Two More Victories for Pincay

As the Santa Anita season inched past the midway point Monday, Laffit Pincay showed no letup in his bid to win a riding title at the Arcadia track for the first time since 1989.

Pincay, 54, rode two more winners, including a well-timed, come-from-behind effort with Rare Charmer, a 12-1 shot that beat another longshot, Elegant Ridge, by a half-length in the $150,000 Buena Vista Handicap.

The race after the Buena Vista, Pincay replaced an injured Corey Nakatani (sore toe) and won with Real Special, a $32,000 claimer that had won two of 12 starts. Through 42 days of the 83-day meet, Pincay has racked up 43 wins, 10 more than Victor Espinoza, who’s second in the standings. All last season, Pincay won 59 races.

Wins aboard cheap horses such as Real Special are nice, but it’s wins such as Rare Charmer’s that will secure Pincay’s listing on the national money list. Through last Friday, he ranked sixth with $1.2 million in purses.

“Laffit shows up and shows these younger riders what it’s all about,” said Craig Dollase, who trains Rare Charmer for owner-breeder Nick Cafarchia. “It’s amazing how he comes out here day after day and does what he does.”

Pincay came in only one pound overweight for Rare Charmer’s 114-pound assignment. In the 6-year-old mare’s last race, also at a mile on grass, they had contested the lead before fading to seventh, but Monday the strategy was different. After a half-mile, Rare Charmer was sixth, but only about four lengths off the lead.

“She didn’t run well last time,” Dollase said. “She got real keyed up, so this time we schooled her [in the paddock] a few more times and got her to relax. She settled really nice in the race and when Laffit asked her, she came on running.”

On a rainy day, Rare Charmer, the only California-bred in the 11-horse field, reached the wire in 1:36 3/5 over a firm but soggy track.

“She loves the course here, but a little softness in the ground might have helped her too,” Dollase said.

Rare Charmer has now raced seven times on grass at Santa Anita, where five of her seven victories have come. Monday’s win was worth $90,000.

Elegant Ridge, last after the opening quarter-mile, outfinished Uncharted Haven by three-quarters of a length for second place. Uncharted Haven, winner of the San Gorgonio Handicap, was coupled with Dancingonice and went off the 9-10 favorite.

“This race was a little too short for her,” said Alex Solis, who rode Uncharted Haven.

Cafarchia, an Italian-born baker who lives in Pasadena, has five horses with Dollase, who picked him up as a client about eight months ago. Rare Charmer, trained by Oscar Garcia until midway through last year, is a daughter of Slewpy, who also sired Road To Slew, saddled by Dollase to win the California Cup Mile in October. Road To Slew is expected to make his 2001 debut in the $400,000 Frank E. Kilroe Mile on March 3. Rare Charmer’s next start will be in the $150,000 Santa Ana Handicap, at 1 1/8 miles, on March 18.

*

Notes

Martin Pedroza, injured in a spill Friday, is still sore and sat out his third consecutive day of riding. He’s named to ride four horses on Wednesday’s card. . . . Aswhatilldois, paying $13.40, won the $100,000 California Oaks by nine lengths to give jockey Adalberto Lopez his 2,000th victory.