SANTA ANITA : Pincay Adds a Second Feature Win

Santa Anita was kind to Laffit Pincay last winter and spring as he led the meeting for the 13th time with 110 victories, including 15 in stakes.

Although two days is hardly a definitive indicator, the track again seems to be agreeing with him. After winning the opening-day Malibu Stakes aboard Music Merci, Pincay took the season’s second feature race, the $83,250 Pasadena Stakes, on favored Special Happening Thursday before a crowd of 22,653.

Despite running wide for the entire six furlongs, Special Happening was able to hold off 10-1 shot Miss Waikiki in the final sixteenth of a mile and won by three-quarters of a length in 1:10 1/5.

The 2-year-old Relaunch filly, who was third in the Hollywood Starlet Stakes, was sprinting for the first time since she broke her maiden at Del Mar in her first race.

The Pasadena was her third victory in six starts and provided trainer Wayne Lukas with his second consecutive victory in this stake. Agotaras, also ridden by Pincay, won a year ago.

“Laffit rode (Special Happening) like she was Secretariat,” Lukas said. “But he had no choice but to take a chance and go. I thought she would run well shortening up to a sprint from a mile. She took them the first mile in the Breeders’ Cup. She’s not without quality.”

Obviously, losing ground wasn’t Pincay’s plan, but he didn’t have any options.

“She ran a good race,” the second-winningest jockey of all time said. “She got a little tired but she was very wide. I had to keep my position, because if I’d dropped in to save ground, the horse inside me was going to drop me.”

Miss Waikiki, unbeaten in two starts at Longacres and Bay Meadows, finished three-quarters of a length ahead of pacesetter Wakia. The latter was a neck in front of Tasteful T.V., who deserved more.

Brian Mayberry’s Gustoso filly stumbled and grabbed a quarter at the start, then had nowhere to go along the inside.

“I felt like maybe she was best,” said her rider, Gary Stevens. “She just tore her left front quarter leaving the gate, then she didn’t have any place to run. She didn’t mind the dirt hitting her in the face. It didn’t even faze her. She showed a lot of heart and was just very unlucky.”

Earlier, Tsu’s Dawning provided a first for trainer Ed Gregson, who said: “I’ve never been interviewed after an allowance race before.”

Almost a month after breaking his maiden impressively at Hollywood Park, Tsu’s Dawning came back with another solid victory in the fifth race and stamped himself a horse to watch as a 3-year-old next year.

Able to set the pace shortly after the start, the son of Tsunami Slew and half-brother of Zoffany controlled the race with Chris McCarron and won more convincingly than the two-length margin would indicate.

He covered the mile in 1:35 3/5 despite jumping track marks approaching the wire, defeating Land Rush, Assyrian Pirate and five others.

“I thought he ran great,” Gregson said. “He’s kind of searching for a style right now, but he seemed happy out there on the lead, which is fine with me.

“His half-brother was a grass horse, and that’s what we thought he might be. But, as he’s become more mature, he’s getting a better hold of the dirt.”

Now, Tsu’s Dawning will await his next start in the Santa Catalina Stakes at a mile and a sixteenth on Feb. 7. Then there are a couple of possibilities. “It would be either the San Rafael (on March 3) or the San Felipe (on March 18),” said Gregson, who returned to win the next race with Sensitive Doctor, a son of Dr. Carter who strolled past $50,000 maidens in his debut.

McCarron will be happy to stay with Tsu’s Dawning wherever the leggy gray shows up.

“He has a great stride on him,” the rider said. “The first time he ran, he was very green. The next time, he was a little green. Today, he was a lot more businesslike.

“He just pulled me up there. He made the lead comfortably and won very easily. He feels like he has some quality.”

Oeilladine, who impressed in her American debut Tuesday, will make her next start a week from Sunday in the $125,000 San Gorgonio Handicap.

Victorious in nine of 15 starts in France, the 3-year-old filly accelerated late to draw away from a classified allowance field under Stevens.

“Gary said he had never ridden a European horse that relaxed so well in the first part,” trainer Jude Feld said. “(Owner Michael House) purchased her at the Arc sale in France in the fall. He was going over, and we went over a catalogue together. I liked her because she won a lot, even though the races weren’t at the big tracks. I marked $200,000 on the page with this horse, and Mr. House bought her for $167,000, so I was elated we got her for less thn anticipated.

“She got here Nov. 10. She’s a beautiful filly, and I loved her from the start. I didn’t rush her, and when she worked six furlongs in 1:12 1/5 one morning, I knew she could run.”

Sticky Wile, the 2-1 favorite in Oeilladine’s race, broke a cannon bone in the race and was operated on Thursday morning by Dr. Greg Ferarro. A $50,000 claim by Craig Lewis, Sticky Wile won four times, was off the board only twice in 16 starts and earned more than $160,000. She finished fourth Tuesday after cruising to the lead near the quarter-pole.

Horse Racing Notes

To the surprise of no one, Pat Valenzuela was suspended for five days by the stewards, beginning Sunday. Flom, Valenzuela’s first mount after he served a 60-day suspension for a positive drug test, was disqualified from first to second in Tuesday’s first race. . . . Gary Stevens got special satisfaction in riding Hand’s Secret to an upset in Thursday’s third race, a sprint for $25,000 claimers. The 4-year-old gelding, making his first start in more than a year, is trained by his father, Ron Stevens, and was his dad’s first winner at Santa Anita. “It was great,” Gary said. “I was pretty happy. We all were.” Ron has four other horses under his care locally.