Horse Racing / Bill Christine : No ‘Triple’ Threats Seen in 2-Year-Olds

The Triple Crown tracks, awakened from a Van Winkle-like snooze by competition from the multimillion-dollar Jersey Derby, announced last week that if a horse sweeps the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes next year, its owner will collect $5 million.

Based on the performances this fall of the 2-year-old colts, who are next year’s Triple Crown hopefuls, that $5 million is safe. Eight of the year’s 12 major races for 2-year-olds have been run, with none of the winners evoking memories of Secretariat, Affirmed and Seattle Slew, the Triple Crown champions of the 1970s.

Gulch, considered the division leader after two major wins in New York, made his out-of-state debut in the Norfolk Stakes last Saturday at Santa Anita and struggled home a tired second behind Capote, a horse making only his third start.

Qualify, who barely won the Del Mar Futurity over a filly, Sacahuista, ran fourth in the Norfolk.

Conquistarose won Saturday night’s Young America Stakes at the Meadowlands but suffered shin injuries and is probably out for the rest of the year.

The Champagne Stakes, the last major race for 2-year-old colts before the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita Nov. 1, will draw two undefeated colts in Polish Navy and Bet Twice, but even the owners of Bet Twice are not sure how good their horse is.

Bob Levy, whose mother races Bet Twice, was at Santa Anita Saturday, scouting the colts in the Norfolk. “We still don’t know if we’ll run in the Breeders’ Cup,” he said. “We’ll take a look at what happens in the Champagne before we decide.”

Bet Twice, who won the Arlington-Washington Futurity Sept. 1, returned a month later and won the Laurel Futurity, but his time for 1 1/16 miles--1:45--was not impressive. Bet Twice, who has now won five straight, ran the first mile in 1:38 1/5, the same time as $6,500 claiming horses earlier that day.

Only five starters are likely in the Champagne, with Java Gold, Demon’s Begone and Gone West joining Polish Navy and Bet Twice. Polish Navy, who is 3 for 3, won the Cowdin at Belmont for his second win on an off track.

The ranks of the 2-year-old colts appear so thin that even trainer Charlie Whittingham is not impressed. Whittingham, whose Sword Charger ran fifth in the Norfolk, beating only one horse, usually waits until the spring of their 3-year-old years to judge Kentucky Derby candidates.

But after the Norfolk, Whittingham said: “The way they ran, it didn’t look like any of them should be in the Breeders’ Cup.”

Angel Cordero will probably ride at Santa Anita or in Florida this winter, instead of competing in New York.

Cordero, who will be 44 next month, has not slowed down, despite missing four months of action after a March spill in which he suffered a lacerated liver, a broken leg and other injuries. Cordero rode Gulch at Santa Anita Saturday, then had to cancel a trip to France, where he was to exercise some Breeders’ Cup horses, because he was riding Mogambo Wednesday in Santa Anita’s Ancient Title Stakes. Mogambo ran seventh in an eight-horse field.

Triptych, one of Cordero’s European probables in the Breeders’ Cup, finished third in the Arc de Triomphe and is a possible starter in either the Breeders’ Cup Classic on dirt or the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Dancing Brave, winner of the Arc for his eighth victory to go with one second-place finish in nine starts, is expected to run in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

According to trainer Ross Fenstermaker, Precisionist has a book value of $20 million.

Fred Hooper, who bred and owns Precisionist, says the 5-year-old chestnut, winner of the Yankee Valor Handicap Monday at Santa Anita, will be retired to stud after he runs in the Breeders’ Cup Classic Nov. 1. Precisionist will then be syndicated into 40 shares, with each shareholder having an annual breeding right for the stallion’s lifetime.

Trainers of top horses frequently receive a breeding share, and Fenstermaker said: “I could sell my share for $500,000 right now. In fact, you could sell 10 shares in a couple of days in California alone if you asked $500,000 for them.”

Trainer Darrell Vienna declined to comment about the $1,000 he was fined by the stewards after his 3-year-old filly, Mille Et Une, was disqualified from her win at Santa Anita Oct. 4. An illegal tranquilizer was found in Mille Et Une’s system after the race, and the $16,500 winner’s purse was taken away.

“I just threw myself on their mercy,” Vienna said. A veterinarian, Kenneth White, was fined $500 in the incident.

Mille Et Une ran Wednesday at Santa Anita and finished sixth as the 2-1 favorite.

Horse Racing Notes Brave Raj, winner of the $400,000 My Dear Girl Stakes Sunday at Calder, is expected to run in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes. Brave Raj, who won the Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar in August, is one of the first horses Mel Stute has trained for Dolly Green, who switched her horses from Laz Barrera earlier in the year. . . . Thrill Show, a 3-year-old colt who won stakes in Europe, reportedly was a $1.5-million purchase by Chicagoan Dick Duchossois. Thrill Show, scheduled to run in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, is in the hands of Charlie Whittingham.

Although Top Corsage won the Spinster Stakes Saturday at Keeneland, trainer Jerry Fanning will recommend to owner Dan Agnew that they not supplement her, at a cost of $120,000, to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. “If Lady’s Secret were running in the Classic, it might be worth considering,” Fanning said. “But it looks like she’s running in the Distaff. There’s a $400,000 race, the Yellow Ribbon, at Santa Anita the day after the Breeders’ Cup, and there’s another $100,000 race about a week later. We wouldn’t have to pay anything to get into either of those, and they figure to be softer spots.”

Dontstop Themusic, who ran third in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff last year at Aqueduct, won’t run this year after her seventh-place finish in the Spinster. Dontstop Themusic, not nominated for the race, would have cost her owners a supplementary fee of $120,000 to run. . . . The 46-day/night harness meeting at Los Alamitos showed an average attendance of 3,309 and handle of $529,469. The averages for a 55-night season at Los Alamitos earlier in the year were 4,325 and $754,573. Joe Anderson led the drivers at the meet that ended Saturday with 57 wins. He also was the leading trainer with 46 wins.

A 56-night season under the auspices of the Horsemen’s Quarter Horse Assn. will open Friday and run through Dec. 20 at Los Alamitos. Gold Coast Express, second to Cash Rate in the Hollywood Park Championship, has been given the last spot in the $200,000 Champion of Champions Stakes at Los Alamitos Dec. 6. The horses who won their way into the race are Cash Rate, Easy Conversation, Countin the Cash, Go Partner, Six Popper, Corporate Bug and Sir Alibi. Also in the field is Movin West. Cash Rate won the Champion of Champions last year.