The Other Races : Lukas Finishes Best Single Day a Couple Million Richer

In the first four Breeders’ Cups, trainer Wayne Lukas won 6 races, and his horses earned $4.6 million.

But Lukas never had a day to compare with Saturday at Churchill Downs, where in the fifth Breeders’ Cup his horses won 3 of the 7 races, missed a fourth victory by inches and wound up with three seconds, a third and purses worth $2.1 million. No trainer has ever done as much in a single racing day.

Lukas started five 2-year-olds in the $1-million Juvenile Fillies and took the first three places when Open Mind, Darby Shuffle and Lea Lucinda raced across the finish line.

In the $1-million Juvenile, for colts and geldings, Lukas’ Is It True sprung the biggest upset of the day, winning over the vaunted Easy Goer, who went off at odds of 3-10.

Before that, Gulch gave Lukas his first win of the day, taking the $1-million Sprint.

Undefeated Personal Ensign, a 1-2 favorite, almost fell to the Lukas stampede in the $1-million Distaff. Winning Colors, winner of this year’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, made her first appearance here since then and lost by a nose. Personal Ensign was able to nip Winning Colors at the wire, something Forty Niner missed doing by a neck in the Derby. The free-running Winning Colors was allowed to gain easy early leads in both races.

Goodbye Halo also ran a tough race in the Distaff, finishing third, only a half-length back. Lukas was able to handle Winning Colors’ narrow defeat graciously.

“When they started breeding horses 250 or 300 years ago, that was the kind of race everybody had in mind,” Lukas said. “This wasn’t a track for front-runners to last, but Winning Colors almost did it.

“When you get beat like that, you’re disappointed for a second. But then you realize that you’ve almost beat a great filly. And we’ll have Winning Colors back to run for us next year as a 4-year-old.”

Here’s a look at the 6 races that preceded the Classic:

JUVENILE

Is It True, ridden by Laffit Pincay for his fourth Breeders’ Cup win, had won only 1 of 5 starts in New York and lost 3 times to Easy Goer. But on Saturday, both colts were running on a muddy track for the first time, and Pat Day, riding Easy Goer, felt that his mount didn’t handle the track.

“We got bumped at the start, but my horse also broke tardy, and that had nothing to do with the outcome,” Day said. “The only time he really felt like he was running was in the run to the first turn.

“He never picked it up after that. It was frustrating to him, a young horse being unable to do anything. At the three-sixteenths pole, I thought we might get to the otherhorse, but then he jumped the tracks (from the starting gate). I thought he might have a closing kick, but he didn’t have it today.”

Is It True, paying $20.40 to win, ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:46 3/5. Tagel finished third, 8 lengths behind Easy Goer, who had won four straight before Saturday.

JUVENILE FILLIES

Open Mind almost beat her stablemate, Some Romance, with a late charge in the Frizette at Belmont Park last month, and Saturday, with an extra sixteenth of a mile to run, she was 1 3/4 lengths better than another entrymate, Darby Shuffle, with Lea Lucinda third.

The five-horse Lukas entry paid $3.40, with Open Mind running 1 1/16 miles in 1:46 3/5, the same time as the 2-year-old colts. Some Romance, who had the lead with an eighth of a mile to go, finished sixth.

“When I got around horses at the eighth pole, I knew we were going to win,” said Angel Cordero, Open Mind’s jockey.

Gene Klein, the owner of all three of the Lukas-trained winners, complimented Cordero. “Nobody brings a horse between other horses better than Angel,” Klein said.

SPRINT

Cordero was also aboard Gulch, who ran 6 furlongs in 1:10 2/5, paid $13.60 and beat Play the King by three-quarters of a length. Play the King went off at 49-1 and Afleet, at 9-1, ran third, beaten by 1 lengths.

Mining, undefeated in six starts, was in contention for a half-mile, but finished 10th. Olympic Prospect faded to seventh after leading for a half-mile and Precisionist, trying to win a second Breeders’ Cup race, was still a factor in mid-stretch but finished fifth. Very Subtle, winner of the Sprint last year at Hollywood Park, was fourth.

“He didn’t handle the track,” jockey Randy Romero said of Mining. “He broke good, but then he started to fight it, and he fought it every step of the way.”

DISTAFF

In Personal Ensign, Romero found a filly who had trouble with the slick surface, but won, anyway. When he watched the television replay, Romero saw that the win by a nose over Winning Colors was closer than he thought.

“At the 70-yard pole, I knew we were going to get her,” Romero said. “My filly’s the kind of filly who’s determined to get the job done.”

Trainer Shug McGaughey, who went into the Breeders’ Cup with three favorites, saw Easy Goer and Mining lose and settled for Personal Ensign’s 13th straight. The undefeated 4-year-old filly is being retired and will be bred to Mr. Prospector next year.

“She won on courage today,” McGaughey said.

Personal Ensign paid $3 and was clocked in 1:52 for 1 1/8 miles.

TURF

Courage was the same attribute that trainer Thad Ackel said led to Great Communicator’s $26.80, half-length win over Sunshine Forever in the 1 1/2-mile grass race.

“It was more because of courage and fight than ability that this horse won today,” Ackel said.

Great Communicator led after a mile, but then fell back to fourth in mid-stretch as Triptych, Indian Skimmer and Sunshine Forever passed him in a furious duel.

“Ray Sibille has been the difference in this horse winning this year,” Ackel said.

Under Angel Cordero, Great Communicator ran 12th in the Turf last year at Hollywood Park.

“You rode just about everybody in the country before you gave me the mount,” said Sibille, kidding Ackel. Both horsemen come from Cajun country, Sibille having ridden for Ackel in Louisiana when they were both based there.

Indian Skimmer, who along with stablemate Sarhoob went off the 6-5 favorite, was rank early and after being taken back by jockey Michael Roberts came on for third place, three-quarters of a length behind Sunshine Forever.

MILE

Since winning the 1987 Mile, Miesque ran only three times, all in France. The 4-year-old filly won twice and finished second once, and that was all the foundation she needed for Saturday’s 4-length win over Steinlen, a Lukas-trained 37-1 longshot.

Miesque, coupled with Blushing John in the betting and ridden by Freddie Head, paid $6 for running in 1:38 3/5. Simply Majestic was third, a head back of Steinlen.

There was pre-race speculation that Miesque wouldn’t be able to handle soft turf.

“Though it rained a lot here, the ground was much drier than in Europe,” said Francois Boutin, Miesque’s trainer. “The filly is better this year than last. The horses she ran against this year were better, but because she campaigned less, she was fresher this year.”