$1-Million Hollywood Futurity : Lukas Sends Filly Family Style Against 9 Colts

The only time Family Style hasn’t been either first or second in a race was when she finished third in her first career start last July at Belmont Park.

Trainer Wayne Lukas blames that particular performance on the Daily Racing Form.

Specifically, one page of the Form, a loose sheet that blew and fluttered from the infield onto the track, right in front of Family Style as she made her run through the stretch.

“She got excited because of that paper and was all the way to the outside rail by the time she got to the wire,” Lukas said of his 2-year-old filly, who faces nine colts today in the $1-million Hollywood Futurity at Hollywood Park.

Since that third place in her debut, Family Style has run eight races, winning four and finishing second four times. The wins include major victories in the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga, the Arlington Lassie at Hawthorne and the Frizette at Belmont. Family Style has earned more than $800,000 for owner Gene Klein, who reportedly paid $350,000 for the daughter of State Dinner in a private purchase.

In Family Style’s last two starts, she was second at Aqueduct, behind stablemate Twilight Ridge in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes, and behind I’m Sweets in the Demoiselle.

In the 1 1/8-mile Demoiselle, which was the first time Family Style tried running farther than a mile, she finished on the rail, just inside and a neck in back of I’m Sweets.

“She just won’t run when she gets next to the rail,” Lukas said. “I think it’s because of that incident with the paper in her first start. It’s stayed with her.”

Family Style will break from the No. 6 post in the one-mile Futurity today, with Laffit Pincay riding her again. Pincay, who has been aboard Family Style for all of her important wins, was riding at Hollywood Park the day Jorge Velasquez took over in the Demoiselle.

The Pincay-Lukas-Klein trio is looking at possible Eclipse Awards by the boxful this year. Pincay, with a record $13.1 million in purses, is favored to win the jockey award, although Velasquez, who holds a clear advantage in stakes wins, will get some support in the voting.

Klein’s horses have won more than $5 million in purses, and his former football team, the San Diego Chargers, was never this much fun. On Breeders’ Cup day, Klein won two of the seven million-dollar races, with Twilight Ridge and Life’s Magic, whom he owns in partnership with Melvin Hatley.

Lukas’ far-flung barn has won $10.7 million in purses and 66 stakes, both records, and he is a cinch to win an elusive Eclipse as Trainer of the Year. Family Style and Lady’s Secret, a 3-year-old filly, could also win divisional titles for their owner and trainer. Family Style’s chances increased when Twilight Ridge was upset in the Hollywood Starlet on Dec. 1.

The unmistakable trend this fall at Hollywood Park has been for Eclipse candidates to stub their toes. Lukas hopes the voters understand.

“On one hand, you’re encouraged to run your horses, because the tracks say they need to keep the stars going to draw crowds,” Lukas said. “But then you take the chance of getting beat and hurting yourself in the Eclipse voting. (Owner) Fred Hooper could have stayed in the barn with Precisionist and helped himself more than running (and losing, in the National Sprint Championship).

“But he ran the horse, and that shouldn’t count against him. It shouldn’t count against the other horses, either, who had great years but then just didn’t happen to win their last races.”

Trying to beat colts with a filly is nothing new for Lukas. He did it with Terlingua in the 1978 Hollywood Juvenile and with Althea in the 1984 Arkansas Derby. Lukas even ran two fillies--unsuccessfully--when he started Life’s Magic and Althea in the 1984 Kentucky Derby.

It cost Klein an extra $50,000 to get Family Style into today’s race, because she wasn’t originally nominated.

For a while last week, Lukas was thinking of also running a colt, Badgerland, in the Futurity. But then it was discovered that he would require a $50,000 supplementary fee, too.

“I own half that horse,” said assistant trainer Jeff Lukas, who is Wayne’s son. “And I don’t have the $25,000 to put up.”

Horse Racing Notes

A one-hour operation turned into 2 1/2 hours Saturday morning when Greg Ferraro inserted three screws into the lower left foreleg of Judge Smells, fusing the cannon bone that the undefeated 2-year-old colt had broken during a gallop Friday morning at Hollywood Park. Trainer Tom Walker said that Judge Smells, who had been expected to run in the Hollywood Futurity, will probably be sidelined for six months. “This was a real blow to all of us, including Calumet Farm,” Walker said. “Calumet hasn’t had a real good horse in some time, and this colt had the potential to be one.”