California Horse Wins At Longacres -- Walsh Offers A Few Words To Jockey After Scorned Timber Places Third

RENTON - All that Kathy Walsh predicted of her competitors in the 55th Longacres Derby came true.

Walsh, a four-time champion trainer at Longacres, was seeking to become only the second woman to train a Derby winner. Her powerful pair of Dr Pain and Scorned Timber had combined to win four of the six 3-year-old stakes races leading up to yesterday's Derby.

Unfortunately for Walsh, one of her horses also developed an unanticipated racing strategy.

Walsh accurately forecast a strong performance by yesterday's winner, Star Recruit, one of the rivals shipped in from California.

Star Recruit held off Vying Victor, ridden by Vann Belvoir, by one-half length to deprive the locals of victory in the final edition of the $169,000 race.

Scorned Timber headed the local contingent by finishing third, another two lengths back. Whatcom Warrior, the surprising 5-2 favorite, ended up fourth. The time of 1 minute, 55 4/5 seconds didn't threaten Regalberto's stakes and track record for the 1 3/16 miles.

Foreseeing the victory by Star Recruit apparently wasn't much consolation for Walsh, as she berated Brian Eide, the young jockey on Scorned Timber, after the race.

Eide, 20, who graduated from his apprenticeship earlier in the meet, was riding Scorned Timber for the first time in the Derby. He was expected to keep the colt, a winner in six of his previous eight lifetime starts, behind the early leaders.

"The plan was to have my horse close or on the lead and have the other one come from behind," said Dr Pain's veteran jockey, Ken Skinner, down from Vancouver, B.C., for the ride.

Finding his horse difficult to control, Eide wound up setting the pace on the lead, along with stablemate Dr Pain.

"He was running against me, instead of against the other horses," said Eide, who inherited the mount on Scorned Timber when Walsh had a falling out with the meet's leading rider, Tim Doocy.

All that was just fine for Star Recruit's rider, Ron Hansen, who spent most of the afternoon leading up to the race taking a nap atop the roof of the jockeys' room.

Hansen allowed Star Recruit to settle in just off Scorned Timber's flank for the first mile. After the pair shed Dr Pain heading for the final stretch, all Hansen needed to do to gain an insurmountable margin was give Star Recruit a slight urge with his reins and a few left-handed taps of his whip.

Hansen, on a working vacation from Northern California, is in position to win the meet's three most important races. He is the rider of Bolulight, the early favorite for the Longacres Mile on Aug. 23, as well as Avant's Gold, who'll be trying to repeat her 1991 victory in the Belle Roberts Handicap on Sept. 21.

Star Recruit's triumph was noteworthy for his DanDar farm owners, represented by Dan and Darla Agnew of Tenino. It was the first Derby victory for the Agnew family, which have raced world-class horses Desert Wine and Top Corsage and competed at Longacres for nearly 40 years.

Star Recruit was purchased for $52,000 at a sale in Pomona, Calif. Yesterday's $101,500 winner's purse raised his earnings to $370,850. Both he and Vying Victor might start in the Mile.

Vying Victor showed he may have found the lost form that got him within a length of Kentucky Derby winner Lil E. Tee in the Jim Beam Stakes on March 29. Hansen rode Vying Victor in that race.

Hansen's recent run of luck seemed to continue as he entered the jockeys' room after riding in the day's last race - and immediately spotted a $10 bill on the ground.