Success Comes as Soon as A.P.

Bob and Beverly Lewis use multiple trainers for their expansive racing stable, but they didn’t get around to hiring the veteran Wally Dollase until a year ago. Even now, Dollase has only two horses for the Lewises, but one of them -- the 3-year-old filly A.P. Adventure -- could be a corker.

Running for only the second time, A.P. Adventure made the leap from a maiden winner to a stakes victor when she put away five rivals for a 3 1/2-length win in Sunday’s $106,800 Santa Ysabel at Santa Anita. “This filly has so much untapped class and ability,” said Alex Solis, who rode the daughter of A.P. Indy for the first time.

Because of A.P. Adventure’s greenness, it was not an easy trip for her and Solis, who with 15 wins is the leading rider through the first nine days of the meet. The 9-10 favorite broke slowly and was squeezed by horses on both sides leaving the gate. She was last after the opening quarter of a mile, and at the top of the stretch A.P. Adventure was parked on the outside and still had Salty Romance and Wildwood Flower to beat.

With an eighth of a mile left, A.P. Adventure had four lengths to make up. “I was really worried,” Dollase said. “But then Alex hit her with the whip a couple of times and she took off. She was like a bolt of lightning.”

A.P. Adventure finished off 1 1/16 miles in 1:44 1/5, paying $3.80 for $2. Salty Romance, a stakes winner at Delta Downs on Dec. 5, finished a half-length ahead of Wildwood Flower, a Golden Gate Fields shipper who was undefeated in three starts. A notable absentee from the San Ysabel was Halfbridled, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner. Halfbridled is expected to run on Feb. 15 in the Las Virgenes Stakes, also the next likely spot for A.P. Adventure.

With Mike Smith aboard, Salty Romance carried 120 pounds, five less than A.P. Adventure.

Dollase struck up a relationship with the Lewises a year ago when his wife, Cincy Dollase, visited the couple in their box seat at Santa Anita and asked if they might give her husband some business. About a month later, Dollase found himself at a Florida auction of unraced 2-year-olds, hoping to buy A.P. Adventure for the Lewises. Bob Lewis was monitoring the sale by phone from California.

Dollase made a bid of $350,000, which he thought was Lewis’ ceiling. But when the bidding continued, Lewis asked, “Who are we up against?” Lewis didn’t want to go head-to-head with powerful, deep-pocketed Coolmore Stud, which was represented at the sale.

Told that the other bidder was trainer John Kimmel, Lewis said to Dollase: “Keep going.” A couple of bids more, and A.P. Adventure belonged to the Lewises, for $425,000.

Dollase said that Kimmel congratulated him and said: “You just bought the best horse at the sale.”

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Julie Krone, recovering from injuries suffered in a spill at Hollywood Park on Dec. 12, hopes to resume riding by the end of the month. ... One of Saturday’s two winning pick-six tickets was sold at a Las Vegas casino. The ticket cost $250. Each winning ticket was worth $760,861.80. ... Jerry Bailey, who led the country in purses last year with a record $23.3 million, will be at Santa Anita on Sunshine Millions day on Jan. 24, to ride Peace Rules in the Classic, Betty’s Wish in the Filly & Mare Turf and Wynn Dot Comma in the Dash.