‘Bovary Runs Streak to Eight

It took French novelist Gustave Flaubert five years to finish “Madame Bovary” in the mid-1850s. It took Ema Bovary, the Chilean-bred mare named after Flaubert’s star-crossed heroine, 10 months to win seven consecutive races, and another 68 seconds to run the streak to eight, as she coasted to a 3 1/4-length win Sunday at Santa Anita in the $107,300 Las Flores Handicap.

Neither the wet-fast track nor the graded-race credentials of some of Ema Bovary’s five rivals prevented the Golden Gate Fields shipper from winning her first graded race. Ema Bovary, ridden by Roberto Gonzalez, completed six furlongs in 1:08, setting a stakes record for a race that was first run in 1951.

Besides his 10% share of Ema Bovary’s $64,380 cut of the purse, trainer Larry Ross also earned himself a bonus from Rick Beal, the Seattle attorney who owns 90% of the mare in a partnership with Lana Ramsey. When Beal and Ross were in Reno last year, attending a motorcycle show, Beal promised the trainer he’d buy him a cycle after Ema Bovary’s first graded stakes win.

“He’s getting either a motorcycle or a tractor,” Beal said Sunday. “Sharon [Beal, the trainer’s wife] told me today that Larry might prefer the tractor to the cycle.”

Ema Bovary won three of seven starts -- including a 19 1/2-length romp on an off track -- in Chile before Beal and Ramsey bought her for $65,000. The first race she ran for her new owners, at Golden Gate a year ago, resulted in a last-place finish after a panicky start, but Ema Bovary’s been near-perfect ever since. Royally Chosen nosed her out at Santa Anita on New Year’s eve, but the stewards ruled Ema Bovary had been bumped near the wire and reversed the order of finish

“She won this race easier than I thought she would,” Ross said after the Grade III Las Flores. “I thought she’d have a real duel, considering the weight she was carry- ing and the quality of the field.”

Buffythecenterfold, who went off the 6-5 favorite, finished second, one length in front of Coconut Girl. Ema Bovary, carrying high weight of 121 pounds, four more than Buffythecenterfold and between five and eight pounds more than the others, paid $4.80 as the second choice.

“The only problem we had was leaving the gate,” Gonzalez said. “We kind of bumped [Sarasota]. But then I just sat behind the speed. She won easier today than she has before.

“I think she could probably make a Grade I.”

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The start of the seventh race was delayed about 10 minutes while five of the jockeys examined a patch of questionable footing near the half-mile pole....Trainer Wayne Lukas, winless at the meet, missed with his 52nd starter....On a day when fast times were routine, Unfurl The Flag ran seven furlongs Saturday in 1:20, tying the record set by Spectacular Bid in 1980.