SANTA ANITA : Arches Of Gold Stays Perfect for Sprinter Specialist Baffert

At Santa Anita on a rainy Sunday, it was a day for mea culpas . Track management and tote officials apologized for the opening-day problems on Saturday that led to a loss of an estimated $3 million in business, and before the $109,800 La Brea Stakes, trainer Bob Baffert chided himself for only being able to develop sprinters.

Betting service apparently returned to normal, with the new tote system being asked to accommodate 17,628 on-track fans instead of the 46,242 that came Saturday, when massive breakdowns in the parimutuel operation resulted in bettors being unable to reach the windows.

“We were 500% better in the way we handled customers today,” Santa Anita president Cliff Goodrich said Sunday.

Goodrich indicated that Autotote Systems Inc., of Newark, Del., which installed the new betting system, would compensate Santa Anita for the business that was lost Saturday. “There are provisions in the contract to cover that,” Goodrich said. “We will be talking with them about that.”

At seven furlongs, the La Brea is another quality sprint on the racing calendar, and Baffert, who seems to have a sprinter for every occasion, won this one with undefeated Arches Of Gold, who finished two lengths ahead of Race The Wild Wind for her third victory in as many starts.

Baffert had hoped that Santa Anita would have sealed the track before it started raining, but the strip was still fast and Arches Of Gold was timed in 1:21 1/5, the fastest time for a winner of the stake since Beautiful Glass’ 1:21 in 1982. The stakes record of 1:20 4/5 was set by Terlingua in 1980.

Since leaving the quarter horse ranks in 1991, Baffert has developed several outstanding thoroughbred sprinters, including Thirty Slews, who won the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Gulfstream Park in October.

“My clients don’t have the money to buy the really expensive horses at the sales,” Baffert said, “so you settle for the horses that don’t have the very top pedigrees and hope they’ll be able to stretch out for you.”

Baffert bought Arches Of Gold for $50,000 as a yearling. Minor problems prevented Arches Of Gold from racing until May, and after a six-length victory against maidens at Hollywood Park, a rear leg injury sidelined her until she won by nine lengths in allowance company at Hollywood on Dec. 3.

Baffert says Arches Of Gold is faster than Thirty Slews, who might try grass when he returns from the farm. “I’ve got so many good sprinters, I’ve got to find a way to run them without beating one with another,” Baffert said.

Favored Arches Of Gold paid $3.80, earning $64,800 for her owners, Mike Pegram and Bob Roth. There was a foul claim by Chris McCarron, the rider of Race The Wild Wind, against Arches Of Gold and Eddie Delahoussaye for alleged interference about a quarter of a mile out of the gate, but the three stewards ruled that the incident was minor and didn’t affect the outcome.

Race The Wild Wind, second three times during her five-race losing streak, finished two lengths ahead of Terre Haute. Magical Maiden, the second betting choice as she made her first start since running third in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, finished fifth in the eight-horse field.

Arches Of Gold ran a half-mile in 44 4/5 seconds and six furlongs in 1:08 3/5, then sustained her run through the stretch.

Before the La Brea, Lorne Weil, board chairman of Autotote, explained the Saturday problems that sent thousands of Santa Anita customers home early.

“The main problem was a failure of communications lines,” Weil said. “We were able to isolate the problems overnight and do better today. On Saturday, there were chunks of the system that were not properly diagnosed. This is an extraordinarily complicated facility, in terms of the wiring and the new video system. Before Saturday, it was not possible to predict how the system would operate when it became live.”

According to Weil, Autotote has more than half of the racing business in North America, in a market that has four major competitors. The second-largest tote supplier, American Totalisator, had been around since Santa Anita opened in 1934. American’s contract with Santa Anita ran until Dec. 24, when the track wasn’t running races but was taking bets on Hollywood Park’s season-ending program.

“Some areas were all right when we tested them,” Weil said, “but there were power surges that affected them Saturday.”

The system introduced at Santa Anita will be tried for the second time at the Greenwood track in Toronto on Friday.

Goodrich said it was difficult to compare Sunday’s crowd with the figures a year ago, when heavy rain limited the on-track turnout to about 11,000.

“I’d say we had just about as many people as we expected,” Goodrich said. “I would imagine that many people were so tired from Saturday that they may not have felt like getting out of bed today. I know that’s how I felt.”

Horse Racing Notes

Pat Valenzuela rode three winners Sunday. . . . Trainer Darrell Vienna said that Gilded Time’s debut as a 3-year-old will be in the San Rafael Stakes on Feb. 27. The San Rafael, a mile race, is also on River Special’s schedule. Gilded Time won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, becoming the future-book favorite for the Kentucky Derby. After running third in the Breeders’ Cup, River Special won the Hollywood Futurity. . . . Santa Anita has an unusual Tuesday card scheduled this week. Featured is the $75,000 Pasadena Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at six furlongs. Bob Baffert will try to win that one with No Social Graces, who was fifth in the Moccasin Breeders’ Cup Stakes at Hollywood Park on Nov. 11. Trainer Brian Mayberry has two entrants in Zealous Folia, who has won all three of her starts, and Set Them Free, a stakes winner at Bay Meadows before running 11th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.