Horse Racing / Bill Christine : There Is a Huge Crowd in Oak Tree’s Future

Although Oak Tree broke its attendance record Wednesday with an opening-day crowd of 60,002 at Santa Anita, Herman Smith doesn’t have any idea what the track will draw when it plays host to the seven Breeders’ Cup races on Nov. 1, 1986.

“I’ve heard estimates of between 75,000 and 100,000, so I imagine we’ll be in there someplace,” said Smith, who is executive vice president of Oak Tree.

The record for a Santa Anita meeting was set last March when 85,527 watched the Santa Anita Handicap.

Bob Hibbert, a Houston oil driller who is in town to watch his 3-year-old, Floating Reserve, run Saturday in the Volante Handicap, is not as hesitant as Smith in projecting what the Breeders’ Cup will draw.

“To watch the Breeders’ Cup next year, you’ll have to get here the day before,” said Hibbert, adding that he plans to reserve a couple of hotel rooms near the track for the 1986 weekend.

Smith said he anticipates no problem in ironing out a couple of contract details before the Breeders’ Cup group officially assigns the 1986 races to Oak Tree.

“We’re talking about small differences in the areas of promotion and seating--seating for the people who’ll be running horses in the races,” Smith said. “It won’t be long before there’s agreement in those areas and the contract is signed.”

Although Oak Tree’s 17th year at Santa Anita opened Wednesday, the racing association’s 16th season is still not history.

The winning time for last year’s Henry P. Russell Handicap at Oak Tree was 2:01, but by the time the race gets out of the courts, it will have lasted more than a year.

On Sept. 19, Dick Craigo, an attorney representing Robert Sangster, filed a lawsuit in L.A. Superior Court, asking that the California Horse Racing Board’s decision on the outcome of the Russell be overturned. Last July, the board disallowed an appeal by Sangster, whose horse, The Noble Player, finished first in the Russell, but later was disqualified when it was determined that he was ineligible to start in the race because of previous earnings.

Because of the board’s ruling, the $38,800 winner’s share of the purse was awarded to Trakady, who had finished second, 1 lengths behind The Noble Player.

Craigo says that too much time--10 days after the race--lapsed before track officials discovered the error in The Noble Player’s record. He also says that the horse’s earnings were incorrectly posted on his record by the Bay Meadows racing office following the race prior to the Russell and that trainer John Gosden shouldn’t be penalized for the error.

The Noble Player still isn’t eligible for this year’s Russell Handicap, scheduled for Nov. 11, and now neither is Trakady, because he won last year’s running. Too bad. A match race between the two might save a lot of time in court.

Wayne Lukas was the only trainer to start four horses in the seven Breeders’ Cup races last year at Hollywood Park. Lukas didn’t win any of the races, but Life’s Magic finished second in the Distaff Stakes, clinching the divisional title for 3-year-old fillies, and Tank’s Prospect also captured second in the Juvenile.

This year, when the Breeders’ Cup runs seven races worth $10 million at Aqueduct on Nov. 2, Lukas again expects to be the leading trainer in terms of starters. He could saddle as many as five horses in just the Juvenile Fillies Stakes, including Family Style, Arewehavingfunyet and Twilight Ridge.

Other Lukas probables for the Breeders’ Cup races are Ketoh and Sovereign Don in the Juvenile, Lady’s Secret in the Distaff and Mt. Livermore and Pancho Villa in the Sprint.

“We might try Pancho Villa in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (on the grass), so he won’t be running against Mt. Livermore,” Lukas said.

Lukas also said that Universal Stables, one of his clients, is giving him a European horse who might run in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Stakes. Lukas said he couldn’t name the horse until the deal takes place but the horse has been identified as Khaelan, a 3-year-old colt who has won five races in England and France. With that horse, the trainer could have starters in six of the seven races--all but the $3 million Classic.

Family Style was upset in last Sunday’s Matron Stakes at Belmont Park, finishing second by a neck to Musical Lark.

Lukas attributed the loss to Family Style’s position on the rail. “Our filly was tons the best and should have won by three lengths,” Lukas said. “But she got trapped on the rail and that’s what beat her.”

Laffit Pincay, who rode Family Style, had a similar problem with Greinton in the Marlboro Cup last month. California horses are learning in the big races that the inside is not the place to be at Belmont.

Racing Notes

It looks as though Precisionist will run in the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 2 at Aqueduct, after all. The 4-year-old colt, who swept the Strub series early in the year, then was sidelined most of the summer with sore feet, has returned to training and trainer Ross Fenstermaker is pointing him toward the six-furlong Breeders’ Cup Sprint Stakes. Precisionist hasn’t run since he finished second to Greinton in the Hollywood Gold Cup in June. . . . The Breeders’ Cup races in 1987 are scheduled for Kentucky, probably Churchill Downs, and in ’88 they will be run in Florida, where Gulfstream Park is favored over Hialeah to get the date. . . . Hollywood Park announced 16 stakes races worth more than $3.5 million for its 31-day fall season that opens on Nov. 13 and goes through Dec. 24. Major races on the schedule include the Hollywood Derby on Nov. 17, the Matriarch on Nov. 24, the Hollywood Starlet on Dec. 1, the Hollywood Turf Cup Dec. 8 and the Hollywood Futurity Dec. 15. The Futurity is a $1 million race, and the Starlet and the Turf Cup are $500,000 events. . . . Jockey Eddie Maple, who won last month’s Super Derby with Creme Fraiche at Louisiana Downs, has won six out of eight races worth $100,000 or more at that track.