For Openers, It’s Quite a Day at Del Mar

This might not have been the craziest thing to happen on another rollicking opening day at Del Mar, but surely it was close: Julie Krone, at 4 feet 10 and 105 pounds, climbed on the shoulders of wrestler Goldberg, who’s the equivalent of almost three jockeys at 6-4 and about 300 pounds.

Krone doesn’t turn 40 until today, but already there was cause to go festive on Wednesday: She rode Devious Boy, at 9-1, to a half-length victory in a division of the Oceanside Stakes. After Krone dismounted in the winner’s circle, there was Goldberg, presenting the trophy, so what else was the elfin jockey to do? She climbed aboard the next biggest thing to Devious Boy.

Like Goldberg, Joe Harper, the president of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, was feeling pretty tall himself. The crowd for the 64th opener was 40,682, second largest in Del Mar history. The record turnout is 44,181, the mob that watched Cigar’s 16-race winning streak end against Dare And Go in the 1996 Pacific Classic. Before Wednesday, the largest opening-day attendance was last year’s 37,439.

Don Krone, the jockey’s father, had driven all the way from Michigan to be with his daughter on her birthday, and her victory aboard Devious Boy made it even more special. The 3-year-old British-bred gelding, trained by Kathy Walsh and owned by James Vreeland, gave Krone her first California stakes victory since a painful tumble at Santa Anita on March 8. Krone broke two bones in her lower back and suffered fractures to two vertebrae. She returned at Hollywood Park on July 10 and racked up six wins there before the end of the meet. Last Saturday, she won two stakes at Canterbury Downs in Minnesota.

Krone, who came out of a 3 1/2-year retirement in the fall of 2002, became the first woman to win a stakes race at Del Mar. Voted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2000, she had never ridden at Del Mar before Wednesday, and Walsh had never saddled a stakes winner at the track.

“This win was really special for me,” Krone said. “When I was pulling up [Devious Boy] afterward, I started to tear up. There have only been a few times in racing when I’ve ever done that. But today was one of them. I have been injured and have had to work so hard to come back. It is so gratifying to have this happen -- and have it happen at Del Mar. Today is a special day, and it feels so good to be back.”

Devious Boy, a son of the Sid and Jenny Craig-owned colt Dr Devious, who won the English Derby in 1992, was also making his debut at Del Mar. He had won three of 10 starts in England.

“Kathy is very thorough,” Krone said. “She watched videos of this horse in Europe and got a good feel for what he could do. The horse just put me in the race. Going around the first turn, my reins were just dangling, and I was going easy. The others were working and I was resting. He’s a scrappy little horse, and that’s what I needed down the lane.”

Holding off Fairly Ransom, the 3-2 favorite, Devious Boy prevented trainer Ron McAnally from sweeping the Oceanside. In the opening half, McAnally saddled Sweet Return, who beat Singletary, the 9-10 favorite, by one length. Sweet Return’s 1:33 4/5 clocking for the mile on turf broke the stakes record of 1:34 set by Rock Opera last year. Sweet Return, ridden by Corey Nakatani for owner John Brunetti, paid $12 on a day filled with juicy longshots.

Devious Boy’s time was 1:34 3/5. Stanley Park, ridden by Mike Smith, finished third, beaten by one length, and gave Walsh some concern. “The other horse was coming on the inside,” she said, “but I knew this horse had a lot left in him.”

Walsh said that the Del Mar Derby on Sept. 6 might be Devious Boy’s next start.

“It was a good trip for me, and a good try,” Smith said of Stanley Park, winner of his last two as he tried stakes company for the first time. “He wants to go farther. He kicked [for home], but so did the others.”

Sweet Return, like Devious Boy, was bred in Great Britain. With some bad racing luck, he was winless in four U.S. races for McAnally after winning one of five starts in England.

Brunetti, the owner of the Hialeah track in Florida, said an unsuccessful deal to buy a horse from the Aga Khan opened up the opportunity to purchase Sweet Return.

“It wasn’t the price so much as the idea that the other horse was a 3-year-old,” Brunetti said. “This horse was a 2-year-old when we bought him, so that gives us an extra year to be running him.”