License To Run Is No Flop in the Slop

On a rainy, sloppy day when 10 maiden 3-year-olds were scratched in the preceding race, Santa Anita’s San Luis Obispo Handicap was switched from grass to dirt for only the second time, and the first time in 25 years.

The surface change Saturday didn’t change the minds of any of the trainers in the 49th San Luis Obispo. The eight entrants, all but one a winner on dirt as well as turf, ran, and License To Run, the 3-2 favorite, was a five-length winner for absentee trainer Bobby Frankel, who had won the stake twice before.

With Frankel tending to the stable’s Florida division at the Palm Meadows training center, Humberto Ascanio saddled License To Run, who had won twice on dirt in Brazil. This was License To Run’s first win in the United States, after running third in the Hollywood Turf Cup and fifth in the San Marcos at Santa Anita.

Rain Friday and Saturday pushed the season’s total to almost 30 inches, and left Santa Anita with its 22nd off track in 42 racing days. The record for off-track days is 38, set in 1978 and matched 20 years later.

Attendance on Saturday was 5,503, not much more than what Santa Anita draws on weekdays. “You can’t say enough about fans who’d come out in this kind of weather,” said Ron Charles, umbrella in hand. Charles is general manager of Magna Entertainment’s racing operations in California.

Pat Valenzuela, riding License To Run for the first time, won his fourth stake of the meet. Valenzuela, who missed the first two weeks of 2005 while he battled a suspension dating to last summer, has ridden horses who have earned more than $1.3 million, which ranks him fourth nationally.

“I worked him out twice,” Valenzuela said. “I worked him before his last race and asked if I could ride him, but Bobby was already committed [to Garrett Gomez]. I got lucky to pick up the mount, and he ran a great race. We [License To Run and Continental Red] found ourselves ding-donging for the lead, but it wasn’t too fast and we were pretty much walking. My horse picked it up nicely around the three-eighths pole.”

Continental Red, third in last year’s San Luis Obispo and second in 2002, finished last.

License To Run, running 1 1/2 miles in 2:28 3/5, paid $5. Californian, still winless in 2003-04, ran second at 45-1 and T.H. Approval was third in his first start on dirt.

“I don’t think it mattered that it was taken off the grass,” Ascanio said. “The owner [Gonzalo Torrealba of Rio de Janeiro] told me his horse liked to run on anything.”

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At Oaklawn Park and Aqueduct, there were reminders of Smarty Jones, last year’s Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner.

At Oaklawn, in Hot Springs, Ark., Greater Good won the $100,000 Southwest Stakes, one of the prep races Smarty Jones won before his smashing victory in the Derby. Smarty Jones started his career at Philadelphia Park, which is where Distinctive Trick, Saturday’s winner of Aqueduct’s $75,000 Fred “Cappy” Capossela Stakes, is stabled. Stewart Elliott, who rode the 22-1 longshot in New York, was also the rider of Smarty Jones.

Greater Good won by three-quarters of a length over Munificence after he trailed the field early. Paying $3 and running a mile in 1:39 over a track listed as wet/fast, Greater Good was making his first start for trainer Bob Holthus since his win at Churchill Downs in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes in November. Greater Good has four wins in six starts, all with jockey John McKee.

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Madcap Escapade, making her first start since running third in the Kentucky Oaks 9 1/2 months ago, broke awkwardly under Jerry Bailey, but won the $150,000 Shirley Jones Handicap by two lengths at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

Society Selection, a double Grade I winner last year, stumbled at the start and finished last in a seven-horse field. Madcap Escapade, who is four for four at Gulfstream, paid $3.20. D’Wildcat Speed finished third.

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The 11-10 favorite, Bear Fan, ran eighth as Cativa, at 5-1, won the $200,000 Barbara Fritchie Handicap in Laurel, Md.

Also at Laurel Park, Edgar Prado, who rode Cativa, finished second aboard Offlee Wild, who lost by a neck to favored Coast Line in the $125,000 John B. Campbell Handicap. John Velazquez rode Coast Line, who made his stakes debut after winning four in a row in New York for trainer Todd Pletcher.

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Shadow Cast, ridden by Robby Albarado, won the $125,000 Bayou Handicap at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans.