Alabama Stakes at Saratoga : Open Mind Closes for 10th Win in Row

For those hard-to-please critics who had been complaining that Open Mind is a brilliant horse with a bland style, the 3-year-old filly responded with a gritty performance on a rainy day at Saratoga.

At the top of the stretch of the $232,400 Alabama Stakes, Open Mind’s chances appeared to be as gloomy as the day itself. She was ahead of only one horse, stablemate Lea Lucinda. She trailed the front-running Dearly Loved by more than five lengths and was running in the middle of the track, where the muddy surface had the consistency of butterscotch pudding.

Open Mind had gone into Saturday’s 109th Alabama with a nine-race winning streak dating to last November, but now, at 1-5 odds, she looked hopelessly beaten. Her critics were ready to add Open Mind’s name to the list of fallen Saratoga favorites, which includes Man o’ War, Gallant Fox and Secretariat.

Before a crowd of 30,309, Open Mind chose not to become a part of that gallery. “Of all the fillies I’ve ridden,” Angel Cordero would say later, “I’ve never been on one who tries as hard as this filly. If she were a person, she’d want to work seven days a week.”

Cordero went to his whip 16 times--seven times from the right and nine from the left--and it took that 16th whack to get owner Gene Klein’s filly to the wire, a neck before Dearly Loved. Open Mind might win 10 more races in a row, if she is allowed to stay on the track long enough, but no victory will come any harder than Saturday’s.

Jean Cruguet was aboard Dearly Loved, who had won only two races in her life, neither in a stake. “Yeah, I sag the other filly coming,” Cruguet said of Open Mind. “I wanted to shoot her.”

At the head of the stretch, Open Mind was so far to the center of the track that Cordero couldn’t see Dearly Loved ahead because Cruguet’s filly was toward the inside.

“I could see the second-place horse (Naskra’s Return), but not the other one,” Cordero said. “I was hoping my filly could see the leader, because it would give her something to run at.”

As Open Mind began closing the gap, Cordero was saying to her between blows from the whip: “Look at her (Dearly Loved), look at her. Don’t let her beat you.”

Open Mind, a $150,000 yearling purchase by trainer Wayne Lukas, won her 12th race in 14 starts, earned $139,440 and increased her purses to $1.7 million. The winning time was 2:04 1/5, with all the starters carrying 121 pounds.

Dearly Loved finished 1 3/4 lengths in front of Dream Deal, who was five lengths better than Lea Lucinda. Next were Silent Classic, Rose Park and Naskra’s Return. Nite of Fun was scratched.

In her three races before Saturday, Open Mind had become the seventh horse to sweep New York’s filly triple by winning the Acorn, the Mother Goose and the Coaching Club America Oaks. Before Saturday, only two of the previous winners of that series, Shuvee in 1969 and Mom’s Command in 1986, had gone on to take the Alabama. Chris Evert and Davona Dale, other winners of the triple, were knocked off in the Saratoga race, and Dark Mirage and Ruffian didn’t run in the Alabama.

Open Mind paid $2.40, $2.20 and $2.10. Dearly Loved paid $4.80 and $2.10, and Dream Deal returned $2.10. The $2 exacta on Open Mind and Dearly Loved was worth $13.80.

“This is a super filly,” said Jeff Lukas, who saddled Open Mind for his father Saturday. “We wanted to run more of our own style today. She’s best when she sits back and makes one run. Angel cut it pretty close, but he used everything to get her there. It was the filly’s heart that got her up today.”

Naskra’s Return, running slow fractions of :49 3/5 for the half-mile and 1:15 for three-quarters, was on the lead down the backstretch, with Dearly Loved second and Rose Park third. Open Mind was sixth, ahead of only Lea Lucinda, and seven lengths behind Naskra’s Return, after six furlongs.

Cordero went to his whip coming out of the final turn. He thought about moving Open Mind to the inside.

“Cutting the corner would have been better,” Cordero said. “But the horses in front of me looked like they were hanging and they were spread across the track. I couldn’t afford to get stopped.”

Inside the sixteenth pole, Dearly Loved was drifting badly, but Cruguet still felt that they had a chance to hang on.

“I knew Open Mind would be there sooner or later,” Cruguet said.

LeRoy Jolley, who trains Dearly Loved, won the Kentucky Derby in 1980 with a filly, Genuine Risk. Late Saturday, Jolley was asked how Open Mind compares with some other top fillies.

“She wouldn’t have that record unless she was a real good horse,” Jolley said.

Horse Racing Notes

With each victory by Open Mind, trainer Wayne Lukas has second thoughts about the decision not to run her in the Kentucky Derby. Lukas believes that Open Mind is a horse-of-the-year candidate, conceding that someone would have to knock off Easy Goer for her to enter the picture. . . . There are no immediate plans for Open Mind, but she probably will have an easier schedule before the Breeders’ Cup at Gulfstream Park in November. She’s eight for eight this year, and her last loss was to stablemate Some Romance in the Frizette at Belmont Park last Oct. 15. . . . All 10 races in Open Mind’s streak have been stakes. Undefeated Colin won 14 consecutive stakes in 1907-08.

Lukas won another stake Saturday when Julie Krone rode Carson City to a 7 1/4-length victory in the $200,000 Sapling at Monmouth Park. Mr. Nasty was second, and Adjudicating finished third. . . . Another Lukas horse, Steinlen, is favored to win the Bernard Baruch Handicap on the grass today at Saratoga. . . . The rain at Saratoga might continue through Tuesday. . . . Quick Call won the Devil Diver Handicap for Cordero at Saratoga Saturday, giving the 5-year-old gelding seven victories in eight starts at the track in the last two years.