They’ll Be Off and Running at Oak Tree Today : $10-Million Breeders’ Cup Program Nov. 1 Highlights Meeting at Santa Anita

Although the Oak Tree Racing Assn. has opened 17 previous seasons at Santa Anita, none of them was as significant as the month-long meeting that begins today.

Oak Tree’s 27-day meeting offers 17 stakes races worth about $2.3 million, which is about the same total as last year, but exclusive of that figure is the $10 million that will be on the line on Nov. 1, when the seven-race Breeders’ Cup series returns to California. Besides the distribution of all that money, most of the year’s divisional championships will be settled on Breeders’ Cup day, including the Horse-of-the-Year title that won’t be decided until the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic Stakes has been run.

Despite the fact that Santa Anita officials are downplaying the thought, it is possible that a non-Kentucky Derby racing attendance record could be set Nov. 1. Churchill Downs, which usually draws more than 100,000 for the Derby each year, including the record of 163,628 that was set in 1974, holds the overall attendance record, but among other tracks the mark belongs to Santa Anita, which had 85,527 on hand when Lord at War won the Santa Anita Handicap in 1985.

In 1984, the year of the first Breeders’ Cup, the attendance at Hollywood Park was 64,254, and last year at Aqueduct, which had cool, threatening weather and competition from off-track betting shops throughout New York, the crowd was 42,568.

Hollywood Park, which is scheduled to hold the Breeders’ Cup again next year, had two disadvantages in 1984--the series was new and the seven races were run on the opening Saturday of the Inglewood track’s fall season. Santa Anita has the advantage of building toward a Breeders’ Cup climax with a stakes program that can showcase many of the horses that will eventually compete Nov. 1.

None of the 14 horses entered in today’s feature, the $60,000 Henry P. Russell Handicap, appear to be Breeders’ Cup-bound, since the race is restricted to runners who have not yet earned $30,000 this year. But that may change with Sunday’s running of the $200,000 Oak Leaf Stakes, a major race for 2-year-old fillies that figures to draw Delicate Vine, who is undefeated and listed by one Las Vegas oddsmaker as the even-money favorite for the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes.

Three of the starters in the Russell--Armada, Eagling and Reach--are European-raced horses who will be making their debuts in the United States. This trio is only the prelude; according to the International Racing Bureau in Lexington, Ky., the handlers of at least 22 other European horses are thinking Breeders’ Cup. That list includes Dancing Brave and Bering, the 1-2 choices in this Sunday’s Arc de Triomphe in Paris; Shahrastani, another Arc starter who won the English and Irish derbies earlier this year; and Bold Arrangement, who first ventured to the United States this spring and ran second to Ferdinand in the Kentucky Derby.

Trainer Charlie Whittingham, who at 73 won his first Derby with Ferdinand, has finished no better than seventh with three Breeders’ Cup starters, but he has eight horses which are being considered for the rich Nov. 1 races.

Two of them, Palace Music and Will Dancer, may run Saturday at Santa Anita in the $75,000 Col. F.W. Koester Handicap. The others are Temperate Sil, Thrill Show, Hidden Light, Estrapade, Dahar and Prince True. Ferdinand, second in the Preakness, third in the Belmont Stakes and the only horse to run in all three Triple Crown races this year, isn’t expected to return to action until next year.

Whittingham has yet to see Thrill Show, a 3-year-old grandson of Northern Dancer who was undefeated in Europe before he recently finished second, half a length behind Sonic Lady, in France. Sonic Lady would be one of the favorites if she runs in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Mile, which is a turf race. Thrill Show, originally a $485,000 yearling purchase in Kentucky, is being sent to Whittingham by his new owner, Dick Duchossois, the operator of Arlington Park who also is a partner in Will Dancer.

A Santa Anita-based major winner who won’t run in the Breeders’ Cup is Super Diamond, who won the $500,000 Hollywood Gold Cup in July. Super Diamond, rested during the Del Mar season, is scheduled to run in the $100,000 Goodwood Handicap on Oct. 26. Since they didn’t nominate Super Diamond to the Breeders’ Cup, the horse’s owners would have to pay a supplementary fee of $360,000 for him to run in the Classic.

A win in the Classic would be worth $1.35 million, which means that Super Diamond’s owners would be getting less than 4-1 odds for their money. The clinching argument for not running is that Super Diamond is a 6-year-old gelding. He has no stud career to enhance.

Horse Racing Notes

Chris McCarron, the leading rider in the country with more than $8.3 million in purses, and Oak Tree’s champion four out of the last five years, returns to action today. McCarron suffered a broken shoulder blade in a spill coming out of the starting gate on Sept. 6 at Del Mar. . . . On Saturday, McCarron regains the mount on favored Turkoman in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park. Gary Stevens rode Turkoman to his win in the Marlboro Cup while McCarron was sidelined. . . . Rafael Meza, who missed the Del Mar season after reinjuring a broken collarbone, is also back riding today. . . . Oak Tree has a Wednesday-through-Sunday schedule, plus two Mondays--Oct. 13 and Nov. 3, which is closing day. . . . Post time for the first race is 1 p.m. until it changes to 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 26. . . . There are several betting changes, which include a $3 daily triple on the sixth, seventh and eighth races; a pick six without a carry-over in the event no bettor hits all six winners; and a pick nine which is now a minimum bet of $2 instead of $1.