Three Valleys Avoids the Traffic

Three Valleys may have had some help from the traffic gods, but no matter how the race was won, his trainer, Bobby Frankel, wasn’t about to throw back the trophy or the check after his 4-year-old colt won Sunday’s $350,000 Del Mar Handicap.

Another trainer, John Sadler, felt that the outcome could have been different had his horse, We All Love Aleyna, not been bottled up in the stretch. We All Love Aleyna, ridden by Kent Desormeaux as a replacement for injured Corey Nakatani, lost by a nose in the first Del Mar Handicap run on grass.

“We should have won,” Sadler said. “I ran the best horse. The other horse might be fancier, but my horse ran the best today. He’s a specialist, he loves to run at Del Mar.”

Before Sunday, We All Love Aleyna had finished first in all three starts at Del Mar, but one win was taken away by a disqualification.

“Tough beat,” Desormeaux said. “Tough one. The plan was to wait and go, and I found room on the rail. I didn’t know for sure if I had won it, but I thought I might have. It was a head bob.”

The horses were far apart at the line, Three Valleys on the outside, in the center of the track, and We All Love Aleyna on the rail. Between them was Wild Buddy, the horse they passed. Wild Buddy, with Tyler Baze aboard, finished third, beaten by half a length.

Three Valleys ran a mile in 1:32.21, breaking the course record of 1:32.22, set in 2003 by Touch Of The Blues. A colt whose career started in England, Three Valleys underwent knee surgery after his U.S. debut in November. He’s won both starts, under Pat Valenzuela, since returning to action this year. Valenzuela chalked up three other winners Sunday.

“It was tight going into that far turn, and I was following [We All Love Aleyna] around there,” Valenzuela said. “He went down inside and I went out, and the race was on.”

Carrying a pound more than We All Love Aleyna, Three Valleys paid $3.80. Frankel and Three Valleys’ owner, Khalid Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, also won Saturday’s Palomar Handicap with Intercontinental. Frankel sends out High Limit in today’s Del Mar Derby.

*

A rare “no contest” was declared by Del Mar stewards, and $953,832 was refunded to bettors after a filly fell near the far turn of the first race and compromised the chances of other horses running behind her.

Unusual Spring finished first by 9 1/2 lengths, but that result was negated by the stewards, who said that the majority of the runners in the seven-horse race didn’t have a fair chance. Other horses in the race were bumped as they tried to avoid Thatcher, and three horses had to be pulled up by their riders.

Thatcher, the fallen horse, suffered multiple injuries to her right foreleg and was euthanized. Road Runner Robyn, who was pulled up by her jockey, Victor Espinoza, suffered a ruptured tendon of the left foreleg. The injury was not believed to be life-threatening.

Jose Valdivia Jr., who rode Thatcher, suffered a hairline fracture of the tibia, below the right knee. No surgery will be required, said Valdivia’s agent, Brian Beach. Valdivia was fitted with a cast and released from Scripps Hospital La Jolla. They are optimistic that Valdivia will be able to resume riding by the opening of the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita on Sept. 28. Corey Nakatani, who pulled up his mount, Rene De Sonora, suffered muscle spasms and took off the rest of his mounts.

Had Unusual Spring’s win stood up, his jockey, Pat Valenzuela, would have had a five-win day.

*

Bet down to 2-5, Dm Shicago was a one-length winner of the $822,247 All American Derby for quarter horses in Ruidoso, N.M. Scrutinizer finished second and Like Frankie And Me was third. Dm Shicago earned a berth in the Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 10.... Steve Taub, who owns Imperialism, said that if his horse wins the $1-million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Oct. 1, he’ll donate $100,000 to hurricane victims in Louisiana.