On Gloomy Day, Alysheba Is Bright Enough : Horse-of-the-Year Honors Seem Assured by Classic Win

By BILL CHRISTINE

Nov. 6, 1988 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —

In a crowd of 71,237 that was trying to stay warm on Breeders’ Cup day, the sign was still hard to miss. “Alysheba for President,” it said.

Owners Clarence, Dorothy and Pamela Scharbauer, trainer Jack Van Berg and jockey Chris McCarron would settle for the horse-of-the-year title, which is presumably something less than what those two politicians are running for on Tuesday.

Alysheba, once again only as good as he had to be, held off Seeking the Gold in the last sixteenth of a mile at Churchill Downs Saturday. He won the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic by a half-length and probably clinched national honors, even though the undefeated filly, Personal Ensign, won her 13th race, nosing out Winning Colors in an unforgettable battle to the wire in the Distaff.

Alysheba and Personal Ensign never met, so the 250 or so Eclipse voters don’t have that frame of reference, but against an excellent 3-year-old crop and a fine group of older horses, the 4-year-old Alysheba won 7 of 9 starts and earned almost $3.8 million this year. The victory Saturday, worth $1.35 million, raised his career earnings to $6,679,242 and pushed him to the top of the all-time money-winning list, past John Henry, who retired with $6,591,860.

Alysheba’s win in the Classic capped the fifth Breeders’ Cup, which began under an overcast sky and ended in darkness, with intermittent rain accounting for a sloppy-to-muddy track, making the crowd uncomfortable and the horsemen uneasy. Van Berg said he had to squint to see Alysheba’s run to the wire, and jockey Laffit Pincay complained about the lack of daylight for the last race.

Still, the seven Breeders’ Cup stakes were remarkably close to form, and the unsung hero was Butch Lehr, the Churchill Downs plant superintendent, who, with his crew, somehow turned a potential quagmire into a fair racing strip.

Because Churchill Downs, like most tracks, drains in the direction of the inner fence, the rail was the wrong place to be, which meant that Julie Krone, the first woman to ride in the Breeders’ Cup, erred by having Forty Niner on the inside through the early going in the Classic. Waquoit, who ran on the lead with Slew City Slew for half of the 1-mile race, finished third, 5 lengths behind Seeking the Gold, and Forty Niner was another length back in fourth place.

Despite the heroics of Alysheba and Personal Ensign, the first Breeders’ Cup that was both west of New York and east of California was a signal day for other horses and horsemen. The team of owner Gene Klein and trainer Wayne Lukas made Breeders’ Cup history by winning three races, with Is It True in the $1-million Juvenile, Open Mind in the $1-million Juvenile Fillies and Gulch in the $1-million Sprint.

The overachiever of the day was Great Communicator, a $42,000 yearling and former claiming horse. Unable to win at Santa Anita and Del Mar in his last two starts, the 5-year-old gelding knocked off the big guns in the $2-million Turf, giving Ray Sibille a victory in his first Breeders’ Cup ride. Before that, Miesque, the swift French filly, became the first horse to win two Breeders’ Cup races by winning the Mile.

But the loudest cheers were for Alysheba.

“He could have gone around the track two more times, and nobody would have beat him,” McCarron said. “It always looks like it’s life and death for him to win, but then he puts on that quick turn of foot.

“He has what we call a light mouth, so I give him little rein. And I have to take a little finger of mane, because when he accelerates--going from something like 40 to 45 miles an hour--he throws my balance off. John Henry was good, but this is the best horse I’ve ever ridden.”

Alysheba won the Classic on the same track on which he won the Kentucky Derby in 1987, only this time he didn’t have a fast surface to run on, which furrowed the brows of all his handlers. The colt had shown that he didn’t like to have mud thrown in his face, and one of the worst races of his career was on a sloppy track in last year’s Travers at Saratoga.

“I was very concerned early in the day,” McCarron said. “But then when I walked the track, it seemed firm. But then more rain came, and when it kept drizzling, I got concerned again. But luckily the sky didn’t open up. There were no downpours.”

Favored Alysheba, paying $5 to win, was timed in 2:04 4/5. With Waquoit on the lead and Slew City Slew just behind him, there were two tiers of horses going down the backstretch. Cutlass Reality headed the second group, in third place, with Alysheba fourth, running slightly closer to the pace than he usually does.

Slew City Slew gave up on the turn, and Cutlass Reality was spent by the time he reached the top of the stretch and wound up seventh in the nine-horse field. Alysheba, in the middle of the track, moved past the tiring Waquoit at the eighth pole, and then there was only Seeking the Gold to fear. In mid-stretch, Seeking the Gold, with Pat Day aboard, drew even with Alysheba, but McCarron’s horse, who quit wearing blinkers three races back, saw the challenger and took off.

“At the top of the stretch, all of them fanned out, and we lost some ground,” Day said. “At the 40-yard pole, Alysheba just dug in. My horse ran a courageous race, but it just wasn’t good enough.”

Forty Niner gave Krone an anxious moment.

“He took a bad step at about the three-eighths pole,” she said. “I was going to pull him up. I thought he was going to break down. He stumbled and then he took a real bad step, and that’s when I thought he broke down.”

Gary Stevens, riding Cutlass Reality, said his mount flattened out at the eighth pole.

Shug McGaughey, who trains Personal Ensign and Seeking the Gold, had an extra incentive to attempt to win the Classic--a defeat of Alysheba would have clinched horse-of-the-year honors for Personal Ensign.

Like Van Berg, McGaughey had trouble seeing the Classic, which was racing against nightfall while Alysheba raced against Seeking the Gold.

“My horse had already won at the Meadowlands (a New Jersey track that runs at night),” McCarron said of Alysheba. “He’s a good night horse.”

And despite her successful game of catch-up against Winning Colors, this year’s Kentucky Derby winner, it looks as though it will be good night, Personal Ensign, in the horse-of-the-year voting.

THE WINNERS SPRINT

Horse: Gulch

Jockey: Angel Cordero

Trainer: Wayne Lukas

JUVENILE

Horse: Open Mind

Jockey: Angel Cordero

Trainer: Wayne Lukas

DISTAFF

Horse: Personal Ensign

Jockey: Randy Romero

Trainer: Shug McGaughey