THOROUGHBRED RACING : A Pat on the Back for This Fan Royally Wrong at Newmarket

Her Highness, Queen Elizabeth II, won’t be forgetting the 1992 English Derby for quite a while. Not since those Americans hit the scene.

A die-hard horse racing fan, the Queen rarely misses a “Darby” at historic Newmarket. But this one became something special when Dr Devious, owned by Sid and Jenny Craig of Del Mar, came galloping home in front in the 1 1/2-mile classic last week.

Later, in her private box, the Queen was promised two free breeding privileges to Dr Devious. She was expecting only one, as is the custom. But, said Sid Craig, “I wanted her to remember Dr Devious and the American.”

“Actually, I didn’t know anything about the English Derby,” Craig acknowledged. “I didn’t even know where it was run. And I certainly didn’t realize it was that important.”

At one point during the post-race celebration, the Queen got a friendly pat on the back from the Craigs’ American trainer, Ron McAnally, who engineered the $2.5-million purchase of the colt along with bloodstock agent Murray Friedlander.

In the circles of royal etiquette, McAnally had committed a king-size gaffe. Did he realize what he was doing?

“Yes,” replied the Hall of Famer, who trained champions John Henry and Bayakoa.

Did he care?

“No, not really,” said McAnally, who was accompanied by his wife, Debbie. “I meant no disrespect. The Queen just seemed like a very nice person who loved horse racing. She said she was a big fan of John Henry.”

McAnally can be forgiven if he’s a little blase about royalty. The kid from Kentucky, who grew up in an orphanage, moves in some pretty lofty circles these days. McAnally has been fielding congratulations left and right for the Dr Devious jackpot and even got a call from a homesick Texan a long way from the nearest mutuel window.

It was Robert Strauss, U.S. ambassador to Russia, and he wanted to buy a horse.

Francois Boutin had the Derby winner in his barn all along. Only it wasn’t Arazi, and it wasn’t the Kentucky Derby. It was a horse named Polytain, who was claimed from the fabled French trainer in March, then resurfaced last Sunday and won the French Derby at odds of 36-1.

C’est la vie.

To be fair, Boutin trains more than 200 horses in his Chantilly stable. A good one is bound to slip between the cracks once in a while. Seabiscuit was claimed from Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons. Stymie was tagged for $1,500. Someone could have had John Henry for $25,000, and so on. Boutin has plenty of company in his misery.

Polytain ran his first race March 30 at Maisons-Laffitte, a suburban Paris track, and won the Prix de Crespieres. Don’t be impressed. It was only a $40,000 maiden claimer with a fancy name. He won, and was claimed by trainer Antonio Spanu for an Italian client.

“Spanu trains horses for me over there,” Bobby Frankel said at Hollywood Park when he heard the French Derby news last Sunday.

“Can you believe that? Claims a horse for 40, supplements him to the race for another 40, then wins a half a million dollars, plus 50% on top of that as a French-bred. I love it!”

Little wonder. Although he trains these days for diamond dealers and Arab royalty, Frankel used to turn claimers into stakes horses all the time. But he never pulled off a Triple Crown race with a claimer. Spanu, 38, a native of the island of Sardinia, has just become Frankel’s hero.

Harry Henson, whose trademark “Nnn-there-they go!” echoed through some of racing’s greatest moments, died Thursday at his home in El Paso. He was 78.

Beginning in 1938, when Henson retired as a jockey, his bell-bottom voice was heard at Longacres, Arlington Park, Washington Park, Del Mar and, from 1958 to 1982, Hollywood Park. Any young racing fan who grew up in Southern California in the 1960s could do Henson’s “Native Diiiver going to the front” to perfection.

The family has requested that any donations be made to the Don MacBeth Memorial Jockey Fund.

Horse Racing Notes

Dick Lundy will be running Allen Paulson’s Fowda against Sid Craig’s Paseana on Saturday in the $150,000 Milady Handicap at Hollywood Park. In her last race at the track, Fowda won the 1991 Hollywood Oaks. . . . Lundy reported that Dinard, winner of the 1991 Santa Anita Derby, is nowhere near a return to competition, as the gelding continues to recover from a variety of ailments at Paulson’s Brookside Farm in Bonsall. “He got pretty jammed up,” said Lundy, who took Dinard out of training after his second-place finish to Best Pal in the Strub Stakes, Feb. 9. “He’s going to need a little more time.”

Nick Zito, trainer of Strike The Gold, has been accused of second-degree assault by free-lance writer Stephanie Diaz. Diaz, who was writing a feature on the Zito stable, said Zito struck her with a program at his Belmont Park barn last Saturday, shortly before he sent out Strike The Gold to win the Nassau County Handicap. Zito has denied the charge.

The $500,000 Suburban Handicap, normally run on July 4, has been switched to July 18 at Belmont Park to fill the gap in the American Racing Championship Series caused by the cancellation of the New England Classic at Rockingham Park in Salem, N.H. The last-minute switch has bothered some West Coast owners and trainers, but not Bobby Frankel. “Works out perfect for me,” said the trainer. “Now I can run Defensive Play in the Gold Cup here and then the Suburban.” Defensive Play finished second to Another Review in the Californian last Sunday and will be among the favorites in the $1,000,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on June 27.

Marquetry, Frankel’s winner of both the ’91 New England Classic and Hollywood Gold Cup, will run at Hollywood Sunday in the $150,000 John Henry Handicap at nine furlongs on the turf. The white-stockinged chestnut was narrowly beaten in the ’91 John Henry by Pharisien. Classic Fame, runner-up to Quest For Fame in the Hollywood Turf Handicap, will be Marquetry’s chief rival.