Bienamado Is Going for Big Switch

John Toffan was asked which is the easier adjustment for a horse, going from grass to dirt or making the switch from dirt to grass.

“I wish I knew,” Toffan said.

Toffan, his partner Trudy McCaffery and their trainer Paco Gonzalez will find out more about the grass-to-dirt conversion Saturday, when their turf-loving 5-year-old, Bienamado, tackles horse of the year Tiznow and a gang of 10 others in the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap.

Turf champions Round Table and John Henry were versatile enough to win the Big ‘Cap, but neither of those horse-of-the-year winners specialized in grass racing the way Bienamado has. Despite winning three grass titles in the late 1950s, only a fourth of Round Table’s 66 career starts were on turf. John Henry, a four-time grass champion in the early 1980s, was a switch-hitter who had run 25 times on dirt before his first of consecutive Big ‘Cap victories in 1981-82.

By contrast, the 64th Big ‘Cap will be Bienamado’s 13th race and his first on the main track. He has had dozens of workouts on dirt--at Hollywood Park, Del Mar and most recently at Santa Anita--but whether he can transfer his many talents to the main track is something that neither Gonzalez nor his owners can predict.

“All I know is that the horse is doing real good right now, and that means more to me than anything else,” Gonzalez said. He, Toffan and McCaffery have become old hands at running in--and even winning--the Big ‘Cap. Since 1994, they’ve run five times in the 1 1/4-mile race, winning when Free House beat a glittering field that included Silver Charm, Puerto Madero and Event Of The Year in 1999.

The Bienamado team’s other Big ‘Cap appearances include a couple of seconds, with Bagshot in an injury-plagued four-horse field in 1998 and with Bien Bien, after the disqualification of the winner, The Wicked North, in 1994.

Bien Bien, the sire of Bienamado, is a stallion that stands in England after a lackluster three years in Kentucky.

“He was known as a grass sire here, and nobody wanted to send any decent mares to him,” Toffan said. “We think he’s going to do much better in England.”

Bien Bien, who earned $2.3 million in purses, was a grass standout. He won major stakes all the way up to 1 3/4 miles at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita, and finished half a length behind Kotashaan, the eventual horse of the year, in the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Turf. Gonzalez also moved him from grass to dirt to win the Swaps for 3-year-olds at Hollywood Park in 1992.

Later that year, there were some other dirt starts by Bien Bien that still make Gonzalez grimace. At Saratoga, the colt stumbled leaving the gate and ran last in the Travers. A month later, at Louisiana Downs, Bien Bien was injured while running last as the favorite in the Super Derby.

“After the Super Derby,” Gonzalez said, “he needed a [protective] bar shoe for his foot the rest of his career.”

Ironically, Bienamado’s career began in the country where his sire has landed as a stallion. Toffan, McCaffery and their 25% partner in the horse, England’s Robert Sangster, were shooting for the English Derby in 1999, but a virus struck Bienamado early in the year and his trainer over there, Peter Chapple-Hyam, ran out of time.

Since Gonzalez has taken over in the U.S., Bienamado has made few mistakes. After two victories at Hollywood Park last summer, he bounced back from a fourth-place finish in the Arlington Million to win the Hollywood Turf Cup in December and the San Marcos Handicap at Santa Anita in January.

Bienamado was favored in the Arlington Million, but Chester House beat him by almost five lengths. That was the only loss in Bienamado’s last five starts.

“The Arlington Million was a strange race,” Toffan said. “I had a bad feeling because we had missed a workout going into the race. Then we didn’t get a perfect trip and Chester House did.”

The Arlington Park course had absorbed a lot of rain and Gonzalez feels that on grass Bienamado is more comfortable with firm footing. How the horse will handle the mud, if Santa Anita’s track gets more rain, is another of Saturday’s intangibles.

With Santa Anita’s grass course having been punished severely by all the February rain, the Big ‘Cap apparently became more and more of an option for Bienamado’s handlers, although Gonzalez said that Saturday was Toffan’s idea and Toffan said that the suggestion came from Gonzalez. Should Bienamado run big, there will be enough credit to go around.

And if he wins, his grass career will be on hold.

“A win Saturday,” Toffan said, “and we’d have to take a look at races like the Hollywood Gold Cup [on dirt] down the road.”

Alex Solis will be riding Bienamado in a race for the first time. Chris McCarron, who was the regular rider for Bien Bien, has won four of five starts aboard Bienamado, but he has committed to ride Tiznow, the high weight at 122 pounds and the likely favorite. Gonzalez said Gary Stevens was the first choice to replace McCarron, but Stevens, one of only a handful of jockeys to win three or more Big ‘Caps, was tied up with Beat All, another European grass specialist being introduced to dirt.

Solis, who’ll turn 37 on March 25, has been riding in Big ‘Caps since 1986 and won the 1998 running with Malek after Silver Charm was scratched because of a bruised foot. After Solis worked Bienamado last week, he told Gonzalez that he was impressed with the horse’s long stride, which is the kind of foot that’s generally an asset over the main track.

Gonzalez’s best Big ‘Cap training jobs have come with older horses--in particular, 5-year-olds such as Bienamado. Bien Bien was a 5-year-old for the race in 1994. The next year, another Gonzalez 5-year-old, Del Mar Dennis, was fourth, finishing less than two lengths behind Urgent Request. Free House won the Big ‘Cap in his 5-year-old season.

“It’s a tribute to Paco,” Toffan said. “He did a fine job of keeping those horses going, and getting them to the level that he did.”

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The Big ‘Cap

* Race: 64th running of Santa Anita Handicap.

* When: Saturday.

* Where: Santa Anita.

* Distance: 1 1/4 miles on dirt.

* First post: Noon.

* Probable field, with jockeys and weights: Tiznow, Chris McCarron, 122 pounds; Bienamado, Alex Solis, 119; Wooden Phone, Corey Nakatani, 117; Guided Tour, Larry Melancon, 116; Lethal Instrument, Laffit Pincay, 115; Beat All, Gary Stevens, 113; Jorrocks, Garrett Gomez, 113; Irisheyesareflying, Kent Desormeaux, 112; Tribunal, David Flores, 112; Jimmy Z, Victor Espinoza, 111; Moonlight Charger, Tyler Baze, 111; Perssonet, Brice Blanc, 110.

* Fastest time: 1:58 3/5, Affirmed, 1979.

* Biggest winning margin: 6 lengths, Bobby Brocato, 1956.

* Last year’s winner: General Challenge, trained by Bob Baffert, ridden by Corey Nakatani.

* Only double winner: John Henry, 1981 and 1982 (after disqualification of Perrault).

* Biggest $2 win payoff: $118.40, Bay View, 1941.

* Smallest $2 win payoff: $2.30, Round Table, 1958.