THOROUGHBRED RACING : McAnally Has Sights on Double

Trainer Ron McAnally is expected to be favored to add two more stakes victories to his high-powered stable’s total this afternoon.

Algenib, a winner in his first start for McAnally on May 16 at Hollywood Park, probably will be heavily favored in the $400,000 Golden Gate Handicap at Golden Gate Fields.

About 45 minutes after McAnally watches that race, which will be simulcast at Hollywood Park, he will saddle Paseana, who probably will be heavily favored in the $161,700 Milady Handicap at Hollywood.

On paper, both horses are standouts. They also have in their favor a barn that has done almost nothing wrong for nearly a year and a half. With the help of assistant Eduardo Inda, McAnally was second in earnings to Wayne Lukas last year and won his second Eclipse Award as the country’s outstanding trainer.

Nearing the midway point of 1992, the Hall of Famer is again second to Lukas in earnings--with about 300 fewer starters.

McAnally also will send out Brought To Mind, the defending champion, in the 1 1/16-mile Milady, but Paseana is in a different league.

A first-class replacement for Bayakoa, another of McAnally’s successful Argentine mares, Paseana, the 5-year-old daughter of Ahmad, has won five consecutive stakes since finishing second in her U.S. debut last fall.

Should she prevail today, Paseana will have won four consecutive Grade I races.

There had been discussion that Sidney and Jenny Craig’s mare would skip the Milady in favor of the $250,000 Pimlico Distaff next Saturday, but McAnally was satisfied with her 125-pound weight assignment for today. She carried 124 in her last victory, by 4 1/2 lengths in the Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park on April 17.

“I thought (racing secretary Eual Wyatt) was fair with his weights, and that’s the main reason we stayed,” McAnally said. “The purse was bigger back there, but it is a lot easier when you don’t have to ship. She’s been here, she’s doing great and she likes this track.”

McAnally didn’t want to run Paseana and Brought To Mind against each other and had another race picked out for Brought To Mind--the Ak-Sar-Ben Budweiser Breeders’ Cup a week from today in Omaha, Neb., but that didn’t work out.

“I can’t get her there,” he said. “We could get a plane to Ohio, but then it would be a 14-hour van ride to Omaha.”

Algenib, who was turned over to McAnally after finishing last in the Santa Anita Handicap, was a much more relaxed horse when he won the Spence Bay Handicap on May 16.

He has continued to work well in preparation for the 1 3/8-mile Golden Gate Handicap and will carry two fewer pounds, 120, than he did during his victory last month.

“My opinion is that the man has to master the horse,” McAnally said. “As you know, I have a lot of good help, and I suggested certain things (to make Algenib more relaxed), and they tried to abide by it. There are a lot of little things you have to do with a hyper horse like him.

“He’s not an easy horse to handle. He tries to bite people and kick them. You have to have the right groom with them, and you have to have a little psychology mixed in with the expertise.”

Laffit Pincay will fly north to ride Algenib, who will be surrounded by Bobby Frankel horses in the Grade II. Frankel trains three of the seven entrants--Missionary Ridge, Glorify and Never Black.

Third in an allowance race in his U.S. debut May 9, Never Black returned two weeks later and lost by a nose to Notorious Pleasure in the Rolling Green Handicap at Golden Gate. Corey Nakatani will ride the 5-year-old son of Riverman. Forty Niner Days, who won the race last year, and Irish Empire are the other starters.

Horse Racing Notes

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. today at Memory Gardens in El Paso for former track announcer Harry Henson, who died of emphysema early Thursday morning at 78. . . . Sea Cadet, who hasn’t run since finishing second to Best Pal in the Oaklawn Park Handicap April 11, went to the track for the first time Friday after being sidelined because of ankle and hock problems. The winner of the Donn Handicap, the first leg of the American Championship Racing Series, could return to racing in about two months.

Also back in Ron McAnally’s barn is Olympio. He went to the sidelines after finishing fourth in the Charles H. Strub Stakes Feb. 9 at Santa Anita. The 4-year-old Naskra colt probably will return to action in the fall. . . . The Milady isn’t the only stake on the Hollywood Park card today. Bel’s Starlet heads a field of seven in the $100,000-added Valkyr Handicap, limited to California-breds, at 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf. . . . The Golden Gate Handicap will be shown between the sixth and seventh races at Hollywood Park.