There’s a Lot at Stake for McAnally

If all goes the way he hopes today and Sunday, trainer Ron McAnally will win four stakes in three states.

Listening, who won the Princess and Hollywood Oaks in succession in her most recent starts, will take on My Flag, generally considered the top 3-year-old filly in the country, in the $250,000 Alabama today at Saratoga, N.Y.

On Sunday, Antespend will get back on her favorite surface--turf--in the $250,000 Del Mar Oaks, and Cleante will try to win two in a row for the first time since coming to this country in the $200,000 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs in Auburn, Wash. On the same card, McAnally will be represented in another stakes event by Sunlit Silence.

Beaten in her two starts as a 2-year-old at Del Mar last year, Listening has come back a different filly in 1996. She has won all four of her races on the main track, her only loss coming when she was fifth in her turf debut in the Senorita on April 27.

After upsetting Kentucky Oaks winner Pike Place Dancer in the Princess, the daughter of Night Shift sat second while her stablemate Antespend set moderate fractions, then took over in the stretch and drew off to win by more than two lengths.

Shipped to Saratoga in hopes that a victory would put her in the running for the Eclipse as the nation’s top 3-year-old filly, Listening, owned by Janis Whitham, has continued to train well at Hollywood Park. A week ago, she worked a mile in 1:38.

My Flag, who will be favored, has the rail in the 1 1/4-mile race as she seeks her sixth win in 13 starts.

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Within reach of Charlie Whittingham’s Del Mar record of six stakes wins in a meeting, trainer Jenine Sahadi will try for her fifth through the first 22 days of the season with Lit De Justice in the $100,000 Pat O’Brien Handicap at seven furlongs.

The defending champion, Lit De Justice, is the 4-5 favorite against eight rivals. The field was reduced by one when Concept Win, who had drawn the rail, was scratched Friday morning.

Lit De Justice was an easy winner of the Bing Crosby on July 28, his first start in nearly four months.

A winner of nine of 34 lifetime, the 6-year-old El Gran Senor horse drew the outside post, and the O’Brien will probably be his last start before the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Woodbine on Oct. 26.

The rest of the field includes Alphabet Soup, making his first start since being badly beaten in the Santa Anita Handicap on March 2; Tres Paraiso, First Intent, Gold Land, third in the Bing Crosby and the beaten choice in this race last year; Bold Capital, G Malleah, He’s O K and Boundless Moment.

Horse Racing Notes

The 1997 racing calendar won’t be final until next month’s meeting of the California Horse Racing Board. The CHRB’s dates committee met briefly Friday--with representatives from Hollywood Park, Santa Anita, Los Alamitos, among others, in attendance--and passed out a proposed calendar. The proposed calendar for next year: Santa Anita (Dec. 26-April 20), Hollywood Park (April 25-July 20), Del Mar (July 23-Sept. 10), Fairplex Park (Sept. 11-Sept. 28), Oak Tree (Oct. 1-Nov. 2), Hollywood Park (Nov. 5-Dec. 21), Los Alamitos harness horses (Dec. 27-April 6) and Los Alamitos quarter horses (April 18-Dec. 21). . . . There is also a proposed three-day special Breeders’ Cup event at Hollywood Park on the weekend of Sept. 19-21, but there is no guarantee those dates will be run.