HORSE RACING : SHANAWI STUNS SAN LUIS 'CAP FIELD.

Byline: Brad Nelson Daily News Staff Writer

At a time when racing officials around the country are struggling to get fans back to the track, Santa Anita hit upon a fortuitous parlay to achieve that goal Monday afternoon.

For the casual followers, there was a wall-clock giveaway, a Presidents' Day gift from the track. For the more serious-minded gamblers, there was the opportunity to chase a $2.2 million pick-six pot built by a two-day carryover from the weekend.

The result was an on-track crowd of 34,908 - only 200 short of being the biggest crowd of the meeting - on a day when most everybody's pick-six schemes were scuttled by some late-day upsets. The biggest of those was 12-1 shot Shanawi's victory in the $212,100-added San Luis Obispo Handicap at 1-1/2 miles on the turf.

When 8-1 shot Executive Chef crossed the finish line first in the ninth race, it left only five perfect pick-six tickets, each worth $270,905.20.

Shanawi's San Luis Obispo win - the biggest victory of jockey Brice Blanc's career - came at the expense of stablemate Rainbow Dancer, the French-bred betting favorite who finished second in his first U.S. start.

``Shanawi is a legitimate mile-and-a-half horse, and there just aren't too many opportunities for us,'' said Jenine Sahadi, who trains both horses and had to wait for a stewards inquiry involving the two before finding out which one was the winner. ``To tell you the truth, I really wasn't even watching Shanawi because he runs from last.''

Shanawi, a 5-year-old Irish-bred, hadn't won since scoring in an allowance race on Oct. 11 at Santa Anita. His winning margin over Rainbow Dancer was one-half length and the winning time was 2:24 2/5.

The rest of the day belonged to jockey Gary Stevens, who rode four winners before finishing second in the last two races.

Solis honored: Alex Solis was recognized as the 48th recipient of the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in a walking-ring ceremony after the fourth race.