CANOVANAS -- Wow! What a race. That's the only way to describe what happened at El Comandante race track Sunday when native-bred colt Don Guido given a computer perfect ride by Wilfredo Rohena, turned back stellar filly Tintorera Hector Torres up, by a nose in the $109,700 Grade I (P.R.) San Juan Bautista Cup before a packed house.
The Saun Juan Bautista Cup is the third leg of the island Triple Crown series for native-bred 3-year-old colts and fillies.
Tintorera, a bay-colored filly out of Simply Majestic and the mare Simenon by No Robbery, continued her mascarade Sunday.
Although officially identified as a filly, Tintorera is really a tigress in diguise, displaying ferociousness and tenacity while barely, just barely, losing to Don Guido by the slimest of margins in a stirring duel over the last 500 meters of the race, highlighted by cliff-hanging fight all the way to the finish line in the straightway.
The photo finish replay determined that Don Guido won by less than a sixteenth of an inch, as both he and Tintorera hit the wire driving and digging in.
Sent off as the prohibitive 3-5 favorite, Don Guido, bred and owned by Dr. Luis Bonet and his wife Lola, thus picked up two gems of the championship series.
Puerto Rico singing star Ednita Nazario, who is married to Luis Bonet Jr. summed up the outcome best.
"I know that Don Luis and my dear mother-in-law Dona Lula have gone through a lot as owners and this also brings us all in the family joy. We are so happy, its fabulous," Nazario said after the race.
Tintorera opened up by grabbing mile and sixteenth Grade I (P. Puerto Rico Derby April 27 by a neck. S. Metal Stable's El Sonador.
Don Guido finished third in the Day after entering the turn for home 6 lengths in front.
The script changed in the Grade (P.R.) Govenor's Cup May 25 when Don Guido repelled a mad dash by Tintorera in the stretch to win the mile and an eighth race by half a legth.
And then came the San Juan Bautista Cup.
The racetrack, in a nice change of strategy, aggresively promoted the rubber rematch between Don Guido and Tintorera and milked it to the hilt.
It paid handsome dividends as all everybody talked about during the week was the rematch.
Electricity was in the air at El Comandante all day long and when Luis Bermudez sounded the horn at 5:19 p.m. with the call to send the competitors to the post, the pressure increased.
Dr. Luis Bonet said "I'm a nervous wreck. I just can't stand it. Just waiting for the race to happen."
Trainer Juan Manuel "Guengo" Rodriguez, who has done a magnificent job with Don Guido, stated that "The moments leading up to the race make the minutes seem like days, and the hours, weeks".
For Rodriguez, it was a tough and long week, especially when every stone or pebble at the backstretch at El Comandante knew Don Guido had health problems.
"As you can see," said Rodriguez after the race, "there's nothing wrong with the horse. In his last race, when he was bumped with 500 meters left, he suffered an injury in his hoof that prevented us from working himl out for two or three days."
Rodriguez, with his charactoristic touch of decency and class, dedicated the win to veteran horse commentator Rafael Ferrer, who has been bedridden with illness for quite some time.
Ferrer had his own radio program, Riplamo Al Dia, for many years, and was also clocker for Revista Hiica El Camandante.
While Rodriguez was humble in victory, losing trainer, Rafael Solano was not, and incredibly, hinted Tintorerea's loss on jockey Hector Torres.
Melvin Toro, Tintorera's regular jockey, is serving suspension, incidently because he was disqualified when he rode the filly in a tuneup June 12.
When asked how he felt about the outcome of the race, Solano, who cringed his neck before answering, said that one of the factors may have been the rider change.
The suggestion is preposterous.
Torres rode Tintorera as well as any jockey in the world might have, be it Wilfredo Rohena, Julio Antonio, "Nano the Great" Garcia or Melvin Toro.
Torres, who started campaigning in Puerto Rico five years ago after being a successful rider in the tough California circuit, is at the very top of his career, as is Toro, and has as many tricks up his sleeve as the best of them.
Indeed, Torres tried one and almost got away with it.
"I tried to sneak up on him and surprise him when I moved earlier than usual," said Torres, "And I managed to stick my head in front (at the eight pole) but that's a great horse. When he (Don Guido) felt my filly on the outside, he started ;running again and held her off."
Torres could have used an excuse for the wire, Don Guido on the inside, was surprised by Rohena's tap on his left side and bore out ever so sightly.
Torres, who had Tintorera breathing down Don Guido's neck, had to check his mount for about two strides.
There was no intention by Rohena to foul or hinder Tintorera and Torres.
Rohena is famous for being a clean rider.
At the start, Tintorera's entry mate Garufa, John Bisnono up, went to the lead followed by El Sonador.
Meanwhile, Don Guido, who departed cleanly and alertly, was kept under wraps by Rohena.
Garufa ticked off fractions of 24 for the quarter mile and 49 for the half mile, until El Sonador, Benjamin Lopez up, moved briskly past him and took the lead by two lengths.
El Sonador's moment of glory lasted a little more than batting an eyelash as Rohena slightly loosened the gri on Don Guido and roared to the lead with half a mile to go while Tintorerea was already at full blast, trying to ambush Don Guido.
Don Guido passed the six furlong pole in 1:14.4 as Tintorera and La Tempestad, Javier Santiago, gave chase.
The stage was now set, and fans in the stands, on their feet, hollered and screamed for their favourite -- Don Guido or Tintorera.
Tintorera move alongside Don Guido with two and a half furlongs remaining to the big payday, and the outcome was unknown.
Don Guido, under heavy urging, fled past the mile mark in 1:40.3, with Tintorera playing the role of shadow.
Torres went to his whip righthanded with determination, spanking the filly three-four-five times, rapidly, stacatto style, while changing rein position, coaxing Tintorera to change leads.
He succeded, briefly, with a furlong remaining and got the filly's head in front.
Then Rohena and Don Guido reacted.
Rohena, working his stick lefthanded only because he was in close quarters, tapped his mount five times lefthanded and then took a page out of his win with Don Guido in the Governor's Cup.
Don Guido and Rohena won when the jockey decided to only show the colt his stick, making sure he concentrated on starting down Tintorera.
As the filly clawed and fought, Rohena stuck to his strategy, gambled and somehow, someway, managed to repel Tintorera and Torres attack.
Winning time was 2:00.1, four-fifths of a second off the mark set last year by Se Me Dio and two seconds and a fifth from the track standard set by the one and only Ribot's Verset May 14, 1978.
The Victory was Rohena's 64th of the season.