DEL MAR : Call Now Has the Answer, Sets Record in Winning Debutante

Alex Solis was looking around, wondering where everybody was. His filly, Call Now, was playing around, not caring where anyone else was. Her trainer, Ron McAnally, was wondering how much play she would have left in the stretch.

Call Now had plenty of whatever she needed, setting a Del Mar Debutante record of 1:21 2/5 for the seven furlongs in winning the $250,000 race for 2-year-old fillies by 4 1/2 lengths. The record was set last year by Sardula, the horse of the meet.

“I was hoping (Call Now would) come back,” said jockey Corey Black, who rode Mama Mucci, “but she didn’t. She went out fast and kept going.”

Call Now set fractions of 21 2/5, 43 4/5 and 1:08 1/5, much faster than McAnally anticipated when he and Solis met in the barn to discuss strategy Saturday morning.

“We were happy with the post position (No. 9),” he said. “I knew there was some speed on the inside and I saw in the charts that the filly outside of us had some speed.”

Call Now would bide her time behind the front-runners. Supposedly.

But no one wanted the lead.

“Alex was looking around,” McAnally said, “and he had no other choice but to go.”

“She was going so easy,” Solis said. “She was playing with her ears on the backstretch. She was just having fun.”

McAnally, however, could see the fractions coming up on the toteboard.

“I don’t know how you can do 43 and 4 going easy,” he said with a smile. “This was seven furlongs, not 5 1/2. I was hoping she would conserve her energy.”

Solis first encountered this filly during a morning workout, when he was riding another horse--a fast horse. Call Now blew past him. He called McAnally.

“Please,” he said, “get me on that filly.”

Solis has had her for her first three starts, the first two in maiden races. She finished second to Ski Dancer, the third-place finisher Saturday, and then won with an impressive time for 5 1/2 furlongs.

*

Mike Sloan’s entry of Grand Flotilla and Sir Mark Sykes, trained by Jenine Sahadi, is the 2-1 morning-line favorite in today’s $250,000 Del Mar Handicap, a Grade II event over 1 3/8 miles on the turf. Grand Flotilla, ridden by Gary Stevens, is the powerhouse of the entry, coming off back-to-back victories in the Hollywood Turf and Sunset Handicaps. Sir Mark Sykes, ridden by Corey Black, won the Escondido Handicap here.

Second choice, at 3-1, is Approach The Bench, the winner of the Grade I Eddie Read Handicap on Aug. 7. He beat the likes of Fastness, Johann Quatz, Blues Traveller and Earl Of Barking, none of whom are entered today, and paid $17.20. His rider then, and now, is Corey Nakatani.

Navarone, the 1992 Handicap winner, will be carrying 117 pounds, second to Grand Flotilla’s 121, much to the chagrin of trainer Rodney Rash. He had expected a lighter impost off a third-place finish in the Escondido Handicap and a layoff.

“I’ve won one race in two years with this horse,” Rash said. “The whole weight system doesn’t make any sense any more.”

As does Sahadi, trainer Bobby Frankel has two entrants, Regency and Mashaalah, but they are not coupled. Regency is a Group II winner from France making his U.S. debut and Mashaalah’s last race was a sixth-place finish to Grand Flotilla in the Sunset Handicap, beaten by 10 lengths.

Caesour, a Kentucky-bred, is returning from France and will make his first start in a year. The other starters are Escondido Handicap runner-up Navire and provisional entries Daros and The Tender Track.

*

Eliza, the top 2-year-old filly of 1992, made her first start in almost 15 months in the $60,000 June Darling Stakes and was too sharp for her own good. She finished third to winner Starolamo and Nijivision after leading well into the stretch run.

“She was too quick,” trainer Alex Hassinger said.

Ridden by Pat Valenzuela, Eliza set fractions of 21 4/5, 44 and 1:08 2/5, leading by as many as three lengths until faltering in the stretch.

Horse Racing Notes

Jockey Gary Baze was thrown and kicked by his mount before the second race, suffering three broken ribs. . . . Eddie Delahoussaye was sent to Scripps Memorial Hospital after his mount in the sixth race, Ramblin Guy, went over the rail shortly after the start. Delahoussaye, initially thought to be merely shaken up by the mishap, was sent to the hospital when blood was discovered in his urine. He is off his mounts today. Ramblin Guy had to be destroyed. . . . With 10 entries, Monday’s $300,000 Del Mar Derby will not have to be split. Marvin’s Faith, the winner of the La Jolla Handicap on Aug. 14, will get a different jockey, Kent Desormeaux, for the Derby. Chris Antley, Marvin’s Faith’s jockey in the La Jolla, will be on Bluegrass Prince, half of trainer Rodney Rash’s entry. The other is Powis Castle, winner of the Oceanside Stakes. Another formidable entrant is Numerous, whose only start since finishing fifth in the Preakness was an allowance victory. . . . Flawlessly, Harbor View Farms’ standout mare, will parade between races today with jockey Chris McCarron aboard. This is her last year of campaigning and she has no scheduled starts here.