They Are Back Where It Started

Next Tuesday night, their owners will be in New Orleans, accepting Eclipse Awards for last year’s deeds, but this weekend, Surfside and Kona Gold return to the track where their championship 2000 campaigns began.

Surfside, expected winner of the Eclipse for best 3-year-old filly, races nine other fillies and mares today in the $200,000 Santa Monica Handicap at Santa Anita. Kona Gold, who bagged all 221 votes in the Eclipse balloting for best sprinter, will be in familiar company Sunday in the $200,000 Palos Verdes Handicap, which has drawn seven horses.

Today’s distance, seven furlongs, might not be perfect for Surfside, but the track is. The Overbrook-bred daughter of Seattle Slew and Flanders began her 3-year-old season with a victory at Santa Anita, then added two more stakes wins before a plan to run in the Kentucky Derby ended with a fifth-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby and an ankle injury that sidelined her until late in the year.

She returned last October, running second in a tightener at Keeneland, then settled for second, behind stablemate Spain, in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs. Three weeks later, trainer Wayne Lukas tackled males in the Clark Handicap at Churchill, where Surfside ended her season with a four-length victory. For the year, she had four wins, two seconds and a fifth in seven starts; overall, she has won eight of 13 and earned $1.8 million.

Bruce Headley, who trains Kona Gold, is running a potential spoiler in Kalookan Queen in the Santa Monica. Idle since April and winless since October of 1999, Kalookan Queen has solid credentials. The 5-year-old mare, strictly a sprinter, has four wins, five seconds and two thirds in 11 starts. Last year, Kalookan Queen couldn’t hold off Honest Lady and finished second in the Santa Monica.

It wouldn’t be a Palos Verdes without Kona Gold and Big Jag, who have battled each other to the wire in the last two runnings. Big Jag, with a five-pound edge in the weights, beat Headley’s gelding by a head in the 1999 edition, but at even weights Kona Gold was a two-length winner last year. On Sunday, Kona Gold will carry 126 pounds, six more than Big Jag. A Palos Verdes winner hasn’t carried more than 125 pounds since Laffit Pincay won with Ancient Title, carrying 126, in 1974.

The leading rider at Santa Anita this meet, Pincay has won the Palos Verdes six times. On Sunday he’ll be aboard Men’s Exclusive, who’ll carry 116 pounds and break from the inside. Outside them, in order, are Kona Gold, Alex Solis riding, 126 pounds; National Saint, David Flores, 115; Freespool, Chris McCarron, 116; Blade Prospector, Omar Berrio, 112; Big Jag, Kent Desormeaux, 120, and Full Moon Madness, Gary Stevens, 118.

Freespool, winner of the El Conejo Handicap on Dec. 31, was third in last year’s Palos Verdes, five lengths behind Kona Gold.