cup and Silver Charm’s third-place finish in the 1999 Donn.

Wooden Phone, who carried 117 pounds, six less than Tiznow, ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:48 2/5. Nakatani’s horse was on top early, dropped back for a few strides after half a mile, but regained the lead down the backstretch. Tiznow, who raced on the outside after breaking alertly from the outside post, was in third place most of the way. At the top of the stretch, he moved into second place, but was 2 1/2 lengths behind Wooden Phone and unable to chip into the lead.

“I’ve always liked this horse and he ran awesome today,” Nakatani said. “We wanted to dictate the pace and see where we were at. It might not have been Tiznow’s best day, but last time my horse didn’t have his best day.”

Jimmy Z finished third, beaten by 5 1/2 lengths. Tribunal, also trained by Baffert, was fourth, ahead of the other starters, Nurdlinger and Capo Di Capo, who kept Wooden Phone company up front until the far turn.

Jim Helzer, who won the All American Futurity and three Champion of Champions with Refrigerator, has been racing thoroughbreds for five years.

“It doesn’t get any better,” he said. “To outrun the horse of the year is a tremendous accomplishment.”

Baffert had called Helzer in Arlington, Texas, a couple of days before the race.

“The good news,” he said, “is that our horse is doing great. The bad news is that Tiznow is too.”

But by Saturday the good news was still with Wooden Phone, and there wasn’t any bad.