Quick Casablanca and Ron McAnally celebrate distances gone by

There was a time when distance races were celebrated in American racing. Sadly, those days have long since passed. Thankfully, we do still have the San Juan Capistrano, though. Run at a special distance of 1 7/8 miles on the Santa Anita turf today, clearly the old race is a throwback to years gone by. It seems only fitting that a couple of old timers teamed up to win the race past its prime. It was won this afternoon, on a rain softened turf course, in strong fashion by the eight-year-old horse, Quick Casablanca, who is trained by the 83-year-old Hall of Famer, Ron McAnally. Seeing McAnally in the winner’s circle brought back a flood of memories of the good old days.

I still remember when the San Juan Capistrano was won by excellent horses like Exceller, Tiller, John Henry, Lemhi Gold, and Erin’s Isle. As a matter of fact, those five top-notch winners came within a six-year stretch of the marathon turf event. More than thirty years have passed since the glory days of the longest graded stakes race in America.

In step with the speed trend our industry in the United States has created, the San Juan Capistrano has slowly and steadily become a less important race on our racing schedule. It has long since lost its Grade 1 status, and now as a Grade 3 race does not attract the kind of horses it used to. In the late 80’s we had the champion Great Communicator, and in the 90’s, we saw top horses like Kotashaan, and Bien Bien win the 1 ¾ turf race, but it has been a steady decline of talent competing in it since then. More than anything, it is a novelty race these days. Still, I enjoy watching it every year, and today was no exception.

Run today a furlong farther than usual because the historic race typically begins on the hillside turf course, which was unfit to be raced upon because of all the rain this weekend. So the San Juan Capistrano of 2016 was run around the main turf oval at the special distance. The marathon demands of today’s co-feature at Santa Anita proved to be no problem at all for last year’s runner-up, Quick Casablanca. Sent off as the 9-5 favorite in the field of seven, the long-winded son of Until Sundown was last early, but uncorked an explosive run on the far turn under Tyler Baze, and coasted home from there. By the time they hit the finish line for the third and final time, he was 2 ¾-lengths clear of the runner-up, Generosidade, in a final time of 3:19.58.

After strong finishes to finish third and then second in the Grade 2 San Marcos and Grade 2 San Luis Rey in his last two starts, it would seem that Quick Casablanca is back to his best form. As for Ron McAnally, the trainer who first won this race in 1980 with probably the greatest San Juan Capistrano winner of them all, John Henry, you could see his joy in the winner’s circle. I can only imagine that this victory brought back some pretty good memories for him, as well.

At 14 furlongs (15 this year), the San Juan Capistrano is clearly a throwback. If we want to get back to breeding a stronger American Thoroughbred, I certainly hope races like the San Juan Capistrano never become a throw-away. By the way, the first two finishers, Quick Casablanca and Generosidade, were bred in Chile and Uruguay respectively.