Big win for Big Booster

Big Booster, a 7-1 longshot, won the Grade II, $250,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap on closing day at Santa Anita on Sunday, and proponents of keeping a synthetic track at the Arcadia facility also got a big boost.

Frank Stronach, chairman of Magna Entertainment, which owns Santa Anita, flew in from his home base in Toronto to meet with 10 trainers and then a like number of owners at the track Sunday.

Afterward, he said, “I personally prefer dirt, but the majority of the horsemen I met with like synthetic. So I figure if we are this far into it, we should give a synthetic track another year or two, then make a change if we need to.”

Ron Charles, Santa Anita president, emphasized a decision has not been made on how to proceed. “We still have a lot of testing to do,” he said.

Ray Bell, one of the trainers who met with Stronach, said, “It was nine to one for synthetic.”

Bell did not say which trainer voted against it, but Bruce Headley, a strong proponent for dirt, was also in the meeting.

Stronach was gathering opinions everywhere he could. He was having lunch in FrontRunner restaurant with Charles and horseman Gary Dimkich when Dimkich, before the fifth race, suggested they go down to the winner’s circle where Rosie Ybarra was going to be honored as employee of the meet.

Ybarra, a food server known as the “diva” of Clocker’s Corner and an ambassador for horse racing, has worked at the track for 29 years. After Stronach surprised Ybarra by presenting the award, she called it “the best day of my life.”

But before he presented the award, he asked veteran jockey Alex Solis, “Dirt or synthetic?”

Said Solis: “I prefer synthetic because I feel safer on it.”

Charles, without offering specific numbers, said the number of injuries and fatalities were way down from a year ago.

Santa Anita installed its new synthetic track at a cost of nearly $11 million last summer. A drainage problem with the track and unusually heavy rain this winter caused Santa Anita to lose an unprecedented 11 race days, although three of those were made up.

Australian synthetic track expert Ian Pearse was brought in and figured out how to fix the drainage problem, which was done over a four-day period. It was clear sailing after that.

Pearse was back at Santa Anita on Sunday and met with Stronach. During a half-hour session, he explained what further repairs he would like to do on the track before the opening of the Oak Tree meet there Sept. 24.

The Breeders’ Cup will be held there Oct. 24-25.

Charles said he is a “major contender” to renovate the track but again said no final decision has been made.

As for the racing Sunday before a crowd of 15,676, Big Booster’s win in the San Juan Capistrano gave Mike Mitchell, already assured of the meet’s training title, another victory. The winning time for the 1 3/4 miles on turf was 2:45.50.

Defending champion On the Acorn, another Mitchell horse, was also in the race but had to settle for fourth as the 5-2 favorite.

The win aboard Big Booster was jockey Rafael Bejarano’s third of four wins Sunday. He had already secured the meet’s riding title.

Prior to Sunday’s San Juan, Big Booster’s only victory in nine races for the partnership of Scott Anastasi, Wayne Anastasi and Jim Ukegawa had come in an optional claimer seven races back.

The Kentucky-bred son of Accelerator paid $16, $8.60 and $4.60 for the 2 1/4 -length victory over Warning Zone.

Phil D’Amato, who saddled Big Booster while Mitchell was attending a sale in Florida, said, “I just told Rafael to wait as long as possible and make your move wide. Last time [third by three-quarters of a length in the Tokyo City Handicap at 1 1/2 miles on March 29], he moved a little too early.”

The win boosted Mitchell’s victory total to 33 for the 77-day meet, five more than co-runners-up John Sadler and Doug O’Neill. The Santa Anita training title was his second, his other coming in 1993. Bejarano finished with 67 riding victories, four more than Garrett Gomez.

The Times’ Bob Mieszerski won the Allan Malamud Memorial Handicapping tournament by tabbing 198 winners. Bob Ike of the L.A. Daily News finished second with 190.

The Hollywood Park spring-summer meet opens Wednesday.

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larry.stewart@latimes.com