Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 | 9:30 a.m.
Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday-Sunday.
A leading cell phone company should get on their wireless horns and immediately sign up jockey Julie Krone and trainer Ron McAnally. If not for two important phone calls, these two Hall of Famers would not have been sharing the Del Mar winner's circle after the seaside track's centerpiece event.
And the message was loud and clear for their foes. "Can you hear me now?" You bet they can.
The 13th edition of the Pacific Classic may have lacked quantity but it certainly had quality. From the equine to the human, this renewal of the Grade I event was nothing but class.
In a race that had been dominated by trainer Bobby Frankel, McAnally found a gem in Argentina -- a runner that Frankel had originally rejected for unsatisfactory preliminary veterinary reports -- to give owners Sid and Jenny Craig a long awaited victory and Del Mar's all-time winningest trainer his first Pacific Classic win.
Flashback to January.
Trainer McAnally received a video tape of an "up-and-coming" runner from Argentina. McAnally, who has plucked such champions as Bayakoa and Paseana from South America, often gets videotapes from that region searching for another champion in the rough. One look at the tape and McAnally was sold. He jumped in his car and drove to the Craig's Rancho Sante Fe home. After viewing the tape, McAnally turned to Sid Craig and told him he had found his horse for the Pacific Classic.
He was right. After a well placed phone call, Candy Ride was soon purchased for $900,000 and arrived in California with the sole purpose of winning the Pacific Classic. The Craigs, of the weight-loss industry fame, have paid top dollar for other promising runners looking for victory in the Kentucky Derby. But they hold the Pacific Classic as a race second only to the Run for the Roses. After all, they always wanted to win the biggest race in their neighborhood.
Candy Ride, who came to the United States undefeated, started his quest for that trophy in a June 7 contest at Hollywood Park. He reported home with 3 lengths to spare. Candy Ride returned on the Hollywood Park lawn to win the Grade II American Handicap on July 4.
The Candy was dandy and ready for his date with destiny at Del Mar.
Phone call No. 2.
Jockey Gary Stevens returned from his saddle sabbatical starring in the movie "Seabiscuit" as regular rider of several top rated thoroughbreds. Stevens was booked to ride Storming Home in the Arlington Million the weekend before his scheduled assignment on Candy Ride for the Pacific Classic. With victory in sight, Storming Home bolted at the finish line sending Stevens to the ground and eventually the hospital. Stevens sustained a collapsed lung, bruises and abrasions along with a vertebra fracture that ended his Pacific Classic hopes.
While dozens of jockey agents swarmed the McAnally barn like a pool of piranha clamoring for the open mount, Krone took the initiative to call the Craigs at home to lobby for the ride. It worked. She got Candy Ride.
As Sunday's 1 1/4-mile classic approached, Frankel had loaded his Grade I wagon of runners for another go at a race he has literally owned since its inception. Frankel, who had won half of the 12 Pacific Classic renewals, stacked seven-time winner Medaglia d'Oro and two-time Santa Anita Handicap winner Milwaukee Brew against Candy Ride and long shot Fleetstreet Dancer for No. 7.
Now Krone and McAnally would face Frankel, Bailey and Prado for a million.
Medaglia d'Oro set the tempo and Candy Ride flanked the leader. Bailey was leading Krone, who never let him get to far away. Milwaukee Brew would make a superficial attempt while Fleetstreet Dancer tried to turn the fourth-place $60,000 check into a third-place $120,000 pay day.
When Candy Ride drew alongside Medaglia d'Oro at the head of the home stretch, Bailey yelled at Krone as she went by, "Go get 'em, girl."
She did. Candy Ride won the Pacific Classic for the Craigs in style, giving McAnally a most satisfying win and Krone her biggest career victory since winning the 1993 Belmont Stakes on Colonial Affair. He also ran fast. The final time of 1:59:11 set both a stakes and track record and returned $6.40 to win.
Bailey summed up this Pacific Classic well. He said everybody wanted to know just how good Candy Ride was. Wondering if he was good enough to compete against the top handicap horses around. After the race he said, "Well, we found out. He's pretty damn good."
Now Candy Ride joins Krone and McAnally, "Can you hear me now?"
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