A hot pace sets it up for Heatseeker

On a dreary afternoon at Santa Anita on Saturday, many in the crowd of 41,377 sought cover from a light rain and warm protection from the cool weather.

Fittingly, a 7-1 shot named Heatseeker found the weather and the track to his liking, chasing down front-running Monterey Jazz in the stretch to win the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap by three-quarters of a length over Go Between.

Monterey Jazz, sent off as the 7-2 favorite in the field of 14, led by 12 lengths after three-quarters of a mile in the 1 1/4 -mile race but faded badly in the stretch and finished 12th.

Heatseeker, an Irish-bred 5-year-old son of Giant’s Causeway ridden by Rafael Bejarano, paid $16, $7 and $4.80. Go Between, with Garrett Gomez up, paid $7 and $5.20. Champ Elysses, who broke slowly and trailed the field, got up for third and paid $7.80 to show.

Heatseeker’s trainer, Jerry Hollendorfer, said the key was Bejarano’s getting his horse to the middle of the track going into the first turn and keeping him clear of trouble.

Said Bejarano: “He got excited a little bit before the race, so when we broke from the gate, I just let him go. But after that, I was able to find a good position for him and we were able to hold it the whole race.

“I heard the other horse [Go Between] coming at the end. That’s why I kept riding as hard as I could. But I was confident we were going to hold on because my horse was still running, he was still giving me a lot of power.”

Monterey Jazz covered the first six furlongs in a blistering 1:10.11, and jockey Russell Baze said there wasn’t much he could do to hold him back.

“They told me that the harder you pull on him, the faster he is going to go,” said North America’s all-time winningest rider. “So I was trying to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He just went.”

That opened the door for Heatseeker, who provided Hollendorfer with the biggest win of his long career.

Hollendorfer has saddled more than 5,000 winners, mostly in Northern California, but he is gradually doing more work in the Southland. And Heatseeker, who is one of his 28 horses stabled at Santa Anita, figures to get quite a bit of his attention.

But right after the Big ‘Cap, he listened on his cellphone to a stakes race at Bay Meadows to see how another one of his horses was doing while reporters waited to interview him.

Later, when asked how he might celebrate his win in the Big ‘Cap, the low-key Hollendorfer said, “I’ve got things to line up for tomorrow, and I also have to see how Heatseeker came out of this race.”

He said he wasn’t sure what was next for Heatseeker but indicated the ultimate goal is the Breeders’ Cup Classic, to be run Oct. 25 at Santa Anita.

Heatseeker, owned by breeder William de Burgh of Rancho Santa Fe, finished a strong second to Well Armed in the San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita on Feb. 9.

When he won the Native Diver Handicap at Hollywood Park on Dec. 8 in an upset, he paid $63.40.

The win aboard Heatseeker was Bejarano’s second of the day. He now leads Gomez, 46 wins to 44, in the Santa Anita jockey standings.

Jockey Corey Nakatani, who has been sidelined for six weeks because of a broken collarbone, makes his return today. One of his two mounts is Sky Cape in the Grade III, $100,000 Baldwin Stakes. . . . Santa Anita will return to its regular Thursday-through-Monday schedule for at least two weeks. The last three Wednesdays have been makeup days.

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