Lukas, a Winner at Hialeah, Has 2 Horses in Santa Anita Oaks Today

Ketoh may be dying. The filly Arewehavingfunyet couldn’t beat the colts. Big Play may need more time. Family Style and Twilight Ridge were beaten in their last starts.

But trainer Wayne Lukas keeps reaching back for more. He has the reserves to do so, having nominated 16 horses to this year’s Triple Crown series.

One of those 16, Badger Land, ran the race Lukas thought he might in Saturday’s Everglades Stakes at Hialeah, winning by four lengths and breaking the track record by covering 1 1/8 miles in 1:46 1/5.

Lukas’ 3-year-old filly group didn’t fare as well Saturday at New Orleans, where Life at the Top, a winner over Twilight Ridge at Santa Anita, finished fourth, almost nine lengths behind winner Tiffany Lass in the $150,000 Fair Grounds Oaks. Life at the Top led for six furlongs, then faded in the 1 1/16-mile stake.

That’s one Oaks that got away, but there’s another in the offing today, when Lukas will saddle Family Style, last year’s 2-year-old filly champion, and Twilight Ridge, the third-place finisher in the voting, in the $150,000 Santa Anita Oaks.

They only have four horses to beat, but one is Hidden Light, who is undefeated in three starts, trained by Charlie Whittingham and ridden by Bill Shoemaker. The rest of the classy field consists of Trim Colony, a stakes winner trained by Chris Speckert, one of Whittingham’s former assistants; and two Laz Barrera horses--Laz’s Joy and An Empress.

“Family Style was short for her last race,” Lukas said, talking about a third-place finish in the Bonnie Lass Stakes at Gulfstream on March 5. “Twilight Ridge needed a race, too. I told (jockey) Chris (McCarron) that she might be only ready to run seven-eighths of a mile in that last race.”

Twilight Ridge ran second to Life at the Top in the mile Las Virgenes at Santa Anita on March 1.

Lukas is having second thoughts about sending out Arewehavingfunyet against colts so early in the year, although racing against--and beating--colts with fillies is a Lukas trademark. Arewehavingfunyet ran fourth in a five-horse field in the San Felipe Handicap last Sunday.

Even before Life at the Top’s disappointing result Saturday, Lukas seemed to be having reservations about sending the filly all the way to New Orleans.

“Just think if we had run all four of our fillies at Santa Anita Sunday,” Lukas had said Friday. “With the horses we already have, wouldn’t that have been some field?”

Lukas became the first trainer in Kentucky Derby history to start two fillies in the same race when Life’s Magic finished eighth and Althea was 19th at Churchill Downs in 1984. Right now, though, it’s unlikely Lukas will start any fillies in this year’s Derby on May 3, but he isn’t closing the door.

“We plan to have most of them there for the Kentucky Oaks, the day before the Derby,” Lukas said. “It will all depend on how the Derby comes up. We can enter the fillies in both the Oaks and the Derby, then decide which place to run them.”

Lukas feels that Badger Land is currently his best hope to give him his first Derby win.

“We planned to bring him back to California after the Florida Derby, but he ran so well in that race that we decided to keep him there,” Lukas said. “It’s just as well, because the weather was good in Florida and it rained a lot here.

“I really like the way he’s maturing and improving. He’s more than 16 hands (64 inches) and is really coming on. This time of year, I like to have a horse who’s getting better rather than one who’s possibly already reached his peak and might be flattening out.”

The plan for Badger Land is to keep him in Florida for the Flamingo Stakes on April 5. Lukas will get a Kentucky Derby line on Big Play when he runs him against Snow Chief in the Santa Anita Derby on April 6. Big Play was a distant second to Variety Road in the San Felipe.

Although Big Play was a $175,000 yearling, Lukas ran him for a $40,000 claiming price when he made his first start in January.

“He hadn’t been very competitive in the mornings,” Lukas said about risking the loss of the colt. “We worked him against mediocre horses and he had trouble beating them.”

Ketoh is just trying to beat the odds and survive an intestinal attack that’s left him in serious condition in a Chino veterinary hospital for more than a week. Lukas said that the colt’s problems have been complicated by a liver ailment.

Having a promising young horse go wrong is not new for Lukas. In 1982, Stalwart, the West Coast’s top 3-year-old prospect, suffered tendon injuries and was retired. Landaluce, the champion 2-year-old filly in 1982, died at the end of that year due to a viral infection. And Saratoga Six, an undefeated colt in 1984, broke down at Santa Anita and never made it to his 3-year-old season.

The difference this year is that Lukas has more reinforcements. The way the 3-year-olds are falling by the wayside--Ogygian, Storm Cat, Danzig Connection and Ketoh, just to name four--he may need to be 16 deep.

Horse Racing Notes

Zabaleta, who couldn’t beat Ketoh at Santa Anita, ran at Aqueduct Saturday and won the faster division of the Bay Shore Stakes by 4 1/2 lengths. Pillaster, the even-money favorite, finished sixth. Zabaleta, trained by John Gosden and ridden by Darrel McHargue, passed the second-place finisher, Groovy, at the eighth pole to win the seven-furlong stake in 1:22. The second division was won by 9-1 longshot Buck Aly in 1:23 4/5. Landing Plot finished second to Buck Aly, with Raja’s Revenge, the 2-1 favorite, running third. . . . Fair Grounds winner Tiffany Lass is owned by Aaron Jones and trained by Angel Barrera, Laz’ brother. . . . One Magic Moment and Glow ran 2-3 behind Badger Land, who was ridden by Jorge Velasquez. . . . Icy Groom, winner of last Wednesday’s Bradbury Stakes at Santa Anita, will run in the Santa Anita Derby and the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 24. “Forget about his earnings (which might be a factor in Icy Groom qualifying for the Kentucky Derby), if he doesn’t run well in those two races, he doesn’t deserve to run in the Kentucky Derby,” trainer Eddie Gregson said. . . . Until this year, the Santa Anita Oaks was known as the Santa Susana.