Skywalker Upstages the Star Wars : Beats Turkoman and Precisionist to Cap a Day of Surprises in the Breeders’ Cup

Leaving the Santa Anita paddock after Skywalker was saddled and jockey Laffit Pincay was put on the horse’s back for Saturday’s $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic, trainer Michael Whittingham considered the error of his ways.

On behalf of Greer Garson and her husband, Buddy Fogelson, Whittingham had invested $120,000--a supplementary fee--to run their 8-year-old, Truce Maker, in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Mile about 2 1/2 hours before.

Whittingham groaned as he discussed Truce Maker running 14th and last in the race. “Now I wonder how many times I’ll have to run the old guy to make up that $120,000,” he said.

Minutes later, if he wanted to, Whittingham had the money to repay the Fogelsons. Skywalker, a fragile 4-year-old colt who had only 14 career starts, upset Turkoman and Precisionist to complete an unpredictable day in which only two favorites won the seven Breeders’ Cup races.

Skywalker’s 1-length victory, at 10-1 odds, was worth $135,000 to Whittingham--the standard 10% trainer’s share of the $1.35-million winning purse--and was the final shock of a Breeders’ Cup program that drew 69,155 fans on a sunny, 80-degree day.

The fans bet with both hands, shoving $15,410,409 through the windows and breaking by more than $2 million the North American race-day track record that was set at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby day last May.

Skywalker may have won Saturday’s richest race, but the filly Lady’s Secret gained no small part of the spotlight with her 2 1/2-length victory in the $1-million Distaff. The parlay of Turkoman and Precisionist finishing second and third in the Classic and of Lady’s Secret winning her 10th stake of 1986 all but clinches Horse-of-the-Year honors for the silver-colored daughter of Secretariat.

Skywalker, who is owned by general partner Tom Tatham of New York and the rest of the Oak Cliff Stable syndicate, was understandably overlooked in the Classic. Precisionist beat him rather easily at Hollywood Park in June, and although the 4-year-old son of Relaunch and Bold Captive won a couple of races later in the summer, it was not against the cream of the division.

Then just a month ago, after Skywalker trained well on grass in California, Whittingham started him for the first time on turf in the Col. F.W. Koester Handicap at Santa Anita.

Skywalker ran third, just three-quarters of a length behind the winner, but he was impeded by another horse in the stretch and was moved up to second.

Pincay, who also won the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Saturday aboard Capote, was encouraged by Skywalker’s performance in the Koester.

“His last race was better than it looked,” Pincay said. “I’m not surprised he won the Classic. I’ve always been high on this horse. He’s a clever horse, he can run from behind or run on the front and he’s a much better horse than he’s shown.”

After winning the Santa Anita Derby last year, Skywalker fractured a leg while running sixth in the Kentucky Derby, then went 11 months before he returned to the races. This year, the horse has occasionally been bothered by a sore back.

Back on dirt for the Classic, Skywalker was dropped into third place in the 1-mile race while Herat and Precisionist ran 1-2 for the first half-mile. Herat, who finished last in the 11-horse field, has pushed Precisionist before.

After Saturday’s race, Precisionist’s camp--jockey Gary Stevens and trainer Ross Fenstermaker--was furious about how Herat had dictated the race.

Down the backstretch, with Precisionist on the rail and Herat just outside him, Stevens said that Herat and jockey Jerry Bailey bounced Precisionist off the fence “two or three times.”

On the turn for home, Precisionist dropped back to third and Skywalker began moving on the outside. By the time the field hit the stretch, Skywalker had a clear lead, Herat had faded badly and Precisionist had no rally left, and then it was a question of how much ground the late-running Turkoman could gobble up.

“I tried to listen to the track announcer to see if Turkoman was coming,” Pincay said. “But the crowd was so loud I couldn’t hear, so I just kept riding my horse hard.”

Stevens stalked off the track after the race. “That Herat is like a battle ax,” the jockey said, throwing in a couple of expletives. “He laid on my horse on the backstretch and pushed me against the rail. The way my horse got bounced around, he was lucky to run third.”

Bailey, Herat’s jockey, made no apologies.

“Precisionist tried to get through,” Bailey said. “But I’m not opening the door for anybody. Everybody was in contention at that stage. I don’t believe I bothered him that much.”

Fenstermaker leaned on a white railing in a tunnel that leads to the track and watched a television rerun of the race.

“That Herat has been a menace to me all my life,” Fenstermaker said. “This time he boxed me in, and that sure didn’t help.”

Fenstermaker questioned whether Herat, a horse whose wins have usually been against lesser company, even belonged in the race.

“It’s his owner’s (John Franks’) business to run, so how can you stop them,” the trainer said. “But what makes you mad is they drive him all the way, they send him right out of the gate.”

Turkoman, who has never won at Santa Anita and even trained at Hollywood Park just before the race, made a stirring charge from ninth place and finished 1 lengths ahead of Precisionist. Skywalker, whose time was 2:00 2/5, paid $22.20.

Tukoman, a horse who has refused to switch lead feet in other races, which helps shift weight to the opposite side, had problems again Saturday.

“He wouldn’t change leads early,” said Pat Day, riding Turkoman for the first time in a race. “He wasn’t nearly as responsive as when I was on him for that workout the other morning at Hollywood.

“The only thing I can think of is that he doesn’t like this race track. I know he’s responded better in races at other tracks.”

The 40-year-old Whittingham once tried to become a veterinarian. He worked as an assistant trainer for his father, Charlie, and got his first head trainer’s license in 1974. It’s a king-sized cross to carry, being the son of a trainer who is in the Hall of Fame, but because of Skywalker, Michael Whittingham has beaten his father to wins in the Santa Anita Derby and the Breeders’ Cup.

“He threw in a few funny races last year, and people kind of got off him,” Whittingham said of Skywalker. “But we’ve been pointing him for this ever since he got hurt in the Kentucky Derby. We had thought a little bit about running him in the Mile (on the turf) today, but I always thought he was a mile-and-a-quarter horse. I ran him shorter because I wanted him to have time to develop.”

Skywalker will be back on the track next year, as a 5 year old. So will Truce Maker, as a 9 year old. Whittingham still feels he kind of owes the Fogelsons their $120,000 supplementary fee, although after Saturday’s Classic, he could have just written the check and still had some left over.