Snow Ridge Absolutely Dazzles

When trainer Wayne Lukas blew out Snow Ridge through the stretch one morning last week at Santa Anita, several rival horsemen were impressed by the 4-year-old’s speed.

“That’s a First Down Dash colt,” Lukas said, tongue in cheek. “I’m getting him ready to run him [against quarter horses] at Los Alamitos.”

No one chuckled, Lukas said. He had convinced them that Snow Ridge indeed was a quarter horse, headed for the barn of Lukas’ wife, Laura, who trains a string for the family at the Orange County track.

The trainers of the six other horses in Sunday’s $150,000 Palos Verdes Handicap would have been better off if Snow Ridge had gone to Los Alamitos. On a track left sloppy--or wet-fast--by a steady afternoon of rain, Lukas’ colt won the six-furlong stake in 1:073/5, fastest time for the race since Concept Win’s identical clocking in 1994 and two-fifths of a second off the track record of 1:071/5 set by Sunny Blossom in the 1989 Palos Verdes.

On The Line, who gave Lukas his second--and most recent--Palos Verdes win in 1988, also ran a blazing 1:073/5.

“Snow Ridge is as fast as any of the fast ones I’ve had,” Lukas said. “He can go out there in 20 [seconds] and change and still keep going. I entered him in the [Breeders’ Cup Sprint], you know, but he didn’t have a good enough record to get in.”

The winner of the Breeders’ Cup race, run Oct. 27 at Belmont Park, was Squirtle Squirt, who ran Sunday for the first time since then and finished second, beaten by four lengths, as the 4-5 favorite. It was the first time Squirtle Squirt had run on an off track.

“He ran a good race,” jockey Jerry Bailey said. “When it’s not a horse’s favorite [surface], they might work a little harder getting across the ground. These probably weren’t the ideal conditions for his first race back.”

David Lanzman, who owns Squirtle Squirt, said the colt will run next in either the $150,000 San Carlos Stakes on March 3 at Santa Anita or the $2-million Dubai Golden Shaheen on March 23.

“We’re not going to win them all, and I’d just as soon win the next one,” Lanzman said. “I can swallow getting beat today, coming off a layoff, to a horse that ran this fast. I’m not a believer that going to Dubai knocks out a horse for the rest of the year.”

Ridden by Mike Smith, Snow Ridge led from the start, reeling off fractions of :21, :431/5 and :551/5. The son of Tabasco Cat, Lukas’ 1994 Preakness-Belmont winner, Snow Ridge paid $19 as the fourth choice, after winning the El Conejo Handicap at 18-1 on Jan. 1. The Palos Verdes was the eighth win in 17 starts for the colt that William T. Young’s Overbrook Farm bought for $420,000 at a 1999 yearling auction.

Ceeband finished third, a half-length behind Squirtle Squirt and one length in front of Men’s Exclusive, the 9-year-old trying to repeat as the Palos Verdes winner.

“The track was firm underneath, so maybe the time wasn’t realistic,” Lukas said. “I had no idea how he’d like the mud. He and Mike make good chemistry together.”

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Lido Palace, winner of last year’s Whitney Handicap and Woodward, is a possible for next Sunday’s $250,000 San Antonio Handicap. Bobby Frankel, who trains Lido Palace, had hoped to run the horse in the $500,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 9, but ran into shipping difficulties.... On Saturday, a field of eight, including San Fernando winner Western Pride, is probable for the $400,000 Strub.