Horse Racing : Four in Cup May Run Under New Colors

Four of the horses scheduled to run in the Breeders’ Cup--Pine Tree Lane, Family Style, North Sider and Coup de Fusil--are likely to have new owners at Hollywood Park a week from Saturday, since they are being auctioned this weekend at Lexington, Ky.

Coup de Fusil, a 5-year-old mare who won three straight stakes late in the year, is part of a dispersal of almost 300 horses by Tartan Farm, which has bred and raced top horses for more than 20 years.

James H. Binger and his wife, Virginia, whose father, William L. McKnight, founded Tartan after making a fortune selling Scotch tape, are in their 70s and have no heirs interested in continuing the farm.

Coup de Fusil is eligible to run in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Distaff, as are North Sider, a 5-year-old mare, and Family Style, a 4-year-old filly. Pine Tree Lane, a 5-year-old mare, has been nominated for the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

North Sider, Family Style and Pine Tree Lane, who have all earned $1 million during their careers, are in a 52-horse sale Saturday night. They and 17 other horses were trained by Wayne Lukas and 13 of the 20 were raced by Gene Klein, Lukas’ most free-spending client.

The focal point of the sale is Klein’s Lady’s Secret, the daughter of Secretariat who won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and was voted Horse of the Year in 1986. She was retired late this year after a disastrous 5-year-old season in which she won only two races and no stakes. Lukas has said that Lady’s Secret could break the record for a publicly sold brood mare, which was set by Miss Oceana in 1985 when she brought $7 million while in foal to Northern Dancer.

A plane will be waiting in Lexington to take the four Breeders’ Cup eligibles to California, should their new owners want to run them at Hollywood Park. Last year, the day before the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita, Dee Hubbard bought Shywing for $1 million at a Hollywood Park auction, at the time tying a California record, and she ran seventh in the Distaff against Lady’s Secret.

Although one sales official is predicting that Saturday night’s auction will bring more than $40 million, consignors are wondering how the Wall Street bear market will affect prices.

Naturally, Klein has a bullish attitude toward the sale.

“I think the horse market will reflect the art market,” the former owner of the San Diego Chargers said. “Top quality will still bring top prices.

“Medium-priced art and middle-priced horses will still bring those prices. But at the bottom of the horse market, I think sellers will find it disastrous.”

Klein said his selling of these premium brood mares Saturday night is not related to tax considerations.

“I’m not a breeder, I’m a buyer of yearlings,” he said. “I’ve never wanted to have an extensive brood mare band. I sold 15 in California earlier this year, and this sale in Kentucky is just part of getting rid of a lot of my brood mares.”

When Peter Ferriola, a leading New York trainer, was prohibited from competing at Aqueduct over the weekend because three of his horses tested positive for an illegal anti-bleeder medication, Jack Van Berg sarcastically said:

“Maybe they think he used the stuff I had left over from the Travers.”

Van Berg won’t easily forget the extra pre-race testing that his Kentucky Derby winner, Alysheba, was given on Travers day at Saratoga after track officials had heard rumors that Alysheba was going to run on medication, which is forbidden in New York.

Lester Piggott, England’s most successful jockey, was recently sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion.

Piggott is remembered in racing as he’s remembered at Laurel Race Course in Maryland--a man who never threw money around.

Piggott, who won the Washington D.C. International three times, twice left Laurel without tipping his valet. The last time Piggott rode in the International, none of the valets wanted to handle his tack, and they drew straws to see who would get stuck with the duty.

Riders on Breeders’ Cup day can earn more than some of those riding at lesser tracks make all year, and the jockeying for choice mounts is an ongoing situation.

Trainer Gary Jones, who trains Good Command, a starter in the $3-million Classic, says that Angel Cordero must have called him from New York “12 times in 3 days” trying to get the mount.

Jones is also considering Pat Day, who won the first running of the Classic with Wild Again at Hollywood Park in 1984, and Don Brumfield, who won with Good Command in the colt’s record-setting performance at Keeneland last month.

Jones also said that three other riders were possibilities.

“Maybe I’ll use all six of them and the horse can carry 700 pounds,” Jones said.

Only four jockeys--Cordero, Chris McCarron and Laffit Pincay in 1985 and Day last year--have ridden all seven races in any Breeders’ Cup year.

Pincay and Cordero have each ridden in 19 of the first 21 Breeders’ Cup races and Pincay may break the tie this year, since he has assignments in all seven races and Cordero, pending the outcome of his campaign to get Good Command, has only four rides.

Pincay’s mounts a week from Saturday are on Zabaleta in the Sprint, Lost Kitty in the Juvenile Fillies, Clabber Girl in the Distaff, Sonic Lady in the Mile, Tejano in the Juvenile, Rivlia in the Turf and Skywalker in the Classic.

Gary Stevens is another jockey who may have mounts in all seven races: On the Line in the Sprint, Blue Jean Baby in the Juvenile Fillies, Family Style in the Distaff, Noble Minstrel in the Mile, Tsarbaby in the Juvenile, Village Star II in the Turf and Candi’s Gold in the Classic.

Noble Minstrel may not be able to run, however, because 30 horses were pre-entered for the Mile and only 14 can start. A point system, based on high finishes in important stakes, accounts for the first nine starters and an international panel picks the remaining five. European horses can’t qualify through the point system and Noble Minstrel was listed eighth by the panel, which means three horses ahead of him will have to scratch before he can run.

Horse Racing Notes

Instead of being in Sunday’s $400,000 Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita, Short Sleeves will run in the Breeders’ Cup Mile and Autumn Glitter will compete in the Turf. . . . Jacinto Vasquez will move from New York to Hollywood Park to ride this fall. . . . Brave Raj, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last year, will be sold at a Kentucky auction next Monday.

Because it lost out to Gulfstream Park and Calder in a long-running squabble over South Florida racing dates, Hialeah opened Wednesday, earlier than ever, and will close Jan. 7. Since Hialeah already ran a season early this year, there will be some stakes aberrations, such as two Widener Handicaps in the same year. The Flamingo, traditionally a major prep for Kentucky Derby prospects, is scheduled so early--Jan. 2--that it will not draw the top 3-year-olds.

Jeanne Jones, a starter in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, is named after a San Diego woman who has written 18 cookbooks and writes a syndicated newspaper column on cooking. . . . First Down Dash is a quarter horse that behaves like Temperate Sil, a Breeders’ Cup starter who is fine in the gate in the mornings, then causes trouble before races. First Down Dash was a handful again Saturday night at Los Alamitos, but still won the Breeders Championship Classic, virtually clinching the quarter horse equivalent of Horse of the Year.