ROUNDUP: MORE TALENT IN THIS STABLE; MCCARRON PICKS UP PINCAY'S LIMELIGHT.

Byline: Kevin Modesti Staff Writer

Chris McCarron demonstrated Sunday that Laffit Pincay isn't the only Hall of Famer who's still riding high at Hollywood Park.

McCarron, astride General Challenge for the first time, urged the Santa Anita Derby and Pacific Classic winner to a neck victory over determined Moore's Flat in the $100,000 Native Diver Handicap to complete a three-win afternoon for the jockey.

The negative was that heavily favored General Challenge ($3) needed the length of the stretch to get by a horse whose only stakes victory came at Fairplex Park.

The positive, as far as trainer Bob Baffert was concerned, was McCarron, named to replace David Flores after Golden Eagle Farm-owned General Challenge ran a laggardly 10th in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park to lose any chance for Horse of the Year.

``In the stretch it looked like he wasn't going to pass (Moore's Flat),'' Baffert said. ``But when Chris hit him left-handed, I think that got his attention.

``He's got a ferocious left-handed whip.''

This marked the first time since his maiden victory 12 months ago that 3-year-old General Challenge won a photo finish. He was edged by Cat Thief in the Swaps Stakes and Budroyale in the Goodwood. He won the Santa Anita Derby by 3-1/2 lengths and the Pacific Classic by three.

McCarron had thought he was going to ride General Challenge in the Santa Anita Derby before Baffert abruptly switched back to Gary Stevens. Apparently, McCarron got the mount Sunday in part to make up for that disappointment.

Baffert stopped short of saying the jockey change made a difference Sunday.

``It was a fight,'' McCarron, 44, said of the victory, accomplished in a slow time of 1:49.07 for 1-1/8 miles.

General Challenge carried a race-high 123 pounds, Moore's Flat 117. Koslanin finished third in the six-horse field.

Baffert said General Challenge would race next at Santa Anita in the Jan. 15 San Fernando Stakes for 4-year-olds. He plans to send General Challenge out of state - where the colt has run badly in three tries - ``when the time is right.''

And counting: Knowing Pincay, he won't let down now that he's the winningest jockey of all time.

Though winless Sunday, and 1 for 11 since the record-breaking victory aboard Irish Nip on Friday, Pincay will go into the Hollywood Park meet's final week only one behind Pat Valenzuela at the top of the standings.

Valenzuela broke a tie by winning Sunday's opener with Innovative.

Pincay, 52, hasn't had a riding title since the 1991 Hollywood summer season. Bill Shoemaker's last title came at the 1975 Oak Tree meet, when he was 44.

``I'm going to go for it,'' Pincay said of the title. ``It's on my mind. I'm a fighter.''

He also has his mind on 9,000. Pincay's victory Saturday aboard Minor Details was No. 8,835.

Notes: California's Big Jag finished third to Fairy King Prawn in the $680,000 Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin Race Course Sunday. Other winners on the big international card: Jim and Tonic in the $1.3 million Hong Kong Cup, Docksider in the $900,000 Mile (with California's Self Feeder seventh) and Borgia in the $900,000 Vase. . . . The winner in the contest challenging fans to predict the day and race in which Laffit Pincay set the record turned out to be Ina Sue Shulman, wife of trainer Sandy Shulman. She was presented Sunday with a $17,668 check, $8,834 doubled because she was at the track Friday. Six entrants picked the correct race but Shulman won because she submitted her entry earliest, on Nov. 11. . . . Pincay, whose record chase has helped Hollywood Park to improve its on-site attendance by nearly 6 percent over the 1998 autumn meet, is scheduled to sign posters from 11 a.m. to noon Saturday.

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PHOTO Laffit Pincay hoists a trophy Friday after winning his 8,834th race, breaking Bill Shoemaker's 29-year-old standard for jockeys.

Michael Caulfield/Associated Press