Mizzen Mast Now Has Strub Series Bookends

Historically it’s tougher to win only the first and third legs of Santa Anita’s Strub series than it is to sweep the races or only win the last two. That’s because the Malibu, which kicks off the series, is a seven-furlong sprint and the San Fernando and the Strub Stakes are around two turns.

Before Saturday, five horses--the last Precisionist in 1985--had swept the series and 11 had won the San Fernando and the Strub, but only two had pulled off a Malibu-Strub double. Now there are three, Mizzen Mast having added to his Malibu victory with a cracking four-length victory in the Strub in a time of 1:471/5, the fastest clocking since the race was shortened to 11/8 miles in 1998.

Before the Malibu, Mizzen Mast was known as a French import that only ran on grass. But Frankel, capping a signature year in which he won 49 stakes, switched him to dirt, and it’s on the main track where the 4-year-old gray colt will stay until further notice. Next up is the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap on March 2.

For Frankel, there were no prophetic incantations that led him to trying Mizzen Mast on dirt.

“I just got lucky, that’s all,” the Hall of Fame trainer said after saddling his first Strub winner. “I’ve got a lot of grass horses in the barn and I took a shot with this horse in the Malibu. Once in a while it works out. You never know until you try.”

Other than the five Strub sweepers, the only other horses to combine the Malibu with the Strub were Diazo, who won both races in 1993-94, and Determine, the 1954 Kentucky Derby winner, who won the pair in 1955.

Frankel, who also won Saturday’s $142,000 Turf Paradise Handicap with Auction House, another Juddmonte Farms runner, partly hung Mizzen Mast’s Strub victory on the fact that the horse had skipped the San Fernando.

“That race was run only three weeks ago and it was hard on those horses,” Frankel said. “They ran the first three-quarters of a mile in something like 1:08 and it took a lot out of them. Where were the horses that ran 1-2 that day?”

They were Western Pride and Orientate, who were pace factors in the Strub before fading to seventh and sixth, respectively. Momentum, another horse that came out of the San Fernando, was pulled up well before the wire and had to be vanned off the track. The best finish for a San Fernando horse belonged to Fancy As, who was third in both races. His trainer, Bob Baffert, said that Fancy As will test Mizzen Mast again in the Big ‘Cap.

Giant Gentleman, sent off at 10-1 after running second in the Malibu, was second again Saturday, 41/2 lengths ahead of Fancy As. Favored Mizzen Mast paid $5.60.

The 55th edition of the Strub, worth $400,000, added $240,000 to Juddmonte’s coffers and gave jockey Kent Desormeaux his second victory in the stake and the first since he clicked with Best Pal 10 years ago. Desormeaux placed Mizzen Mast within striking distance, never more than five lengths from the lead, and they swept past the leaders at the top of the stretch.

“Once we turned for home, it was just a matter of letting him go,” Desormeaux said.

Came Home, running for the first time since a seventh-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile more than three months ago, made a late run to win the $150,000 San Vicente Stakes for his fourth victory in five tries. Jack’s Silver was second, beaten by four lengths. Came Home paid $3.40 after running seven furlongs in 1:214/5 and is expected to face Jack’s Silver in the San Rafael on March 2.

Ta Ta Be True, winner of the Pro Or Con Handicap, was vanned off the track after the race.

“[Jockey Pat Valenzuela] said he didn’t know whether she was tired or not,” trainer Jack Van Berg said. “He just didn’t want to take a chance.”

At Gulfstream Park, in a prep for the Florida Derby, Showmeitall, a gelding, won the $150,000 Hutcheson by a nose over Monthir, with favored Maybry’s Boy fourth. The time over a track listed as good was 1:26 for seven furlongs.