Weekend Racing at Santa Anita : Cutlass Reality Facing Old Problem

When it rained for the Breeders’ Cup last November at Churchill Downs, the owners of Cutlass Reality were stuck in the mud.

Because Cutlass Reality wouldn’t have otherwise been eligible, Howard Crash and Jim Hankoff paid a $360,000 supplementary fee so that their horse could run in the $3-million Classic.

The up side to the investment was that Cutlass Reality could earn $1.35 million by winning the race, plus substantially increasing his value as a sire.

The downside was that Cutlass Reality would have to finish at least second for his owners to show a profit, and the opposition was so strong that he was the fifth betting choice, behind Alysheba, Waquoit, Forty Niner and the entry of Seeking the Gold and Personal Flag.

Cutlass Reality doesn’t run well on off tracks, but if Crash and Hankoff had scratched him from the Breeders’ Cup, they would have forfeited the $360,000.

Cutlass Reality was in second place at the top of the stretch, but he quit running and wound up seventh, about eight lengths behind the winning Alysheba.

Now, Crash, Hankoff and their trainer, Craig Lewis, may be stuck again, because they could be faced with another off track when Cutlass Reality makes his first start as a 7-year-old on Sunday in the $250,000 San Antonio Handicap.

If Cutlass Reality doesn’t run, the owners are out only their $200 nomination fee, but that would leave Lewis with the problem of getting his horse ready for the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap on March 5 without the benefit of a prep race.

Crash and Hankoff, who are investment bankers, have made plans to fly from New York for the race and on Friday Lewis acted as though they would have a race to watch.

“I want to get a race in him, and I have no other options,” Lewis said.

In a 64-race career that has yielded $1.3 million in earnings, Cutlass Reality has won only two of 13 starts in the mud. His last off-track victory was at Aqueduct in 1986, long before he became a major stakes winner.

“He prefers a fast track, but I really can’t say that the track bothered him that much at Churchill Downs,” Lewis said. “The caliber of horses that beat him was pretty good.”

Earlier in the year, Cutlass Reality was capable of beating that caliber. Horse-of-the-year Alysheba lost just twice all year, once to Bet Twice and once to Cutlass Reality, by 6 1/2 lengths in the Hollywood Gold Cup.

Although the 1 1/8-mile San Antonio is considered a traditional prep for the Big ‘Cap, only two horses in the 1980s--Bates Motel and Lord at War--have won both stakes. Ten horses are entered Sunday, but some are questionable if the track remains muddy. Super Diamond is a sore-legged horse who usually only runs on fast surfaces, and Cherokee Colony was scratched from last Sunday’s Strub Stakes because of an off track.

Cutlass Reality, ridden as usual by Gary Stevens, has drawn the rail and will carry the most weight, 124 pounds. Outside him, in order, are:

Super Diamond, with Laffit Pincay, 121 pounds; Frankly Perfect, Eddie Delahoussaye, 115; Cherokee Colony, Rafael Meza, 120; Crimson Slew, Alex Solis, 111; Payant, Bill Shoemaker, 118; Stylish Winner, Corey Black, 112; Good Taste, Sandy Hawley, 113; Mark Chip, Russell Baze, 113; and Stalwars, Chris McCarron, 115.

Frankly Perfect and Payant are coupled in the betting, because Charlie Whittingham trains both horses and owns an interest in Payant.

Horse Racing Notes

Flying Continental, winner of last Wednesday’s Santa Catalina, is scheduled to run next in the San Rafael on Feb. 26, said trainer Jay Robbins. Another of Robbins’ stakes-winning 3-year-olds, Raise a Stanza, is headed for Golden Gate Fields and the Lafayette Invitational Handicap on March 11. . . . Bruho, injured while running second to Music Merci in last year’s Del Mar Futurity, is back in training.