Rhythm Mad Strikes Just the Right Beat

Trainer Bruce Headley couldn’t resist needling Frank Stronach, a onetime client and the owner of Santa Anita, after saddling Rhythm Mad to win the 1 1/2-mile Jim Murray Memorial Handicap at Hollywood Park on Saturday.

“Mr. Stronach said that I couldn’t train anything but sprinters,” Headley said. “Does this break that myth?”

Rhythm Mad, a French import who finished second to Meteor Storm after a troubled trip in the San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita last month, overtook Continental Red in mid-stretch to win the $350,000 race by a neck under Alex Solis. Gassan Royal was third after an eventful trip, half a length behind Continental Red.

Ballingarry, the high weight at 119 pounds -- three more than Rhythm Mad -- finished fourth, interesting because Emmanuel de Seroux, the bloodstock agent who arranged the purchase of Rhythm Mad, is married to Laura de Seroux, who trains Ballingarry.

“Laura’s cool with that,” said Emmanuel de Seroux, who was in the winner’s circle with Headley and Jess Stonestreet Jackson Jr., who bought Rhythm Mad after the 4-year-old had won three of six starts in France.

Favored Rhythm Mad, who had had a win, a second and a fourth in three U.S. starts, paid $5.40, turning in a time of 2:26 3/5 in the turf race named after The Times’ late Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist. Solis won the stake for the first time.

“It might sound crazy,” Solis said, “but I felt he was a little dull today. He wasn’t 100%, and he’s capable of doing more. That last race [the 1 3/4-mile San Juan] probably knocked him out a lot more than we thought.”

Headley expected to win on Saturday.

“He got trapped in the San Juan,” the trainer said. “He had clear sailing this time.”

Continental Red, running for the 61st time, hasn’t won in nearly a year, but the 8-year-old gelding has had seven seconds, thirds and fourths during the losing streak.

“He always gives it everything he’s got, and I thought we had ‘em this time,” trainer Ian Jory said. “We just got beat by a better horse.”

In other stakes on the card, Jon Court, a newcomer from Kentucky to the Southern California jockey colony, rode Pohave to a one-length win in the $150,000 Los Angeles Times Handicap, and Even The Score notched his first win for trainer Vladimir Cerin in taking the $150,000 Mervyn LeRoy Handicap by two lengths. Total Impact, trained by Laura de Seroux, finished third in his bid to repeat as the LeRoy winner.

Pohave and Marino Marini, another gray horse, are both trained by Doug O’Neill. Marino Marini was favored, but he couldn’t run down Pohave, who paid $10.60, running six furlongs in 1:08.

“I wish we could have run the stake in two divisions,” O’Neill said. “It’s not the perfect spot, running horses with different owners against each other. Down the stretch, I was hoping for that rare dead heat.”

Mark Leib, one of the owners of Pohave, said that his group bought the 6-year-old gelding for about $30,000 late last year. O’Neill ran the horse for a $50,000 claiming price in October, but there were no takers. Saturday’s win, worth $90,000 was Pohave’s first in a stake, in his 23rd start.

Leib, who works for the Ragozin Sheets, a national handicapping service, dedicated Pohave’s win to a co-worker, John “The Wise” Wladyka, who died a week ago Saturday, on Kentucky Derby day, after being stricken with brain cancer.

“Heaven will get some great fun out of your humor and kindness,” read an ad placed by Leib and others in today’s Daily Racing Form.

In the LeRoy, Even The Score, who paid $12, was never far back, drew a bead on Ender’s Shadow at the head of the stretch and won comfortably with jockey David Flores. In his first race for Cerin, Even The Score, a 6-year-old, ran third behind Dynever and Total Impact in the San Bernardino Handicap at Santa Anita.

Olmodavor, the 2-1 favorite, finished fourth.