Horse Racing / Bill Christine : Breeders’ Cup Winners of 1987 Have Disappointed Their Backers in ’88

A victory by Epitome in an allowance race last Saturday at Belmont Park was a reminder of how little success the winners of the 1987 Breeders’ Cup races have had this year.

One Breeders’ Cup winner--Theatrical--was retired to stud, but of the other 6, only Miesque, the European filly, has won an important race this year. And even Miesque was beaten by Soviet Star, a colt, in Paris last month.

Three of the Breeders’ Cup winners--Ferdinand, Success Express and Sacahuista--are winless in 1988. Epitome hadn’t won this year until last Saturday, and Very Subtle has won only once in half a dozen starts.

Very Subtle scored a $34.80 upset in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, beating, Groovy, who went off at odds of 4-5, by 4 lengths. But because Groovy was unbeaten the rest of the year, he still beat out Very Subtle in the voting for champion sprinter.

Very Subtle started off this year with a 9-length victory at Santa Anita on Jan. 2, but the 4-year-old filly hasn’t won since. She had a couple of seconds, a third and a fourth, but in her last start, the Triple Bend Handicap at Hollywood Park, Very Subtle finished seventh at 4-5 odds, beating only 2 horses.

She will make her first appearance in 4 1/2 months today, running in a peculiar spot, the 7-furlong, $75,000 Majorette Handicap at Louisiana Downs.

Trainer Mel Stute is blaming himself for Very Subtle’s poor year, just as he did when Snow Chief fell off his game.

“I tried to make a distance horse out of her, and I think that took away a lot of her speed when we went back to sprinting her,” Stute said. “The change in distances got her confused.”

At Santa Anita this winter, Very Subtle was unable to win twice at 1 1/8 miles and once at 1 1/16 miles. Now she’s sprinting again, with Stute hoping that he has enough time to get her ready for the 6-furlong Breeders’ Cup Sprint Nov. 5 at Churchill Downs.

The main reason Very Subtle is running at Louisiana Downs today is because Mel Stute has another horse, Blade of the Ball, running there Sunday in the $1-million Super Derby.

A field of about 10 3-year-olds is expected to run today--a group of colts who, with the exception of Seeking the Gold, weren’t good enough to run with the division’s best horses this year.

Seeking the Gold, who has come close to beating Forty Niner twice this summer, will be favored. Also running are Lively One, Silver Circus, Private Terms, Happyasalark Tomas, Jim’s Orbit, Primal, Tiger Star and possibly Cefis.

Private Terms, undefeated until he ran ninth in the Kentucky Derby, has won a Super Derby prep at Louisiana Downs, beating Happyasalark Tomas by a neck.

Before the Woodward Handicap at Belmont last Saturday, Waquoit was considered a good horse. Still, New York bettors figured he had posted too many of his 18 victories at Suffolk Downs to be considered seriously.

He is 1 of only 3 horses--after Discovery and Forego--to have won 2 straight Brooklyn Handicaps at Belmont, but he was sent off at 16-1 in the Woodward.

Waquoit ran the kind of race that Judge Angelucci did in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last year against Ferdinand and Alysheba. Ahead all the way Saturday, Waquoit was overtaken by Forty Niner at the top of the stretch, but he didn’t give up. He was third at the finish, but the 5-year-old gray horse was only two necks behind Alysheba and Forty Niner.

“He was just a hair short,” said Waquoit’s trainer, Guido Federico. “He’ll whip these horses next time, in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.”

The $1-million Jockey Club Gold Cup Oct. 8 is, at 1 1/2 miles, too far for Forty Niner, and Alysheba is not expected to run. It will be the kind of subpar field that Waquoit beat twice in the Brooklyn Handicap, which is also 1 1/2 miles.

After winning the Woodward with Alysheba last Saturday, Chris McCarron went down to Maryland, where he had raced as an apprentice when he set the record of 546 wins in a year in 1974, and rode 2 winners and 3 second-place finishers in the Maryland Million at Laurel.

Last Sunday’s Maryland Million was a program with nine races worth $1 million. McCarron won the $150,000 Ladies Stakes with Chapel of Dreams and the $100,000 Sprint Handicap with King’s Nest. Chapel of Dreams had won stakes at Golden Gate Fields, Hollywood Park and Del Mar this year and was making her first start since running second to Annoconnor in the Ramona Handicap at Del Mar.

Laffit Pincay also won a race at Laurel, riding Master Speaker to victory in the $100,000 Maryland Turf. Pincay finished second, half a length behind Mister S.M., in the $200,000 Budweiser Maryland Classic, the richest race on the program.

Horse Racing Notes

Lefty Nickerson, one of John Henry’s trainers when the gelding was based in New York, is switching his operation to Santa Anita and will be in business there for the Oak Tree meeting that opens Oct. 5. When Sam Rubin, John Henry’s owner, wanted to send the horse to California, it was Nickerson who recommended Ron McAnally to train. McAnally shared his commissions from John Henry’s earnings with Nickerson for the rest of the horse’s career, a gesture that netted Nickerson about $250,000.

Belmont Park began parlay wagering Wednesday. Bettors can bet on 2 to 6 races in advance, with any winnings automatically carrying over to the next race. Another bet that may be offered at New York tracks next year would allow a bettor to pick his favorite number or numbers and buy a ticket that would cover them for the entire year. That would be a race track’s concession to the lottery mentality.

Sabulose, the 2-year-old colt whose name is supposed to mean gritty, which describes his running style, is actually running with a misspelled name. The correct spelling is sabulous . . . . Belmont trainer Shug McGaughey has 2 undefeated horses in his barn--the filly Personal Ensign, who has won 11 straight, and the sprinter Mining, who has won all 5 of his starts.

The 6 groups that have applied for a 20-year lease to operate Del Mar starting in 1990 have made their presentations, and in-fighting is under way with members of the State Race Track Leasing Commission, which will make the decision. The winner probably won’t be known until December.