Santa Margarita Handicap : Flying Julia, Once Traded for a Car, Sparkles Against Hollywood Glitter

Jockey Frank Olivares and trainer Donn Luby are not the most likely horsemen to show up in a winner’s circle after a major race. But there they were at Santa Anita late Sunday, posing for pictures and accepting congratulations for winning a $300,000 race with a 5-year-old mare who was once traded for a used car.

All right, so the car was a Mercedes, but the owner of Flying Julia, auto dealer James Marino from San Marino, figures the car was worth only about $20,000.

On Sunday, Flying Julia, the first horse Marino ever owned, took the widest way around and still nailed Hollywood Glitter by a head in the last couple of jumps, giving her owner a $180,000 victory in the Santa Margarita Handicap before 40,275 fans.

Luby and Olivares, both 38, win races, though usually not big ones. However, Luby saddled Eleven Stitches for his victory in the 1981 Hollywood Gold Cup, although Gary Jones was the trainer of record. Jones was undergoing drug rehabilitation at the time.

On Sunday, it was Jones who seemed to have the best chance of winning, with Hollywood Glitter at 4-1 and Mausie at 6-1 and both horses having won stakes in their last starts. But Hollywood Glitter couldn’t hold off Flying Julia after passing Very Subtle to take the lead at the top of the stretch, and Mausie, a pace factor for a mile, wound up seventh in the 10-horse field.

“If Gary had beaten me, I would have congratulated him, and I hope he feels the same way,” Luby said.

Luby is in fourth place in the trainer standings with 12 wins at Santa Anita this season, but Olivares is much farther down in the jockey listings. Flying Julia gave Olivares his first major win since he and Croeso, at 85-1, shocked the Florida Derby field at Gulfstream Park in 1983.

Flying Julia didn’t pay $172 as Croeso did, but she went off as the eighth-betting choice in an inscrutable field and returned $24.40, $9.20 and $7. Hollywood Glitter paid $6 and $5 and Clabber Girl, who finished third, almost two lengths behind Flying Julia, paid $5.60. Very Subtle, despite having never won a race around two turns, went off as the 3-1 favorite and tired in the stretch, finishing fourth and was beaten by two-plus lengths.

Flying Julia, a daughter of Flying Paster and Sid’s Kate, ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:50 2/5, more than three seconds slower than the stakes record set by Lady’s Secret in 1986.

Flying Julia was from Santa Anita Derby winner Flying Paster’s first crop when she was offered at a Del Mar yearling sale. The bidding reached $9,000 when Luby decided to go back and look at her, but before he could return the filly was sold to Gil Hemming for $11,000.

Hemming put Flying Julia in a 2-year-old sale, but Marino offered the car and named the filly after his daughter, who is now 22.

“A friend of mine who owns horses was always trying to get me to take horses as trade-ins for cars,” Marino said. “Finally I decided to take this horse. It was kind of a lark. Since then, I’ve traded for half-interest in three others.”

Flying Julia went into Sunday’s race with 5 wins in 11 starts, but she more than doubled her previous earnings of $135,575. In her only other stakes appearances, she split decisions with the top sprinter Pine Tree Lane, winning the Las Flores Handicap on Dec. 31 and running fourth in the Santa Monica Handicap on Jan. 16.

Luby says that Flying Julia is fortunate to be alive. She had a serious case of pneumonia and was sent to a farm for six months to recover. She’s also had foot and shin problems while she’s been in training.

“The day she finished second to Melair (at Hollywood Park in May of 1986), I knew she had ability,” Luby said. “My only concern going into this race was that this was her fourth race in about seven weeks.”

With Very Subtle, Mausie and Hollywood Glitter up front, Flying Julia raced in fourth place going down the backstretch.

“The race set up better than I thought, because I thought there might be more speed horses out there,” Olivares said. “Top Corsage, for one, was behind us, when I thought she would be up there with Chris (McCarron and Very Subtle).

“My mare’s not easy to ride, because you never know what’s under you. She gets too relaxed. She stopped a bit on the turn, but then at the eighth pole she kicked in. If she had been more aggressive on the turn, it would have been easier. I could have been a half-length off Laffit (Pincay, aboard Hollywood Glitter) instead of being almost three lengths back.”

Jones scratched his third Santa Margarita entrant, By Land by Sea, to run her in a $150,000 Florida race this week, and until Flying Julia made her late move, it didn’t look like the trainer was going to need the extra ammunition.

“You couldn’t ask for any more,” Pincay said of Hollywood Glitter. “She was trying and I waited until the last part of the race to hit her.”

Marino says automobiles are his business and credits Luby’s patience during Flying Julia’s six-month layup for her recent success.

“I still can’t read the Racing Forum,” Marino said.

Most of the people who do read the Form wouldn’t have picked Flying Julia, anyway.

Horse Racing Notes

With Very Subtle still unable to carry her speed over a distance, trainer Mel Stute’s winless streak went to 37 races before he won Sunday’s last race with Earlie Fires, a horse named after Midwest jockey. . . . Stute’s brother, Warren, lost a horse earlier in the day when Secuencia, after finishing fourth, flipped in front of the stands and died of a fractured skull. . . . Bright and Right, winner of the seventh race, has finished in the money in 24 of his 27 starts. . . . Mi Preferido, an undefeated 3-year-old colt, will run Saturday in the $125,000 San Rafael Stakes. Likely to oppose him are Purdue King, Success Express, Flying Victor, Tearbaby, No Commitment, Please Remit, What a Diplomat and Antiqua. . . . Donn Luby, who got Flying Julia because his owner happened to have a spare used car, won a race Saturday with a horse that cost nothing. Rufjan was thrown in with two horses that cost Luby $50,000 and now he’s earned close to $100,000. . . . Gary Stevens, Santa Anita’s leading jockey, will ride Ivor’s Image in the $300,000 Pan American Handicap at Gulfstream Park next Sunday.