DUEL OF THE ERA 15 YEARS LATER, '88 BIG 'CAP REMAINS ONE TO SAVOR.

Byline: Art Wilson Staff Writer

Every 15 or 20 years, there's a special afternoon that makes thoroughbred racing fans put down their binoculars after a big race and savor what they have just witnessed.

Secretariat's awe-inspiring 31-length victory in the 1973 Belmont Stakes was such a day. Affirmed vs. Alydar at the 1978 Belmont is still regarded as one of the most thrilling Triple Crown races ever. Fans who watched the filly Winning Colors beat the boys in the 1988 Run for the Roses will likely never forget that first Saturday in May.

For sure, the afternoon of March 6, 1988, will forever be etched in the minds of jockey Chris McCarron and trainer Jack Van Berg. That's the day Alysheba and Ferdinand, both Kentucky Derby winners, hooked up in a Santa Anita Handicap that attracted an on-track crowd of 70,432.

The Big 'Cap will be run for the 66th time Saturday, but with the advent of off-track wagering, there will never again be as big a throng at Santa Anita as the afternoon that two Hall of Fame riders and two Hall of Fame trainers got together to decide who would get the biggest piece of a $1 million pie.

The two horses had met only months before, in the 1987 Breeders' Cup Classic, when Ferdinand beat Alysheba by a nose at Hollywood Park. The difference that November day might have been that McCarron kept Alysheba wide virtually the entire race because the son of Alydar was still an immature colt that didn't like dirt being kicked in his face.

But that was when Ferdinand, trained by the late Charlie Whittingham, was 4 and Alysheba was only 3. The next year, in the Big 'Cap, Alysheba turned the tables on his older rival en route to a big season that led to Horse of the Year honors. Ferdinand had been named Horse of the Year in '86.

``When Alysheba turned 4, it's like a clock or an alarm went off in his head,'' McCarron, a Sierra Madre resident, said this week. ``He just matured a great deal mentally. He decided that he wanted to be a racehorse.

``When he was a 3-year-old, he was like a class clown. He was just immature mentally and just played around when he was out on the racetrack. In the Breeders' Cup of '87, he didn't really give me a solid consistent effort there. When he turned 4 and he ran in the Strub (Stakes), he just blew the doors off the field that day and he showed us that he had turned the corner with maturity.''

Bill Shoemaker, who won his last Derby aboard Ferdinand in 1986 and was the regular rider for the son of Nijinsky II, knew he had his hands full if he wanted to beat Alysheba again in the Big 'Cap.

``I knew (Ferdinand would) run well, but I didn't know if he could beat Alysheba,'' said Shoemaker, a San Marino resident. ``(Alysheba) had developed into a much better horse than the previous year, and Ferdinand was not as good. He was going the other way.''

In a Big 'Cap that attracted a field of only four because of the Big Two, Alysheba and Ferdinand moved as a team down the backstretch, overtook the leaders with five furlongs left and dueled through the stretch before McCarron and Alysheba prevailed by a half-length as the even-money favorite in a time of 1:59 4/5 for the 1 1/4 miles.

``My most vivid memory is the move that Alysheba and Ferdinand made down the backstretch,'' McCarron said. ``It was what most people would have considered a real early, premature move. But it was strategy on the part of Shoe. I mean, he's such a brilliant rider that he wanted to really put Alysheba to the test. He thought Ferdinand would probably be able to have a longer sustaining run, and he found out what kind of mettle Alysheba possessed.

``He tested him that day, and Alysheba came through.''

Said Shoemaker: ``I just wanted to get position, but of course so did they. Alysheba got out in front, and when I came to him in the stretch, well, Chris got after him and he kind of ran on. Ferdinand kept running, but we couldn't get to him.''

The two horses would meet twice more. Alysheba beat Ferdinand in the San Bernardino Handicap a month later after Santa Anita officials raised the purse to $500,000 to keep Alysheba from leaving the state to run in the Oaklawn Handicap. In their final meeting, in the 1988 Hollywood Gold Cup, Alysheba finished second and Ferdinand third to long-shot winner Cutlass Reality.

``What do I remember most about that '88 Big 'Cap?'' Van Berg said. ``I remember that we crossed the finish line first and then they put our number up.''

McCarron recalls a little extra excitement around Santa Anita in the days leading up to the race.

``There was a lot of talk on the backside about what an exciting race it was going to be,'' he said. ``Any time you have not just two Derby winners, but two horses that went on to prove that their Derby win was no fluke, there's going to be a lot of interest and a lot of excitement.''

'CAP RAP

The Santa Anita Handicap debuted in 1935 with a $100,000 purse, an astonishing sum during the Depression.

The race's status as a classic was established in 1940 when folk hero Seabiscuit and jockey John Pollard defeated stablemate Kayak II in the final race of the winner's career.

The event's record crowd is the 85,527 fans who came out in 1985 to watch Lord at War beat Greinton and Gate Dancer, giving Bill Shoemaker one of his nine victories (the record for jockeys) and Charlie Whittingham one of his nine (the record for trainers).

AT A GLANCE

What: Santa Anita Handicap.

When: Saturday, post time about 4:12 p.m.

TV: Ch. 56, coverage noon-5 p.m.

CAPTION(S):

photo, 2 boxes

Photo:

(color) Alysheba, right, with Chris McCarron aboard, outruns Ferdinand, ridden by Bill Shoemaker, in the 1988 Santa Anita Handicap.

Santa Anita Park 

Box:

(1) 'CAP RAP (see text)

(2) AT A GLANCE (see text)