Fast Start for Pedroza as Fairplex Park Opens

As Fairplex Park prepared for its 66th racing season earlier this week, the temperature hit 102 degrees in Pomona.

When opening day arrived Friday at the Los Angeles County Fair, there was a cold snap, the temperature plummeting to 99. “I feel like those jockeys in the sweat box, trying to lose weight,” said a woman who attended the opener.

Among the participants, jockey Martin Pedroza was hot when last year’s 17-day meet ended, and he came out smoking again Friday. Pedroza, who would like to win his sixth consecutive Fairplex meet, breaking a record he shares with David Flores, rode four winners, moving him closer to the 400-mark at the Fair.

Pedroza, who has 384 wins, is 93 ahead of Flores, the No. 2 rider on the list, who won riding titles in Pomona from 1990 to ’94.

In Friday’s stake, however, Pedroza’s mount, Pt’s Grey Eagle, finished second as the 6-5 favorite while Last Minute Detail, at 10-1, used a late burst to win the $60,000 Foothill for jockey Omar Figueroa.

Last Minute Detail, trained by Donald Chatlos Jr., ended a four-race losing streak. The 3-year-colt was badly beaten in his last race, at Del Mar, but that was at a longer distance than the 6 1/2 -furlong Foothill. Earlier this year, Last Minute Detail ran in some Kentucky Derby preps, finishing fifth in the San Felipe at Santa Anita and seventh in the Bay Shore at Aqueduct.

Figueroa, who just finished a Del Mar season in which he won only six races, had never ridden Last Minute Detail before Friday. The horse’s previous four riders are high-profile jockeys who seldom compete at Fairplex.

Chatlos’ horse was in better shape than his transportation to Pomona. The trainer’s car broke down and his assistant, David Meah, saddled Last Minute Detail.

“Everyone said it was surprising, but it wasn’t surprising to us,” Meah said. “[That] was a great price and we all had a bet. He went on the turf two tries back and it didn’t work. He tried to go a mile last time out and couldn’t go the distance. If you look back, all his good races were six and seven furlongs, so we expected this.”

Last Minute Detail, who was sixth, 7 1/2 lengths back, after a half-mile, won by 1 1/4 lengths. Pt’s Grey Eagle was three lengths better than Trish’s Diamond, the third-place finisher. The time was 1:16 2/5 .

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The 43-day Del Mar meet that ended Wednesday was marked by $579.7 million in betting, a slight increase from last year and a record for the track. Daily attendance averaged 17,052, which was the highest since the introduction of inter-track betting in Southern California in 1987.

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Belmont Park’s customary heavy ration of Breeders’ Cup preps begins today with three Grade I races, the richest of which are the Woodward and the Man o’ War, each worth $500,000. Also on the card is the $250,000 Gazelle Handicap for 3-year-old fillies.

Ghostzapper, who has vaulted into contention for the Breeders’ Cup Classic -- at Lone Star Park on Oct. 30 -- off his off-track win in the Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park last month, is the odds-on favorite in a Woodward that is short on distinguished horses. The likely second choice, Midway Road, has won one of seven stakes starts, but in May was a respectable second to Southern Image in the Pimlico Special.

The Man o’ War, a 1 3/8 -mile prep for the Breeders’ Cup Turf, brings together Better Talk Now, Request For Parole and Balto Star, the first three finishers in the Sword Dancer Handicap at Saratoga.

Bobby Frankel, who trains Ghostzapper, is running King’s Drama and Greek Sun, and the field also includes Ballingarry, the California veteran who was third as the favorite in the Arlington Handicap.

Stellar Jayne, winner of the Mother Goose at Belmont in June and second in two Grade I stakes since then, will be favored in the Gazelle.