Luck Holding Up for Sky Jack

Even if Sunday’s $150,000 Mervyn LeRoy Handicap at Hollywood Park had been restricted to 5-year-olds and older, it would have had a good field.

The 23rd LeRoy drew six horses and five veterans--four 6-year-olds and a 5-year-old--and fastest of all Sunday was the favored Sky Jack, who’s 6 years old and lucky to still be here.

Laffit Pincay, who at 55 rode Sky Jack to his 51/2-length win, had won three previous runnings of the stake, but none since 1989.

No horse older than 6 has won the LeRoy, and the only 6-year-olds before Sunday to do it were Budroyale in 1999 and Marquetry in 1993. Budroyale, only recently retired, was a horse with a bad back, a minor ailment compared to the problems of Sky Jack, who has had surgeries on both knees and twice had stomach operations for colic.

“He’s a horse that requires high maintenance,” trainer Doug O’Neill said. “I’m fortunate that the owners [Rene and Margie Lambert, who have a farm near Temecula] are as patient as I am. They’ve always given him whatever time it takes to recover.”

Sky Jack’s dicey days came after he won the Native Diver Handicap at Hollywood Park in December 2000. The gray California-bred son of Jaklin Klugman and Sky Captive underwent his second knee surgery, and a few months after that, in July, almost died from colic. His weight dropped 200 pounds.

“He looked like a gray dog that hadn’t eaten in weeks,” O’Neill said.

Fourteen months after the Native Diver, Sky Jack was back, running second in an allowance race at Santa Anita, and O’Neill concedes that he ran him too soon after that as he finished last in the Santa Anita Handicap.

Pincay got Sky Jack rolling right out of the gate Sunday and after brushing off two rivals at the top of the stretch, the only question was the margin. With Bosque Redondo running second, two lengths ahead of Devine Wind, Sky Jack hit the wire in 1:411/5 for 11/16 miles and paid $5 to win.

He has seven wins, two seconds and two thirds in 13 starts, with Sunday’s pot of $90,000 sending his earnings past the $475,000 mark. The $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on July 14 is in O’Neill’s sights.

“Last year, when he got hurt, I thought I had the best horse in the country,” Pincay said. “After [the Santa Anita Handicap], I was wondering if he was ever going to get back to where he had been. [O’Neill] took his time with him, which was really good. Today, every time I touched him with the whip, he responded. He just loves this track [four wins in as many starts], and I’m looking forward to the Gold Cup.”

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With no commitment from trainer Neil Drysdale, it’s beginning to look as though Sunday Break will not run in Saturday’s Preakness. Sunday Break, who missed the oversubscribed Kentucky Derby because he was short on graded stakes earnings, would be the third or fourth choice, after Derby winner War Emblem and Medaglia d’Oro, if he ran. Drysdale might be thinking Peter Pan and Belmont Stakes for Sunday Break, the same two races that his A.P. Indy won in 1992....

If Sunday Break doesn’t run in the Preakness, Gary Stevens could ride Straight Gin for trainer Nick Zito. Chris McCarron has landed the mount on Zito’s other horse, Crimson Hero.... Victor Espinoza, who rode War Emblem in the Derby, won two races at Hollywood Park Sunday, the day after he was aboard Drysdale’s Flying Dash, a 11/2-length winner in the $250,000 Hawthorne Derby on grass.... Van Rouge, trained by John Shirreffs for Jerry and Ann Moss, shipped in from Santa Anita for a convincing win in the $100,000 Ascot Handicap at Bay Meadows. Ridden by Jason Lumpkins for the first time, the gray colt took six races to break his maiden and was running in stakes company for the first time since that first win April 19. Van Rouge paid $6.80. Doc Holiday finished second and Hecandigit was third.