Pincay Rides Flying Continental to Santa Catalina Stakes Victory

Flying Continental splashed to a 2 1/2-length victory Wednesday in the $75,000 Santa Catalina Stakes at Santa Anita, becoming the fifth different winner of a stake for 3-year-old colts this season.

The only common denominator among the group seems to be Laffit Pincay, who was aboard Flying Continental for the first time. Pincay, who has won nine stakes at the meeting and six of seven stakes run on Wednesdays, has also won with two other 3-year-olds, Gum and Manashtash Ridge.

Flying Continental, running 1 1/16 miles in 1:43 3/5 on a sloppy track, was coupled with Super May in the betting and paid $4.40 to win as the favorite. Very Personably finished second, 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Morlando. Stephen’s Sooner, the second betting choice, ran fourth, and Super May was sixth in the nine-horse field.

Flying Continental, trained by Jay Robbins and owned by Jack Kent Cooke, who made a rare appearance at the track, was running with Lasix for the first time because of an internal bleeding problem. The son of Flying Paster scored his first stakes victory and his third victory in seven starts.

One of the other 3-year-old colts to have won a stake at the meet, Raise a Stanza, is also owned by Cooke and trained by Robbins.