Horse Racing / Bill Christine : Breeders’ Cup Program Could Go Back to New York as Early as 1987

The weather will always be iffy in November, and some fans from Maryland said that Aqueduct makes Bowie look like a palace, but look for the Breeders’ Cup series to return to New York ahead of schedule.

Would you believe as soon as 1987?

That’s just about what John Nerud said when he talked about the future of the $10-million, seven-race program that began at Hollywood Park in 1984 and was held at Aqueduct last Saturday.

Nerud, the president and general manager of Tartan Farm, is only one man on a Breeders’ Cup board of directors that numbers more than 50, but he has considerable clout. For one thing, he is a member of the five-man committee that picks the sites for the races.

Although Oak Tree at Santa Anita has not yet signed a contract with the Breeders’ Cup, Nerud said the races will be held in Arcadia next year. Kentucky had been penciled in for 1987 and Southern Florida for ‘88, but now, according to Nerud, the Breeders’ Cup people are having problems with both of those locations.

“Churchill Downs has some trouble regarding lawsuits, and we wouldn’t want to go there if they still have problems,” Nerud said. “In Florida, they don’t have laws that allow either simulcasting or Sunday racing, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll have laws passed by the time we want to go there. Florida has a history of not being able to get laws passed that are favorable to racing.”

In simulcasting, one track’s races are televised at other tracks, where fans can bet them. This year, the Breeders’ Cup was piped into 36 tracks that bet $13.2 million, almost one-fourth of it at Santa Anita.

The Breeders’ Cup races are held on Saturdays because NBC, which has the television rights, doesn’t want a conflict with its National Football League coverage on Sundays, but cup officials need Sunday racing in order to offer horsemen a full weekend of stakes races.

A spokesman for Churchill Downs was surprised to hear about Nerud’s comments. The Louisville track, home of the Kentucky Derby, became the obvious site for the Breeders’ Cup in Kentucky after Keeneland, in nearby Lexington, announced recently that it would not apply for the series.

“We’re involved in some litigation, but I don’t consider any of it major,” the Churchill spokesman said. “Mainly, it concerns disagreements over tickets to the Derby, and it seems as though we’re always involved in a few of those.”

Earlier this year, there was an attempted takeover of Churchill Downs by the family of Louis Wolfson.

“I haven’t heard anything recently, since the initial bid was rejected by the board,” the Churchill Downs spokesman said. “But I don’t think we’ve heard the last of them, and lately they’ve been so quiet that it makes you wonder what they’re up to.”

Nerud lives in New York, where his son, Jan, trains his horses, including Cozzene, the winner of Saturday’s $1-million Breeders’ Cup Mile Stakes.

“No event is considered national in scope until it’s held in New York,” Nerud said. “You could hold the Breeders’ Cup 10 times and it still wouldn’t be a prestige event if none of those 10 runnings were in New York. The event arrived this year. It was held in New York and drew the greatest fields ever assembled for one day of racing.”

Aqueduct did indeed have overall fields superior to those that competed at Hollywood Park in ‘84, mainly because of the quality of the European horses this time, but the national TV ratings, due out today, will show that NBC didn’t do as well as last year, primarily because the four-hour telecast started at an early hour, 9:30 a.m., on the West Coast.

The overnight ratings in the major markets showed that the telecast was watched by 22% fewer people than last year. The biggest drops occurred in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“It’s too bad the ratings don’t reflect all the people watching at those 36 race tracks around the country,” Tom Merritt of NBC said. “For instance, all those people who went to Santa Anita last Saturday could have done us a favor by turning on their television sets before they walked out the door.”

Of the seven Breeders’ Cup winners this year, only two, Cozzene and Life’s Magic, will be retired for breeding. Cozzene has run his last race, and Life’s Magic, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, will run some more at Santa Anita before she is bred to a popular Kentucky stallion in the spring.

As for the other winners:

--Tasso will get a rest, then be prepared for a Triple Crown campaign at trainer Neil Drysdale’s barn at Santa Anita.

--Twilight Ridge is scheduled to begin her 3-year-old season at Santa Anita.

--Precisionist, who will continue to race as a 5-year-old, will end this season by making at least one appearance at Hollywood Park. His impressive race in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint made him a belated candidate in the puzzling Horse of the Year situation.

--Pebbles, instead of running in the Washington, D.C., International at Laurel on Nov. 16, is going home for another European campaign, with the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita her ’86 objective.

--Proud Truth will eventually be shipped to California, where the Strub Series and the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap are the objectives.

Racing Notes Instead of clarifying divisional championships, the Breeders’ Cup results tended to confuse voters. Tasso or Ogygian as 2-year-old colt? Lady’s Secret or Mom’s Command as 3-year-old filly? Spend a Buck, Proud Truth or Chief’s Crown as 3-year-old colt? Is Precisionist now the sprint champion? Pebbles or Estrapade as best female on grass? There’s also a scramble among the male grass runners and in the handicap division on dirt. . . . Voters will have to decide whether to penalize horses that didn’t run in the Breeders’ Cup. Tasso deserves the 2-year-old title based on his record, which includes important wins in California, Kentucky and New York, but will the New York bias help Ogygian, the best East Coast 2-year-old who didn’t run in the Breeders’ Cup because of a shin injury? “I’m not a voter, but I’d say we’ve got a good shot now,” said Neil Drysdale, Tasso’s trainer. Said John Nerud, who races Ogygian: “Our colt’s still the champion. The other colts, they took turns beating each other.” . . . Imperial Choice, the Canadian horse who ran sixth after taking a brief lead in the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic, broke a bone in his left foreleg. A gelding, Imperial Choice underwent surgery this week, and an attempt will be made to bring him back to the races. He has already had surgery on both knees, similar to the operation that was performed on Kentucky Derby winner Spend a Buck.