Fastness Easily Wins Inglewood

For a horse who might have been a race away from being at his peak, all Fastness did Sunday at Hollywood Park was win the $132,450 Inglewood Handicap by three lengths and equal the stakes record by running 1-1/16 miles in 1:39 2/5.

Going into the Inglewood, Jenine Sahadi, who trains Fastness, had fretted that Corey Nakatani might have gone too slow with the gray 6-year-old gelding in a workout. “But then this is a horse that doesn’t need to work fast all the time,” Sahadi said after the race. “That seven-eighths of a mile [in 1:24 3/5] was just enough to put him on edge.”

On the turn for home, Nakatani had a lot of horse left and needed only room to get through on the rail. Tychonic, under Gary Stevens, was racing far enough off the fence for Fastness to get through, and he sprinted to the wire from there.

Helmsman, ridden by Chris McCarron, beat out Tychonic for second place by a half-length.

“We got beat by the best turf horse in America--period,” said Stevens, who had ridden Fastness, winning three of five starts and finishing second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile last year.

Stevens had also been on a five-race winning streak with Tychonic.

“It’s kind of funny,” Sahadi said. “Corey had been working my horse all the time last year, but when he was to make his first start of the year in June, he had to ride Raintrap for Bobby Frankel in Northern California. So Gary started riding Fastness and stayed with him. Now here’s Gary riding another Frankel horse [Tychonic], and Corey finally gets his chance.”

The stakes record Fastness tied was set by Mohamed Abdu in 1990 and matched by Blaze O’Brien last year. Fastness, a slight favorite over Tychonic, paid $5 to win and earned $79,470 for owners C.N. and Carol Ray.

After the Breeders’ Cup, which was run in a bog at Belmont Park, Fastness finished 1995 with a victory in the Citation Handicap at Hollywood Park on Nov. 25, which was his last start. Sahadi’s horse has recovered from both a chipped knee and a chipped ankle and needs to be handled gingerly.

“I was pretty vocal about the fact that he wasn’t cranked up 100% for this race,” Sahadi said. “This should set him for the race we’re really shooting for [the $700,000 Shoemaker Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Hollywood Park on June 16].”

In five starts, the only race Fastness has lost at Hollywood Park was the 1993 Hollywood Derby, which was his first race after being imported from France. Sunday’s victory was his seventh in 22 tries and pushed his earnings to $967,810.

“I’d have to say this is the best grass horse I’ve ever been on,” said Nakatani, who rode another gray, Itsallgreektome, the champion male turf horse in 1990. “This horse is a freak. He’s got a stride and a half on him.” Wally Dollase, who trained Itsallgreektome, was using the Inglewood as one of the preps that should carry Helmsman into the $1-million Hollywood Gold Cup, against Cigar, on June 30. Helmsman won the San Fernando and the Strub this winter at Santa Anita, then on March 2, in his last race, had a problem with his palate and trouble breathing and finished fourth as the favorite in the Santa Anita Handicap.

McCarron said Helmsman showed no such problems Sunday.

“He had a terrible experience in the Santa Anita Handicap,” Dollase said. “He had to run the last quarter of a mile without getting any air. He didn’t make any noise today, and wasn’t blowing after the race.”

Helmsman’s next race is expected to be the $250,000 Californian on June 2.