Charm The Giant comes up big

The result of the $111,500 Wilshire Handicap, the opening day feature Wednesday at Hollywood Park, guaranteed a happy night in the McAnally household.

Charm The Giant, a 5-year-old mare owned and bred by Debbie McAnally and trained by husband Ron, earned the first graded stakes victory of her career with a wide rally to win by 1 1/2 lengths as the 7-2 second choice.

A daughter of Giant’s Causeway, Charm The Giant, who was ridden by Michael Baze, had lost four in a row before taking the Hillsboro Handicap on March 24 at Bay Meadows.

“Before that race, Debbie told me she was going to give the mare to [trainer Bob] Baffert,” joked Ron McAnally after the win in 1:34.16 for the mile on turf.

“I think this is the best race she has run because of the quality of the field.”

The victory was the third in six starts on the Hollywood Park grass for Charm The Giant and her fourth in eight tries at the Wilshire distance.

This was her first collaboration with Baze and it probably won’t be the last, given how impressed McAnally, a member of horse racing’s Hall of Fame since 1990, is with the young rider.

“I like him a lot,” McAnally said of Baze, who turned 20 12 days ago. “He’s very good. He does what you tell him to do.”

A son of former jockey Mike Baze, a second cousin to Russell Baze, the world’s winningest rider, and a cousin of Tyler Baze, Baze finished Santa Anita with a flourish. Picking up his first stakes victory in Inglewood was a nice way to begin the spring-summer season.

Sohgol, a 13-1 longshot who was making her first start since last Dec. 6 and first for trainer Neil Drysdale, finished second and Ghurra, who was nearly 22-1, was third.

* In terms of wins, the riding star was Joe Talamo. The 17-year-old apprentice won three times, taking the first with Run For Dessert, the fifth with Fleet Caroline and the sixth with Natural Phenonmenon.

* There were big upsets in the first two legs of the pick six, so there is a carry-over for today of $101,134.

Whatwerewethinking, a 52-1 longshot, was successful in her turf debut in the third under jockey Clinton Potts a race before 18-1 outsider Areutrue, who was making his first start as a gelding, earned his maiden win under Richard Migliore.