Quite a Ride for Pedroza

Never underestimate a 2000 Toyota Camry with 131,000 miles on it.

Needing a last-minute rider for a workout by Amorama at Del Mar last Monday, trainer Julio Canani called Richie Silverstein, Martin Pedroza’s agent.

Silverstein and Pedroza were at Hollywood Park, about 100 miles away.

“Want to try to make it?” Silverstein asked his rider.

“Yeah, I think we can make it,” Pedroza said.

Part of the deal was that if Pedroza worked the 4-year-old filly, he’d also ride her in Saturday’s $400,000 John Mabee Handicap.

“We left Hollywood at 8:14,” said Silverstein, who did the driving. “The diamond lane, most of the way. We got to the stable gate at 9:53. We were at Julio’s barn a minute later, and they opened the [grass] track at 10 o’clock.”

After working Amorama five furlongs in 1:03 2/5, Pedroza earned the mount and then on Saturday he rode the filly as she beat Island Fashion by a head in an upset. The win was worth $240,000, 10% of which will go to Pedroza.

Rene Douglas would have had the mount on Amorama, but he was at Arlington Park near Chicago, where he won two races but finished off the board with his only stakes mount.

Last Monday began at Santa Anita for Pedroza, where he worked a horse at 6:30. He made the 35-mile trip to Hollywood Park to work another horse before Canani’s call to Silverstein came in.

“I’ve been around here 23 years, and that’s the first time I’ve ever worked horses at all three tracks in the same day,” Pedroza said.

Pedroza had won only two Del Mar stakes -- neither of them graded -- since 1999. He had worked Amorama before, but never ridden her in a race. Marsha Naify, one of Amorama’s owners, suggested that Canani hire Pedroza because Naify liked the way the jockey had ridden another of her horses.

“It’s such a fantastic story, what we had to do just to get the mount,” Silverstein said. “Winning the race was icing on the cake.”

Island Fashion, ridden by Pat Valenzuela in the Grade I Mabee, came out in the stretch and crowded Intercontinental, the 13-10 favorite, but the three stewards, after flashing the inquiry sign, said that videotape of the race was inconclusive. They made no change in the order of finish. Intercontinental, with Alex Solis aboard, finished third, beaten by about 1 1/4 lengths.

Solis was unhappy with the decision.

“This is what Del Mar is all about,” he said, declining to elaborate. “I thought I had plenty of horse left, and wouldn’t have tried to get through if there wasn’t room. We almost clipped heels with the other horse.”

Of Island Fashion, Valenzuela said:

“She did everything right. She just didn’t win.”

For the French-bred Amorama, there is the grass at Del Mar, and everywhere else. She has won only four of 18 starts, but she’s undefeated in two tries here. She had been winless in five starts since taking last year’s Del Mar Oaks at 19-1.

Running 1 1/8 miles in 1:48, Amorama paid $17.60.

Pedroza’s only previous Grade I came with another Canani trainee, Martial Law, who was 50-1 when he bagged the Santa Anita Handicap in 1989.

“When we turned for home, I saw [Intercontinental] down inside, and I knew I didn’t want to go there,” Pedroza said. “I went way outside with [Amorama], where I knew she would be clear. So sweet!”

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Soldier’s Kiss, ridden by Solis, survived a foul claim by Garrett Gomez to win the $100,000 Fleet Treat Stakes by a nose. Gomez finished second with Gn. Group Meeting.... Favored Smuggler, winner of the Mother Goose last month, beat some of the same rivals in registering a 3 1/2 -length win in the $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont Park. Summerly ran second and Spun Sugar was third.... Jockey Cornelio Velasquez swept three stakes at Arlington Park, winning the $250,000 American Derby with Gun Salute, the $200,000 Arlington Handicap with Cool Conductor and the $150,000 Modesty Handicap with Noisette.... Dm Shicago won the $407,958 Rainbow Derby for quarter horses at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico.