DEATH AT THE TRACK: VIDEO KILLED MY BUSHNELL.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI Horse Racing 

Anyone want some slightly used binoculars?

They zoom, they're lightweight, they're built to take a pounding after a tough beat. And as of the opening of the Oak Tree racing season at Santa Anita, they're obsolete.

I brought my binoculars to the track on Wednesday and never unpacked them. Like most of the crowd, I got my close-up views of the horses courtesy of the giant video screen that now rises from the infield.

``I do that too, even though the race is right under my nose,'' said Santa Anita president and CEO Lonny Powell. ``You don't see a lot of binoculars anymore.''

Binoculars, as much a part of the traditional racegoer's outfit as a plaid coat, are in danger of becoming relics as more and more fans follow the action on television in off-track betting facilities and tracks themselves install more and more TV screens.

A decade ago, Helen Storey, who works the turf-club check room, might have rented 20 sets of binoculars a day and held 300 overnight for their owners. Now she rents none on the typical day and locks up maybe 25.

``Most of those are (used by) horse owners who want to focus on their horses,'' Storey said.

Santa Anita boasts of more than 2,000 TV sets throughout the structure, including 9-inch screens in the boxes and on the lunch tables.

But the new, 40-by-53-foot screen facing the grandstand takes videocracy to a new level, allowing even general-admission patrons to watch on TV from their seats. It dwarfs Hollywood Park's 30-by-20-foot screen.

``Somebody said it's like going to a drive-in theater to watch racing,'' said Oak Tree Racing Association executive vice president Sherwood Chillingworth.

The picture is amazingly bright and clear, even on sunny days like Thursday, thanks to something called LED technology. The structure was made of Japanese and Taiwanese components by the Display Ad company, which is responsible for many of the Las Vegas marquees and will supply the video screen for the Detroit Tigers' new park.

Watching races on TV has one practical advantage for handicappers. It keeps the hands free to write notes in the program on troubled trips and the like.

Still, some professional racewatchers will always prefer to use binoculars and consult the TV only for replays.

``I didn't come to the racetrack to watch TV,'' said Daily Racing Form reporter Steve Andersen.

One problem with Santa Anita's towering board is that it obscures your view of about 40 yards of the backstretch. Even the main TV camera is blocked, so for a second or two you see a picture of a picture of a picture of a picture. . . .

Nevertheless, the TV show seems to be the big hit among $20 million worth of renovations unveiled this week by the new Santa Anita management.

From his box seat Thursday, horse owner John Toffan (Free House, Bien Bien, Mane Minister) watched a tense turf race on the big screen without touching his binoculars.

``I still have 'em,'' Toffan said, pointing down near his feet. ``I just can't be bothered picking 'em up. It (the screen) is so good.''

Back in front: Pat Valenzuela won for the first time since Aug. 20, 1997 at Del Mar, leading from gate to wire with odds-on favorite Irrelevant for trainer Mike Mitchell in Thursday's sixth race.

Valenzuela, 36, who claims a devotion to Christ, pointed to the sky as he passed the finish. Irrelevant was his eighth mount since a nearly two-year suspension for a drug-related absence.

Valenzuela obviously worked hard to get back in riding shape. He weighed out at 118 pounds Wednesday and Thursday and said he plans to get down to 115 or 116.

``I'd say I'm about 90 percent,'' he said, fingering a couple of pounds of excess flesh around the waist. ``I still don't have my timing back 100 percent.''

The weekend: With the Nov. 6 Breeders' Cup races at Gulfstream Park just five weeks off, Oak Tree has squeezed the West Coast's major prep races into the meet's first three weekends.

They begin with Saturday's Yellow Ribbon Stakes for filly and mare turf specialists, who will have their own Breeders' Cup race for the first time this year.

The field of seven for the 1-1/4-mile race includes female turf champion Fiji (Jerry Bailey riding) - in her first start of 1999 - and top female miler Tuzla (David Flores).

``I think she can run further than some of the others,'' said Bob Baffert, who took over Tuzla's training from Julio Canani two starts back. ``If the real Fiji shows up, we're all in trouble.''

Projection play: Early Pioneer carried Laffit Pincay - or was it the other way around? - to victory in a strong allowance sprint Thursday to put the Hall of Fame jockey within 42 wins of Bill Shoemaker's career-record 8,833.

Pincay rode three winners at Seattle-area Emerald Downs during the Fairplex Park season.

With 114 in 1999, Pincay already has topped his '98 total. If he keeps up the pace, the 52-year-old Hall of Famer will catch Shoemaker in the first week of the new year during the Santa Anita meet.

Fine print: Oak Tree is guaranteeing the pick-six pool Saturday will reach $1 million - the association will kick in the difference if fans bet less than that - and unlike most guaranteed pick-sixes this one would carry over to Sunday if no ticket is perfect.

Oak Tree executives are hoping for on-site crowds totaling 60,000 Saturday and Sunday. A seven-figure carryover would really set the turnstiles spinning.

But since there's no advantage in betting a guaranteed pick-six, cool-headed gamblers will sit out Saturday and hope for the carryover.

After some small fields during the week, new racing secretary Mike Harlow came up with 98 horses for Saturday's 10-race card, up from 86 on the first Saturday of the 1998 Oak Tree meet.

Something's missing: The major public complaint about the new-look Santa Anita seemed to be the removal of the odds board over the walking ring, preventing bettors from checking out the horses and the prices at the same time.

Powell promised to look into it.

A WEEK AT THE RACES 

Southern California leaders: Jockeys (1998-99 Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, Del Mar composite): David Flores, 161 wins; Alex Solis, 54; Garrett Gomez and Laffit Pincay, 112; Chris McCarron, 108; Corey Nakatani, 102; Kent Desormeaux, 86. Trainers: Bob Baffert, 88; Ron McAnally, 53; Mike Mitchell, 49; Richard Mandella, 42; Bob Hess Jr., 39; Julio Canani, 36; Bobby Frankel, 35; Vladimir Cerin and David Hofmans, 32.

Handicapper helper: Even if you didn't have 14-1 Hula Queen in the opening-day feature, it should be no surprise that a horse rallied from 10th to win the 6-1/2-furlong turf race. Nineteen of the 21 races run on that hillside course at the 1998 Oak Tree meet were won by horses who were fourth or worse in the early going, one of the more pronounced anti-frontrunner biases.

On the stakes schedule: At Santa Anita: today, $70,000 In Excess Stakes, 3-year-olds, 1 mile on turf; Saturday, $500,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes, fillies and mares 3 and up, 1-1/4 miles on turf, and $100,000 California Sires Stakes, 2-year-olds by state-based sires, 7 furlongs; Sunday, $300,000 Oak Tree Turf Championship, 3-year-olds and up, 1-1/4 miles on turf, and $100,000 California Sires Stakes (Filly Division), 2-year-old fillies by state-based sires, 7 furlongs. At Bay Meadows: Saturday, $100,000 California Sprint Championship, Cal-breds 3 and up, 6 furlongs. At Louisiana Downs: Saturday, $500,000 Super Derby, 3-year-olds, 1-1/4 miles. At Belmont Park: Sunday, $500,000 Flower Bowl Invitational Handicap, fillies and mares 3 and up, 1-1/4 miles on turf. At Hoosier Park: Saturday, $300,000 Indiana Derby, 3-year-olds, 1 1/16 miles.

Mileposts: David Hale, the local photo-finish equipment operator who died when his motorcycle was hit by a truck Sept. 20, was mourned by about 250 people at services Tuesday in Glendora. Hale, 49, left a wife, Julie Hale of the Shoemaker Foundation, and two children. . . . Eddie Delahoussaye is scheduled to ride Saturday at Santa Anita, two months after he fractured his left shoulder in a Del Mar accident. ``My doctor wants me to ease into it because I'm still healing,'' said Delahoussaye, who'll ride three horses on his first day back, including Tranquility Lake in the Yellow Ribbon. . . . Kent Desormeaux (broken wrist) is due back Oct. 8. . . . New York's Successful Appeal earned a 119 Beyer speed figure - fastest by a 3-year-old in 1999 - by winning the Kentucky Cup Sprint at Turfway Park on Saturday in 1:09.42 for 6 furlongs. . . . Behrens remained No. 1 in the NTRA media poll. . . . Trainer Bruce Headley said 10-year-old sprinter Lakota Brave has been retired after a failed comeback at Del Mar. . . . Kentucky is trying to make its workout clocking information more reliable by having staffers monitor horses entering the track in the morning. A similar system makes California workout reports here perhaps the most informative in the country.

- Kevin Modesti

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