Horse Racing / Bill Christine : Lady’s Secret Deserves Consideration for Horse of the Year

When trainer Wayne Lukas is asked about Lady’s Secret’s chances of becoming Horse of the Year, he says smugly: “Who else would they vote for?”

Lady’s Secret’s record is certainly one of the best--8 wins in 13 races this year and a purse total of $1.2 million that is second only to Snow Chief’s $1.8 million--but the truth about the Eclipse Awards voters is that they vote for a female for Horse of the Year only when there is no standout male available.

The 3-year-old fillies Twilight Tear and Busher won the title in 1944 and ‘45, and Moccasin, a 2-year-old filly, finished atop one poll when the Horse of the Year groups voted separately in 1965. But since then, the only female champion has been the French-bred All Along, who impressed the voters by winning the Arc de Triomphe and three major North American grass races in the closing months of 1983.

Lady’s Secret, a slightly built, gray daughter of Secretariat and Great Lady M., has a more encompassing record than All Along’s. Lady’s Secret began winning major dirt races early in the year at Santa Anita and continued to win in New York during the summer. This fall at Belmont Park, she is a victory away from sweeping that track’s important three-race series for fillies and mares for the second straight year.

Lady’s Secret also beat males in the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga, and carrying a career-high 129 pounds in the Ruffian Handicap at Belmont Sept. 21, she spotted the opposition between 4 and 20 pounds and still won by eight lengths in stakes-record time.

Trainer Woody Stephens, who has been around race tracks since the 1920s, says that Lady’s Secret is the best female he has ever seen. Stephens ran Endear in the Ruffian and she finished third, more than 10 lengths behind Lady’s Secret.

“I always thought Gallorette was the best (female) until I saw Ruffian race,” Stephens told Joe Hirsch of the Daily Racing Form. “Then I thought Ruffian was the best until I saw Lady’s Secret this season. Beating the colts in the Whitney, running a mile in 1:33 2/5 (missing the track record by two-fifths of a second) to win the Maskette and carrying 129 pounds to win the Ruffian easily--she is the best of the best.”

Ross Fenstermaker, who trains Precisionist, another Horse of the Year candidate, doesn’t go back as far as Stephens, but he arrived at the race track when he was a teen-ager in the early 1950s.

“I won’t say that Lady’s Secret is the best filly I’ve ever seen, but she’s one of the three best,” Fenstermaker said. “I’d rank her with Susan’s Girl (whom Fenstermaker trained) and Ruffian. Susan’s Girl was an iron horse. And Ruffian, she was just a freak.”

Gallorette, Ruffian and Susan’s Girl are all in racing’s Hall of Fame.

The nickname that’s been hung on Lady’s Secret is the Iron Lady. She has run to her 21 wins at seven race tracks and she has earned $2.1 million. That ranks her 16th on the overall money list and third among fillies and mares, behind All Along, who won $3 million, and Trinycarol, $2.6 million.

The earnings of both horses ahead of Lady’s Secret require footnotes. All Along’s total includes a $1-million bonus for a three-race sweep in Canada and the United States, and Trinycarol earned only one small paycheck--about $4,000--in the United States after her lucrative career against suspect competition in Venezuela.

Despite his high regard for Lady’s Secret, Fenstermaker doesn’t see her as a candidate for Horse of the Year.

“She beat colts in the Whitney but that wasn’t against an especially strong field,” he said. “And in two other races against the boys, she couldn’t handle them. My horse (Precisionist) finished ahead of her both times. She’s the best in her division easy, but I can’t see her getting Horse of the Year.”

Precisionist was second, behind Roo Art, and Lady’s Secret ran third in the Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park in August. Two weeks later, Lady’s Secret finished second, beaten by nearly five lengths by Precisionist, in the Woodward Stakes at Belmont.

After Lady’s Secret shoots for the fall Belmont sweep in the Beldame Stakes Oct. 12, the plan is to bring her back to Santa Anita for the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 1, the race in which she finished second behind stablemate Life’s Magic last year at Aqueduct. Then the voters--who don’t include Lukas and Fenstermaker--will have to decide.

Horse Racing Notes Ogygian, the 3-year-old colt of unfulfilled promise, is out for the year with a minor leg problem. If he doesn’t return next year, Ogygian will be best remembered for the races he didn’t run, having been scratched almost every time it rained. . . . Daily average handle at the 18-day Los Angeles County Fair at Fairplex Park in Pomona was $2.4 million, down less than 1% from last year, and attendance averaged 13,700, off 6.6%. . . . The leading thoroughbred horsemen were apprentice jockey Corey Black, with 33 winners and trainer Mel Stute, whose 13 wins broke by one the Fair record that Jerry Fanning set in 1984. . . . Some Power Play, the quarter horse owned by Gene Klein, Wayne Lukas and Melvin Hatley, has received his $60,500 share of the purse for finishing ninth in the All American Futurity, although the horse tested positive for an illegal tranquilizer after the race. The New Mexico State Racing Commission accepted testimony from a veterinarian that Some Power Play wasn’t medicated until after the race.