Weekend Racing at Oak Tree : Lukas, Stutes Play Numbers Game

Depth is the key to trainer Wayne Lukas’ stable winning a record 57 stakes races this year. With horses based in New York, California and several points in between, the Lukas barn has won those 57 stakes with 24 different runners.

The Lukas stable’s depth is greatest in the 2-year-old divisions. The trainer nominated 16 fillies for today’s $200,000 Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita, more than 10% of the total.

Lukas has only one starter in the Oak Leaf, and that may be all he’ll need since she is Arewehavingfunyet, who won the Del Mar Debutante and finished second against Tasso and other colts in the Del Mar Futurity.

But one filly Arewehavingfunyet will have to beat in the Oak Leaf is Sari’s Heroine, whose trainer, Mel Stute, will be using tactics similar to Lukas’ both today and in Sunday’s $200,000 Norfolk Stakes for 2-year-old colts.

Stute will try to beat Lukas with numbers. In the Oak Leaf, it’s one against one. In the Norfolk, however, the Stutes--Mel and his 28-year-old son, Gary--will start three colts against Lukas’ two. Mel will saddle Snow Chief and Darby Fair, and Gary will start Au Bon Marche. Lukas will be represented by Louisiana Slew and Badger Land.

If Snow Chief runs through the stretch in the 1 1/16-mile Norfolk the way he did in the seven-furlong Sunny Slope Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 2, the Stutes may need only one horse. Louisiana Slew, the $2.9-million yearling, won the Sunny Slope by a neck, but Snow Chief made up about four lengths from the quarter pole to the wire and was running fastest at the end.

Mel Stute said that Snow Chief is as good as Telly’s Pop, the $6,000 yearling who won the Norfolk in 1975 and the California Derby in ’76 before a knee injury prematurely ended his career.

“He acts like he wants to run farther,” Stute said of Snow Chief, bred by Carl Grinstead of Chula Vista and owned in partnership by Grinstead and Ben Rochelle of Beverly Hills. “He ran a good mile at Del Mar with hardly any training.”

Snow Chief’s mile race was the Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 11, when he finished third behind Tasso and Arewehavingfunyet. Before the Futurity, Snow Chief, bothered by a shin inflammation, had run only once in two months, winning the six-furlong Rancho Santa Fe Stakes at Del Mar. That must have surprised even Stute, who also started Little Red Cloud, the 4-5 favorite who finished second.

Stute’s other Norfolk starter, Darby Fair, earned his way into the race with a 2 1/2-length win in the Gateway to Glory Stakes on Sept. 26 at Pomona.

“I hadn’t thought of him for the Norfolk,” Stute said. “But in that Pomona race he had such a good time that I thought he deserved a chance. He went 1 1/16 miles in 1:43 2/5, which is one of the fastest times for a 2-year-old at that distance this year.”

Au Bon Marche, Gary Stute’s Norfolk starter, closed willingly to win the mile Fall Festival Juvenile Stakes at Bay Meadows eight days ago. That was the colt’s first stakes appearance after his maiden win at Pomona on Sept. 19.

Until five years ago, Gary worked as his father’s assistant, and he is used to working with good horses, having cared for Bold ‘n Rulling leading up to his sixth-place finish in the 1980 Kentucky Derby.

When Mel Stute leaves for a two-week vacation in New Zealand and Australia on Monday, Gary will be in charge of his own horses as well as his father’s. That’s a familiar arrangement. Wayne Lukas’ son, Jeff, used to backstop for his father, and now he’s in charge of the barn’s division in New York, where they have scored 27 of their stakes wins.

Horse Racing Notes Trainer Eddie Gregson said that Laffit Pincay will replace Gary Stevens on Tsunami Slew in the Breeders’ Cup at Aqueduct on Nov. 2. . . . Stevens, who suffered multiple injuries in a training spill at Santa Anita on Thursday, was reported to be resting comfortably and making satisfactory progress at Arcadia Methodist Hospital. . . . The nine-horse field in the Norfolk starts at the rail with Truth, Fernando Toro riding, and continues toward the outside with Snow Chief, Alex Solis; Don B. Blue, Chris McCarron; Lord Allison, Ruben Hernandez; Au Bon Marche, Eddie Delahoussaye; Our Grey Fox, Rafael Meza; Darby Fair, Antonio Castanon; Louisiana Slew, Pat Valenzuela, and Badger Land, Pincay. . . . Lord Allison is a supplementary starter at a cost of $7,500.