90 Horses Pre-Entered for Breeders’ Cup : Dancing Brave, Lady’s Secret and Precisionist Head Seven-Race Card

Ninety horses, including three that have won races in the series before, eight trained by Wayne Lukas and a 2-year-old Washington-bred filly who didn’t win her first race until a few days ago, have been pre-entered to run in the seven races worth $10 million on Breeders’ Cup day at Santa Anita Nov. 1.

The list was announced Tuesday at Santa Anita after owners paid preliminary fees by Monday’s noon deadline to make their horses eligible.

Owners of all but four of the horses had to pay $10,000, $20,000 or $30,000--1% of the purse they’re running for--by Monday. A matching 1% fee will be due next Wednesday, when entries are taken for the races.

It will cost the owners of the other four horses considerably more to run in the Breeders’ Cup, because their runners were not nominated, for a fee of either $500 or $2,500, when they were younger.

As a result, Hatim, Truce Maker and Classy Cathy are $120,000 supplementary entrants, and it will cost Estrapade’s owner, Allen Paulson, $240,000 to run. The supplementary fees represent 12% of the purses the horses are running for, and 33% of that amount had to be paid Monday.

Ten of the pre-entrants are listed for two or three races, with their handlers having until next Wednesday to make a decision on which stake to run in.

The three previous Breeders’ Cup winners that were pre-entered are Outstandingly, Twilight Ridge and Precisionist. Outstandingly, winner of the Juvenile Fillies via a disqualification in the Breeders’ Cup inaugural year at Hollywood Park in 1984, and Twilight Ridge, winner of last year’s Juvenile Fillies at Aqueduct, will run against heavily favored Lady’s Secret in the Distaff. Precisionist, last year’s Sprint winner at Aqueduct, could be the favorite this year in the Classic.

Fran’s Valentine, who finished first ahead of Outstandingly but was disqualified for interference in 1984, will also run in this year’s Distaff.

Besides Lady’s Secret and Twilight Ridge, Lukas’ other starters will be Capote and Pledge Card in the Juvenile; Sacahuista and Anything for Love in the Juvenile Fillies; Pine Tree Lane in the Sprint; and Roo Art in the Classic.

Lukas has started 15 horses in the first two runnings of the Breeders’ Cup, including 10 last year when his barn ran 1-2 with Twilight Ridge and Family Style in the Juvenile Fillies and with Life’s Magic and Lady’s Secret in the Distaff. Lukas’ best finishes in 1984 were a pair of thirds.

Trainer Charlie Whittingham, who has yet to win a Breeders’ Cup race, has six horses on this year’s list, although one of them, Hidden Light, is doubtful because of a minor injury suffered in Sunday’s Las Palmas Handicap at Santa Anita.

Coakley was a maiden until she won her first race last week at Longacres in her second start. One of 17 horses listed for the Juvenile Fillies, Coakley apparently will still get a chance to run, according to trainer Mike Chambers, even though Breeders’ Cup fields are limited to 14.

The first nine starters for Breeders’ Cup races are determined by a point total based on 1-2-3 finishes in important races throughout the year. The remaining five are selected by a five-man panel of racing secretaries. Foreign horses don’t accumulate points for their performances abroad and must be picked by the panel in order to run.

Garthorn, one of the top handicap horses this year, and Tasso, last year’s Juvenile winner, won’t be running. Garthorn, who was second to Precisionist in the Yankee Valor Handicap on Oct. 13 at Santa Anita, turned in a dull workout this week and his handlers decided not to risk a supplementary fee of $360,000 to run in the Classic. Tasso was third in the Yankee Valor and also would have had to be supplemented.

Dancing Brave, winner of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in a record time in his last start and beaten only once in nine starts, heads the European contingent and will run in the Turf. Another European star is Sonic Lady, who takes a record of 7 for 8 into the Mile.