Mullins Fast Out of Gate at Fairplex

In winning with a phenomenal 31% of his starters this year, trainer Jeff Mullins has turned around the careers of several horses, and Exhibit A is King Robyn, a 3-year-old gelding who struggled in Florida last year and had been dropped into the $50,000 claiming ranks shortly before he was sent to Mullins in California.

In lesser company, King Robyn won three of eight starts in Florida and earned less than $60,000. For Mullins, the Florida-bred has won six of nine starts and picked up purses totaling $280,000. Four of King Robyn’s California victories have come in stakes, including Friday’s record-tying run in the $50,000 Foothill at Fairplex Park in Pomona, where the Los Angeles County Fair launched its 17-day mixed-breed stand.

King Robyn, the 3-5 favorite, beat Hell Cat by five lengths, running 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15 3/5. That time tied the record for the Foothill, set by The Morris Monroe in 1999. The race has been run at the current distance since 1985. King Robyn’s clocking, after extraordinary fractions of :21, :43 4/5 and 1:08 4/5, missed the Fairplex track record, set by Bundle Of Iron in 1986, by two-fifths of a second.

King Robyn was ridden by Ryan Fogelsonger, who notched his first stakes victory, and his third victory overall, since arriving in California from Maryland. The 22-year-old Fogelsonger, who has been riding since March 2002, is one away from his 500th career victory.

“This horse just had too much class,” Mullins said. “[Fogelsonger] said that the horse just dragged him [to the front]. He said that anybody could have ridden him.”

Fogelsonger, riding King Robyn for the first time, carried a whip only as a cosmetic accessory.

“We started making a move along the backstretch, and this horse just galloped across this track,” said Fogelsonger, who had never ridden at Fairplex before. “He did that very easy. He wasn’t even blowing when I pulled up. California’s been great so far. It’s beautiful.”

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Congaree, who hasn’t run since winning the Hollywood Gold Cup two months ago, is the odds-on favorite in today’s $350,000 Kentucky Cup Classic Handicap at Turfway Park. Congaree will spot his four rivals between four and 11 pounds. The others are Perfect Drift, back on dirt after running eighth in the Arlington Million; Even The Score, Crafty Shaw and M B Sea.

In Belmont Park races today with Breeders’ Cup implications, Volponi, with five seconds in a row after winning last year’s Classic, switches to grass in the $200,000 Belmont Breeders’ Cup Handicap; Passing Shot and Wild Spirit have a rematch in the $300,000 Ruffian Handicap; During is the 118-pound high weight but a longshot in the $150,000 Jerome Handicap; and Allen Jerkens, who trains Passing Shot, will also try to win the $100,000 Floral Park Handicap with Shine Again and Lilah.

Gary Stevens, returning to Arlington Park for the first time since his spill near the finish of the Arlington Million on Aug. 16, rides Hoh Buzzard, a European filly making her U.S. debut, in today’s $175,000 Pucker Up Stakes.

Stevens, however, told the Woodbine stewards in Toronto that he would be unable to ride the longshot Numerous Times in Sunday’s $1-million Atto Mile, as well as horses in two other stakes on the card. According to the stewards, Stevens was concerned that the plane ride to Canada might aggravate the back injury he suffered at Arlington.

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AB What A Runner, undefeated in six starts and winner of last year’s All American Futurity, faces nine fillies and mares tonight in the $110,000 Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap for quarter horses at Los Alamitos.... Winless Zippy Chippy shoots for his 99th loss in a row Sunday in Northampton, Mass.