Weekend Racing at Del Mar : At Present, Breeders’ Cup Not Do So’s Top Goal

A trainer with a horse who has mastered four race courses this year--and won four stakes in the middle of the summer--might be expected to be pointing toward this fall’s Breeders’ Cup.

But for the time being it’s unlikely that Ron McAnally and Do So, his grass-loving 3-year-old filly, will be showing up at Churchill Downs for the $10-million, 7-race day on Nov. 5. A more probable late-season cotillion for Do So is the $400,000 Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita the day after the Breeders’ Cup.

While not definitely ruling out the Breeders’ Cup, McAnally would be happier--and more disposed to considering Churchill Downs--if the series included a race for fillies and mares on grass. As it is, the only grass races available--the $1-million Mile and the $2-million Turf at 1 1/2 miles--require females to compete against males.

One reason the Breeders’ Cup hasn’t altered its schedule is because fillies have done exceptionally well in the grass races. Royal Heroine not only won the first Mile ever run, at Hollywood Park in 1984, but she also broke the U.S. record with a clocking of 1:32 3/5. All Along was second to the colt, Lashkari, in the 1984 Turf, and Pebbles won the stake at Aqueduct in 1985.

Last year, at Hollywood Park again, Miesque, a 3-year-old filly, was an easy winner in the Mile, running only a fifth of a second slower than Royal Heroine.

What these fillies had in common, however, were backgrounds of running in Europe, where females against males is more prevalent than in the United States.

“I’ve talked to Ted Bassett (president of the Breeders’ Cup) about a filly race on the grass, but nothing’s happened,” McAnally said. “Without one, the Breeders’ Cup is making the Yellow Ribbon a stronger race.”

Last year, there was a 12-horse field in the Yellow Ribbon, which was run a week before the Breeders’ Cup. Carotene won the Yellow Ribbon and might have been voted the Eclipse Award for best U.S. filly or mare on grass until Miesque’s tour de force in the Breeders’ Cup.

Short of the Breeders’ Cup, McAnally has had no problem finding spots to run Do So against her own sex on grass this year. Today, against eight opponents, owner Jack Kent Cooke’s Nodouble-Top Soil filly will try to win for the fifth time in seven turf starts in the $150,000 Del Mar Oaks at 1 1/8 miles. On dirt, which was the only surface Do So tried until last April, her record is two wins in seven races.

On Friday morning, before she blew out through the stretch in her final workout for the Oaks, Do So left the gate to the satisfaction of McAnally and Tucker Slender, the Del Mar starter. Slender, who is also the starter at Santa Anita, saw Do So hop in the air before a race there in the spring, and she did the same thing on July 30 here, still winning the San Clemente Handicap by 3 1/2 lengths despite the bad start.

“She stood in the gate absolutely perfect,” McAnally said Friday. “That’s the third time we’ve worked with her since the last race, and she’s done well every time. She’s not a difficult horse to train, because she’s a very sensible filly. I think she’s gotten the message now, and I expect her to be all right Saturday.”

Alex Solis has ridden her in six straight races and they have produced four wins and a second-place finish. Do So will carry 122 pounds in the Oaks, the same as Jeanne Jones. In her only grass race, Jeanne Jones led early and finished third, a half-length behind Do So, in the Honeymoon Handicap at Hollywood Park on June 4.

The other seven starters carry 115 pounds, including Double Wedge, a Kentucky-bred, French-raced filly who will be making her first U.S. start. Double Wedge, now being trained by Bobby Frankel, has worked well at Del Mar after running eighth in her only start this year and winning one out of three as a 2-year-old.

Double Wedge arrived here on the same plane as Miracle Horse, who has already won a race at Del Mar. But he didn’t have Do So to beat.

Horse Racing Notes

Betting on the Arlington Million at Woodbine in Toronto will precede the card at Del Mar, which has its usual 2 p.m. first post. . . . Lively One, who cut himself in his only grass start, carries top-weight of 122 pounds Sunday in the Del Mar Derby, which is a $200,000 race at 1 1/8 miles on grass. The field: Roberto’s Dancer, jockey Fernando Toro, 116 pounds; Perfecting, Gary Stevens, 118; Prove Splendid, Alex Solis, 114; Silver Circus, Russell Baze, 118; White Mischief, Chris McCarron, 117; Western Gun, Eddie Delahoussaye, 117; Bel Air Dancer, Corey Black, 116; and Lively One, Bill Shoemaker, 122. . . . After the Del Mar Oaks, Frank Brothers will take over the training of Jungle Gold from England’s Bill Watts. . . . Lea Lucinda is the probable favorite in Monday’s $75,000 Sorrento Stakes. . . . Del Mar, which resisted approving a satellite transmission of its races to Nevada via other licensees there, has now authorized the telecasts because they are being handled by Frank Scott, who held the track’s contract in 1986-87.