Lonesome Dude Wins Steinlen

Trainer Vladimir Cerin jokingly said that he is tempted to turn on the track sprinklers every time he runs Lonesome Dude.

There was no need for such chicanery Sunday at Hollywood Park. An overnight rain left the grass course slightly damp, the way Lonesome Dude likes it, and Cerin’s 6-year-old made a late run to win the $73,500 Steinlen Handicap by three-quarters of a length.

Ridden by Brice Blanc, Lonesome Dude won for only the second time in seven starts since the British-based horse arrived at Cerin’s barn in the fall of 1999. When Lonesome Dude got off the plane that landed in California, he was all cut up from an eventful trip.

“You don’t have enough paper to write down what’s happened to this horse,” Cerin said. “Besides all the cuts, he’s had quarter cracks, he hurt himself in his stall, he ripped his hoof on the stall door. It’s been one thing after another. For a while we never thought we’d be able to race him.”

Lonesome Dude didn’t make his first start for Cerin until about a year after his arrival at Santa Anita. In his fifth try, he won a minor stake at Del Mar in September, but then didn’t beat a horse in the Oak Tree Mile at Santa Anita on Oct. 7.

“I don’t like to make excuses, but the Santa Anita turf course was as hard as concrete,” Cerin said. “Softer going is what this horse prefers.”

Fighting Falcon, the 2-1 favorite in the Steinlen, finished seventh in his first start for trainer Simon Bray. Kudos ran second, 11/2 lengths ahead of Agol Lack and Purely Cozzene, who led until about a sixteenth of a mile to go, was fourth. Lonesome Dude, the sixth choice in the eight-horse field, ran 11/16 miles in 1:40 3/5 and paid $18.20.

In the Oak Tree race, Val Royal beat Lonesome Dude by 15 lengths, three weeks before his win in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

“Sure, there were no Val Royals in here,” Blanc said Sunday, “but he didn’t run his race last time. He got very aggressive with me, and I also think the firm ground bothered him. The softer going definitely helped him.”

*

Ethel Jacobs, who raced three Hall of Fame horses--Stymie, Affectionately and Searching--died Friday in a hospital in Miami Beach, Fla. She was 91 and had been ill with pneumonia. Jacobs won the 1970 Preakness with Personality and the Belmont Stakes the same year with High Echelon, but her best horse was Stymie, who was claimed by her late husband, Hall of Fame trainer Hirsch Jacobs, for $1,500. Stymie won 25 stakes and upon his retirement, in 1949, he was racing’s leading money-winner with $918,485. Ethel Jacobs’ daughter, Patrice, married Louis Wolfson and together they bred and raced Affirmed, the 1978 Triple Crown champion.

*

Sheik Mohammed of Dubai bought a weanling full sister to Tiznow and Budroyale for $950,000 at a Keeneland auction Saturday. The filly’s dam, Cee’s Song, was sold for $2.6 million Tuesday....

Eddie Delahoussaye, whose mount Martel was disqualified in Wednesday’s fifth race, was suspended by the stewards for three days, starting Wednesday....The pick-six carryover for Wednesday is $128,253....

Kashnikow, won the $150,000 River City Handicap at Churchill Downs, beating the 9-10 favorite Tijiyr by 11/2 lengths and running 11/8 miles on grass in stakes-record time of 1:47 4/5.