Weekend Racing at Oak Tree : Estrapade Goes for Yellow Ribbon

Does Estrapade have a chance in the Eclipse Awards voting after the Breeders’ Cup?

Probably not. Pebbles, the English-bred filly, was too impressive before too many people in winning the $2-million Breeders’ Cup Turf Stakes a week ago at Aqueduct.

After traffic problems on the final turn, Pebbles stole through on the rail to win the race in course-record time and probably also stole the Eclipse Award away from Estrapade. Before the Breeders’ Cup, Estrapade had been considered the favorite in the voting for the year’s best female runner on grass.

Now, even a win in Sunday’s $400,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Santa Anita isn’t likely to recoup an Eclipse for Estrapade, although it would leave the 5-year-old mare with a very good 1985 record. Going into the Yellow Ribbon, Estrapade has four wins, three seconds and a third in nine starts, with major victories in the Santa Ana Handicap at Santa Anita last March and in the Gamely Handicap at Hollywood Park in June.

But Estrapade hasn’t beaten males--the closest she came was a second to Prince True in the San Juan Invitational Handicap at Santa Anita in April--and she didn’t run in the Breeders’ Cup. It would have cost Summa Stable, her owner, $240,000 to supplement into the race, and also she is a bleeder who would have been forced to run without medication because of New York rules.

Pebbles, on the other hand, has beaten males in both England and New York, and most of the voters were either at Aqueduct or watching on television a week ago when this charismatic, beer-guzzling filly held off Strawberry Road in the stretch.

Charlie Whittingham, who trains Estrapade, has been down this road before--having a horse who probably deserves an Eclipse but won’t get one. Flash back to 1978, when Whittingham had another 5-year-old, another offspring of Vaguely Noble, in his barn.

This superlative runner was Exceller. All he did was win 7 of 10 starts, including the San Juan, the Hollywood Invitational, the Sunset and the Oak Tree Invitational in California and the Jockey Club Gold Cup in New York. In the Jockey Club, Exceller beat Seattle Slew at equal weights, handing the ’77 Triple Crown champion only the third loss of his career.

For all that, Exceller got shut out in the voting and still heads everybody’s list as Best Horse Never To Win an Eclipse Award. Affirmed, the Triple Crown champion but fifth in the Jockey Club, won Horse of the Year; Exceller finished second to Seattle Slew in the handicap division, and Mac Diarmida beat out Exceller for best turf horse.

“I wouldn’t think the voters could go for Pebbles just off her one race,” Whittingham says of this year’s election. “If she had gone on to win the Washington D.C. International or come out here and won the Hollywood Turf Cup, then you could make a case for her. But she’s got only one U.S. race on her record.”

Pebbles has gone back to England, to prepare for the 1986 European campaign. Voters are only supposed to consider U.S. and Canadian races in judging Horse of the Year, but when they cast their ballots, human nature will prevent them from expunging Pebbles’ two major wins in England prior to the Breeders’ Cup.

Pat Eddery, who rode Pebbles in the Breeders’ Cup, is in a position to become a double spoiler for Estrapade, having a mount aboard Zaizafon in the Yellow Ribbon. In her last start, Zaizafon ran third in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot Sept. 28.

Horse Racing Notes A field of 12 fillies and mares was entered for the Yellow Ribbon, which is 1 miles on grass. In post-position order, with jockeys, they are as follows: Zaizafon, Pat Eddery; Justicara, Eric Saint-Martin; L’Attrayante, Eddie Delahoussaye; Fact Finder, Pat Valenzuela; Johnica, Chris McCarron; Alydar’s Best, Rafael Meza; Capo Di Monte, Angel Cordero; Tamarinda, Fernando Toro; Estrapade, Bill Shoemaker; Love Smitten, Laffit Pincay; Persona, Gerard DuBroeucq, and La Koumia, Ray Sibille. . . . Estrapade was third in the Yellow Ribbon last year, 3 1/2 lengths behind the winner, Sabin. . . . A field of six runs today in the Alibhai Handicap, and the Oak Tree season closes Monday with the Henry P. Russell Handicap. . . . Hollywood Park’s fall season, which runs through Dec. 24, opens next Wednesday. . . . Hollywood will not offer the Pick Nine wager, which was pioneered by Oak Tree as a means of combatting the new state lottery. “We were hoping that the Pick Nine would be successful,” said Marje Everett, Hollywood’s chief executive officer. “But at this time, it does not seem to us that this is what the public wants.”