Prince True Finds Enough Room on the Rail to Win : Chris McCarron Guides Colt to Surprise Victory in the San Luis Rey Stakes at Santa Anita

Trainer Charlie Whittingham says that Prince True could go eight miles if tracks would run eight-mile races.

In Sunday’s $241,800 San Luis Rey Stakes, however, it was width, not distance, that Prince True needed. In tight quarters along the rail, Prince True and jockey Chris McCarron got the daylight they had to have, and the 4-year-old colt spurted through to score a one-length victory over Western in front of a crowd of 49,196 at Santa Anita.

Neither Prince True, who hadn’t won a race since Hollywood Park’s Cinema Handicap last June, nor Western, who was 0 for 20 last year, was expected to win the San Luis Rey. Dahar, another Whittingham starter who had won two stakes earlier at the meeting, was sent off as the favorite in a field of six, but he finished third, a neck behind Western, after briefly vying for the lead with Fatih in the upper stretch.

Gate Dancer, who earned $1.3 million last year and was making his first grass start following three straight thirds this year, finished last after being in contention most of the way.

Prince True, owned by Libby Keck of Los Angeles, earned $147,300 and paid $17, $7.60 and $3.80 for running the distance of about 1 1/2 miles in 2:25 2/5.

Western paid $7.40 and $3.40, while Dahar’s show price was $2.60.

There was a crowd on the rail coming down the stretch, Prince True looking for his opening and Fatih and Western just outside him.

Bill Shoemaker was trying to ride Fatih to his fourth straight win. “I was right on Shoe’s heels for a while,” McCarron said. “My horse doesn’t have a great turn of foot, so if the hole doesn’t open, we’ve got no chance.”

McCarron, who researches races as well as any jockey riding, was counting on Fatih giving him some room.

“That horse has a habit of getting out once he gets into the lane,” McCarron said. “The trouble was, Shoe kept him in pretty good today.”

But when Shoemaker hit Fatih with a left-handed whip, the 5-year-old accommodated Prince True.

“In the last sixteenth of a mile, my horse drifted a little,” Shoemaker said. “He was sidling out a little even before I hit him. He was tired--he’s not used to carrying that kind of weight (126 pounds, the same as the others) against these kind of horses. The best horse won. He finished real good, it was just a question of getting through.”

As he watched the rerun of the race in the jockeys’ room, McCarron said: “That’s what you call getting lucky.”

But it’s more than luck when a jockey wins 13 stakes races for the season, as McCarron has. Whittingham, who has won three of the the last four San Luis Reys and finished second with Gato Del Sol the other year, added his eighth stakes win of the meeting and his second in two days.

Whittingham was not surprised at Prince True’s performance, which came after a second and a fifth in his only 1985 starts.

“This horse is a true stayer,” Whittingham said. “He should have won the Santa Anita Derby last year, but he had bad racing luck. The last time (Prince True’s fifth-place finish in the Arcadia Handicap) he got hurt by a slow pace, and the time before that he was running after a six-month layoff (because of a splint injury at Del Mar).”

Fatih took the lead coming down the hill at the start, with Western right behind him. Gate Dancer was third going down the backstretch.

“His action was good the first time he went past the stands,” said Jack Van Berg, Gate Dancer’s trainer.

When Fernando Toro was pulled toward the leaders by Dahar, Gate Dancer started to drop back. “He was backing up coming around the turn,” Van Berg said, “but then he came on again.”

Said Laffit Pincay, Gate Dancer’s jockey: “Down the backstretch, he quit on me and started climbing. I don’t know why. There must be something bothering him.”

Toro didn’t want to be as close to the pace as he was, but he felt helpless.

“My horse didn’t relax,” the jockey said. “I didn’t want to fight him. Then, coming for home, it looked like I was in the garden spot. But I think the slow pace took its toll.”

The $300,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap on April 21 would appear to be the next spot for Prince True. The distance is only about 1 3/4 miles, but the long-winded colt will just have to do the best he can.

Horse Racing Notes

John Henry, expected to miss a couple of weeks of training because of a splint injury, still is being groomed to run in the Arlington-Budweiser Million this August at Chicago, trainer Ron McAnally said. John Henry, a two-time Horse of the Year, has won the Million twice and finished second once. McAnally describes the injury in the 10-year-old gelding’s right foreleg as a “blind splint. It’s only about the size of an eraser and it didn’t show up on X-rays, but you can see it now. He probably had it at the time of the Breeders’ Cup last November, when he wasn’t able to run. It’s not a serious injury, but we’re talking about a 10-year-old, not a 3-year-old.” John Henry had been galloping for about 10 days when the injury was discovered. . . . Trainer Ross Fenstermaker said that Protect Yourself, who won Saturday’s Gold Rush Stakes at Golden Gate Fields, would run again in the California Derby on April 20 at that track.. . . Fenstermaker said owner Fred Hooper still hasn’t made a decision on whether Precisionist would run in the San Bernardino Handicap at Santa Anita on April 13 or the Oaklawn Handicap at Oaklawn Park on April 19. . . . Nelson Bunker Hunt, chairman of the Breeders’ Cup committee that will decide whether the million-dollar races will be held at Hollywood Park or Santa Anita in 1986, said no decision has been made. “We’ll probably meet the week of the Kentucky Derby,” Hunt said. “At which time we’ll try to set sites for the next three years.” Other members of the committee are John Nerud, John Mabee and Brownell Combs.