Lukas: Fillies to Spare : With 5 Starters in Field for Juvenile, Stable Still Has 2 Other Top Prospects

When Churchill Downs opened its fall season Sunday, the track ran a $50,000 race for 2-year-old fillies.

Solid Eight and Box Office Gold, horses trained by Wayne Lukas and saddled by his son, Jeff, ran 1-2.

For Solid Eight, who started her career only 6 weeks ago at Del Mar, it was a third win in four starts. Except for her stablemate, Box Office Gold would have won her second straight race. Two weeks earlier, Box Office Gold won a maiden race at Keeneland by 10 lengths.

Two-year-olds sometimes don’t develop, they erupt, and these two fillies look like the kind that ought to be running this Saturday instead of last Sunday at Churchill Downs--in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes.

But the Lukas barn is already starting five horses in the Juvenile Fillies, and any more representation might constitute antitrust. On the other hand, Wayne Lukas may have been tempted to stack the deck even further, because even though he’s won 1 of the 4 other Juvenile Fillies--with Twilight Ridge in 1985--he’s also failed to win the race despite having it virtually surrounded.

Last year, in the Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park, Lukas ran five young fillies, setting a Breeders’ Cup record. But the best any of them could do was a third by Dream Team, with the others struggling home 6th, 7th, 10th and 11th in the 12-horse field.

Family Style finished second, a length behind Twilight Ridge, in 1985, with Arewehavingfunyet, a third Lukas runner, coming in eighth. The two other Juvenile Fillies races were disappointments for the Lukas barn, with a 7th and 8th in 1984 and a 4th and a 10th in 1986.

“Our attitude as far as the Breeders’ Cup is concerned is that every horse that’s at the top of his game should run in the races,” Lukas said.

Lukas has had starters in 15 of the first 28 Breeders’ Cup races, winning 6. Only Neil Drysdale has won as many as 2.

Four of the 6 winners were fillies--Life’s Magic, Lady’s Secret and Sacahuista besides Twilight Ridge. This is not surprising, because the Breeders’ Cup has been a microcosm of the Lukas training career.

Since making a permanent switch from quarter horses to thoroughbreds in 1978, Lukas has trained 8 champions and the only colt was Capote, who won the 2-year-old title in 1986. Lukas’ only horse of the year has been Lady’s Secret and this year Winning Colors, the third filly to win the Kentucky Derby, gave Lukas his first win in the Triple Crown race.

“It was the same way when I had quarter horses,” Lukas said. “Most of the real good ones were fillies.”

Why?

“I think there are 2 reasons,” Lukas said. “The way we train horses is more agreeable to fillies. We don’t believe in long, fast workouts for any of our horses. Very seldom do we work a horse even 6 furlongs. Fillies thrive on this kind of treatment.

“The other thing is that we buy a more fillies than colts at the sales. The downside risk is a lot less with fillies when you’re paying top dollar for horses. If something happens and a filly doesn’t run, then at least you have a broodmare prospect, and with the pedigrees we buy, they’re going to be attractive broodmares even if they haven’t done much on the track.”

Some Romance, a daughter of the speedy Fappiano, cost her owner, Gene Klein, $500,000 at a yearling auction and gives Lukas his best chance to win the Juvenile Fillies. The trainer’s other starters are Open Mind, who lost a photo finish to Some Romance in the Frizette at Belmont Park last month; One of a Klein, who won the Oak Leaf at Santa Anita in only her third start; Lea Lucinda, who won the Del Mar Debutante after the disqualification of Approved To Fly for interference; and Darby Shuffle, who has two wins and two seconds in her last four starts.

“Some Romance has shown brilliance,” Lukas said.

Some Romance began her career with an eighth-place finish at Saratoga in August, but since then she’s won 4 straight. Her maiden win was by 15 1/2 lengths and she had other wins by 8 and 5 lengths before she nosed out Open Mind.

On appearance, Some Romance doesn’t look like she would be overpowering. She seems in need of a fat farm Lukas admits that her muscle tone could be improved.

“But the thing I like about her is that she wins races and then comes back like she hasn’t even warmed up,” Lukas said. “Right after winning the Matron (at Belmont Park in October), her eyes weren’t dilating and she had a normal heartbeat. When we bought her, I thought she would be an early developer.”

Although Lukas has pre-entered 13 horses in the seven Breeders’ Cup races, which is one less than last year, he may need a win in the Juvenile Fillies in order to avoid getting shut out, because his starters appear to be overmatched in the other stakes. He is running Slew City Slew in the Classic, Steinlen in the Mile, Winning Colors and Classic Crown in the Distaff, Gulch, High Brite and possibly Synastry in the Sprint, and Is It True in the Juvenile for colts. With more than 14 horses pre-entered for the Sprint, Synastry may be excluded because of a lack of credentials. In that event Snyastry would run in a Friday stake race at Churchill Downs.

With more than $12 million in purses, the Lukas operation will lead the country for the sixth straight year. Lukas may not, however, win the Eclipse Award as the year’s outstanding trainer for the fourth straight year. Only Laz Barrera, in 1976-79, ever won the award four times in a row.

Shug McGaughey, who will start three favorites--Personal Ensign in the Distaff, Easy Goer in the Juvenile and Mining in the Sprint--on Saturday, has only one barn of horses--about 30--while Lukas has hundreds at various tracks and training centers. McGaughey’s horses have earned about $5 million in approximately 200 races. Lukas’s money total comes from more than 1,200 races.

Many of the turf writers here have already indicated that McGaughey will be their choice on the Eclipse ballot. About the only way Lukas can reverse that sentiment is by having a big day in the Breeders’ Cup. And with seven of his starters being fillies, that’s entirely possible.

Horse Racing Notes

Scratch Claramount from the Sprint and Short Sleeves from the Mile. Short Sleeves, who is stabled at Santa Anita, has sore hips. . . . Julie Krone, who will become the first female jockey to ride in the Breeders’ Cup, may have three mounts--Forty Niner in the Classic, Dr. Bizzare in the Juvenile and Darby Shuffle in the Juvenile Fillies. Before taking the mount on Forty Niner, replacing Laffit Pincay, Krone attempted to call Pincay in California and discuss the situation. All she could get was Pincay’s answering machine, so she left a message explaining how the opportunity developed.

The temperatures are supposed to rise this weekend--lows in the 40s and highs near 70--but there’s also a chance of rain Saturday. . . . If Hail a Cab runs in the Distaff, Chris McCarron would ride her. Trainer Phil Hauswald is debating whether to run her as an entry with Epitome. . . . Milesius, who will run in the Turf, is the last horse Dick Lundy will saddle for Virginia Kraft Payson. Lundy is moving back to California from New York, to manage Allen Paulson’s racing operations, and Tom Skiffington will take over the Payson horses.

With Claramount out, Chris Antley will be able to ride High Brite in the Sprint. . . . Entries will be taken for the seven races today, when the owners must make their final eligibility payments. It costs $20,000 a horse to run in five of the races, $40,000 in the Turf and $60,000 in the Classic.