Soto Proves His Claim by Riding Flying Girl to an Upset Victory

DEL MAR â€”  After Santiago Soto rode Felliniana, a 39-1 shot who was the longest price on the board, to a second-place finish in the first division of Saturday’s Osunitas Handicap, he said:

“I’m a turf jockey, I think, like Fernando Toro.�

In the second division of the Osunitas, which was run before 24,133 fans on Del Mar’s first Saturday of the season, Soto went out and proved his claim.

Overtaking Torot, a fellow Chilean, and favored Cenyak’s Star in the stretch, Soto rode Flying Girl to a three-quarter-length upset.

Flying Girl, who paid $19, is a gray 4-year-old filly who was bred in France, and it was another French-bred, Loucom, who took the first half of the Osunitas by two lengths over Felliniana.

Loucom, owned by a group that includes two actors, a screenwriter and a barber, paid $6 as the 2-1 favorite under Alex Solis. After Felliniana, it was 3 1/2 lengths farther back to Seasonal Pickup, another Toro mount, in third place.

When she was a 2-year-old, Loucom was purchased for about $100,000 by High Five Farms, which consists of Robert Wagner and Lionel Stander, the actors, and Joe Torrenueva, Leonard Goldberg and the writer, Tom Mankiewicz. Wagner, who has seen Loucom run in many of her races, was absent Saturday, on location with Audrey Hepburn for a film being shot elsewhere in California. Torrenueva is the barber, who cuts the hair of both Wagner and Loucom’s trainer, Ron McAnally.

Loucom, second most of the way behind Rare Starlet before she passed the leader on the far turn, earned $26,625, which, according to McAnally, assures her owners of a net profit for the rest of her career.

Timed in 1:42 3/5 for the 1 1/16 miles on grass, Loucom won her division while going two-fifths of a second slower than Flying Girl.

Flying Girl, trained by George Scott and owned by Allen Paulson, earned $27,375 in the 11-horse second division. Flying Girl raced in the middle of the pack in the early going, but Soto was saving ground with her, and overhauled Cenyak’s Star, the leader from the start, with a sixteenth of a mile to go. Cenyak’s Star finished 2 3/4 lengths in front of Miss Beverly Hills, who was third at 51-1.

Soto, who celebrated his 34th birthday Friday, was a Florida rider who joined the California circuit at the Hollywood Park meeting that preceded Del Mar’s. Gary Stevens, who rode Flying Girl in her previous start, a third-place finish at Hollywood, was at Monmouth Park Saturday, riding Broad Brush to an off-the-board finish in the Haskell Invitational.

Flying Girl, after winning her first American start at Santa Anita in January, moved into stakes company soon after that and could do no better than third in three races.

“I thought that if I could save ground and not get into trouble, I might finish in the money,� Soto said. “I got lucky and won.�

Although Toro appeared to have an easy lead with Cenyak’s Star, he was worried.

“She didn’t seem to have her mind on running,� Toro said. “She kept looking around. She had her head straight up. All the way around, she had her ears pricked.�

Both Flying Girl and Loucom might be headed for the same race, the $75,000 Palomar Handicap here Aug. 9. Soto would like to keep the mount on Flying Girl, to prove that his prowess on grass is no one-time thing.

Horse Racing Notes

Plans for Melair keep changing, and now instead of running at Del Mar, the undefeated 3-year-old filly will be given a rest before the fall campaign. After Melair beat Preakness winner Snow Chief in the Silver Screen Handicap at Hollywood Park, her owners were leaning toward running at Saratoga. Then the Chula Vista Handicap at Del Mar became a substitute for that plan. Marianne Millard and Bea Rous, who own Melair, are sending her to their farm in Hemet. . . . Snow Chief, who underwent knee surgery about two weeks ago, will remain at Hollywood Park instead of being sent to Caliente for his recovery period. The $1-million life insurance policy on Snow Chief, which reportedly is costing his owners a premium of $50,000 a year, would not be honored in Mexico. . . . Trainer John Russell scratched both of his entries in the Osunitas Handicap, Media Girl in the first division and Only in the second.