Weekend Racing at Del Mar : Super Diamond Is Going for Another San Diego Handicap Win Today

DEL MAR —  The last time Super Diamond ran at Del Mar, which was two years ago, he put on an unforgettable performance.

Winning the San Diego Handicap was only part of it. Jockey Rafael Meza will remember that July day for another reason. He started out the post parade on a horse and almost ended it on top of a car.

As Super Diamond was on his way to the gate, the car that drops off the patrol judges at their stations rolled by, presumably at a safe distance.

The car caught Super Diamond’s attention, however, and he reared up, almost unseating Meza and coming close to crushing the car when he landed.

“He was an utter handful that day,” trainer Eddie Gregson said Friday, celebrating his 49th birthday with stable hands and recalling the 7-year-old gelding’s injury-riddled career.

Super Diamond has been a handful any number of days, but it is weight and time off, not comportment, that concern Gregson as he sends the huge bay horse into another San Diego Handicap here today.

Only three horses have won the race more than once, and none since Native Diver took three straight in the 1960s. Carrying 123 pounds, Super Diamond will concede from 5 to 12 pounds to his six opponents for the $75,000, 1 1/16-mile stake.

“They’ve made no allowance for this horse being laid up,” Gregson said. “He was at the farm for three months, and now he’s carrying a pound more than when he won the Goodwood Handicap.”

The Goodwood was last October at Santa Anita, and a month later Super Diamond won the On Trust Handicap at Hollywood Park, carrying 126 pounds. Gregson was preparing him for the San Antonio and the Santa Anita handicaps early this year, when he came up with a ligament injury. Super Diamond has also had ankle surgery and he was once a bleeder who has been successfully treated with medication.

Time, not treatment, apparently is responsible for Super Diamond’s improved prerace behavior. But perhaps Gregson would be better off seeing the California-bred make his jockeys stand straight up in the irons on the way to the post. The more unruly he is, the better he seems to run.

As a 3-year-old, in 1983, Super Diamond had yet to win a stake and was entered in the Golden State Breeders Sires at Hollywood Park. He threw Laffit Pincay, his jockey, in the paddock.

“That day, we had to practically carry him out of the paddock to get him on the track,” Gregson said. “And, for a while, the only way to get him into the gate in one piece was to let the other horses go in, then wait back with him on the turn, and run him into the gate.”

Super Diamond, who was bred and is owned by Roland and Ramona Sahm of nearby Rancho Santa Fe, won the Breeders Sires, the start of a stakes list that includes the San Diego Handicap and then four races last year--the Bel Air Handicap, the Hollywood Gold Cup, the Goodwood and the On Trust.

He has earned $910,283, but is only fourth highest in today’s race, because the field also includes Nostalgia’s Star, $1.3 million; Tasso, $1.1 million, and Hopeful Word, $1 million. This year, however, that trio has won only 2 of 16 starts. But the mere fact that they’ve been running may give them an edge over Super Diamond.

Secret Wedding, a 4-year-old filly bred in England, held off a late bid by Syrienne to win Friday’s $23,000 feature race.

The winner, ridden by Gary Stevens, ran 1 1/16 miles on the grass in 1:44 1/5 and paid $4.80 to win as the favorite of the crowd of 16,600.

Horse Racing Notes

Antonio Castanon, a Mexican who is trying to straighten out immigration difficulties with American authorities, was named on two horses at Del Mar Friday, but didn’t ride. Mike Connell, a federal immigration agent, said that if Castanon had ridden, he could have been re-arrested for violating the no-work condition of the $2,000 bond he posted after being taken into custody last Monday. Castanon won three races on the same program here last Friday, but hasn’t ridden since Sunday. Connell said that Castanon is scheduled to have a hearing, but it is several weeks away. . . . Trainer Charlie Whittingham was on the fence about sending Temperate Sil to the Travers Aug. 22, but now the colt is going. Whittingham has arranged transportation to Saratoga for Temperate Sil Monday. . . . Whittingham also said that Ferdinand won’t run in the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar next Saturday, which probably also means that the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner will skip the Budweiser-Arlington Million. The Read was supposed to be a prep for the Chicago race Sept. 6. The Read and the Million are grass races, and besides being 0 for 2 on turf, Ferdinand hasn’t been training well on that surface in two morning workouts at Del Mar. “He throws his head up and doesn’t look like he wants to run on grass,” Whittingham said. “A horse doesn’t have to take a shovel and hit you in the rear end to tell you something.”

Whittingham’s only starter in the Read will be Le Belvedere. His Million probables are Rivlia and Forlitano. . . . Laffit Pincay, who won the San Diego Handicap last year with Skywalker, rides Super Diamond today. Super Diamond won all four of his stakes last year with Pincay. . . . Trainer Mel Stute, who won the Test Stakes at Saratoga Thursday with Very Subtle, will run Tomorrow’s Child today in the Sorority at Monmouth Park. Very Subtle, undefeated around two turns, is scheduled to be auctioned in the dispersal sale by Ben Rochelle and the estate of Carl Grinstead at Santa Anita in October. There reportedly were separate $1-million offers for the 3-year-old filly recently. . . . Candi’s Gold, second to Temperate Sil in the Swaps at Hollywood Park, won’t make the Travers and instead will run in the Del Mar/Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Stakes Sept. 12.

Something Lucky, who bled despite using Lasix while finishing last in the Swaps, returns to grass Sunday at Del Mar, carrying top weight of 120 pounds in the La Jolla Handicap. The 12-horse lineup: Blanco, Mount Laguna, Deputy Governor, The Medic, Kindly Court, Something Lucky, Sebrof, Pen Bal Lady, Flying Newsboy, Ponderable, On the Line and Savona Tower.