HORSE RACING : Turf Stars Might Miss Breeders’ Cup

The sad part about this year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf Stakes is that Great Communicator and Sunshine Forever, those superb grass runners who finished only a half-length apart last year, won’t be running on Nov. 4 at Gulfstream Park. Great Communicator, a 6-year-old gelding, has danced a dance or two too many, and Sunshine Forever, a 4-year-old who has aged quickly, is winless this year, unable to beat allowance horses in New York.

The sadder part is that Hawkster and Yankee Affair, two of the leading contenders for the Eclipse Award for male turf champion, probably won’t run at Gulfstream Park. Neither was nominated as a yearling and it would cost their owners $240,000 apiece just to get them in.

Steinlen, also a candidate for the male grass championship, isn’t scheduled to run in the Turf, either, although he will be competing in the Mile, the other grass race on Breeders’ Cup day.

Henry Carroll, who trains 7-year-old Yankee Affair, figures his horse, who was a $10,200 yearling, can wrap up the Eclipse Award by winning Sunday’s Budweiser International at Laurel. A victory in the International would be Yankee Affair’s fourth major stakes win this year.

What the voters may not forget, however, is that Steinlen beat Yankee Affair in the Arlington Million in September, when Carroll’s gelding finished third.

Hawkster, winner of the Oak Tree Invitational at Santa Anita in world-record time, will be bucking tradition, trying to win an Eclipse Award without running in the Breeders’ Cup.

In the five years since the Breeders’ Cup started, the 10 grass titles--five each for males and females--have been won nine times by horses that were in the Breeders’ Cup. The exception is John Henry, who won the 1984 male grass title after missing the Breeders’ Cup because of injury.

Shelly Meredith, owner of Hawkster, has reasons other than the $240,000 to bypass Gulfstream Park. Last March, after Hawkster was shipped from California to Florida, he was drained by the humid heat, lost about 100 pounds and ran a badly beaten fourth in the Florida Derby.

But that race was on dirt. Hawkster has rung up four consecutive victories since he was switched to grass.

Still, Meredith has reservations about running at Gulfstream again.

“The sand that my horse ran on in the Florida Derby is the same sand that they put on top of their grass course,” he said.

One white foot, run him for his life; Two white feet, keep him for your wife; Three white feet, keep him for your man; Four white feet, sell him if you can. The superstition about horses being undesirable in proportion to the number of white feet they have was shattered by Shergar, the 1981 English Derby winner who had four white stockings.

Secretariat also didn’t do badly for a horse with three white feet.

When the 19-year-old Secretariat died recently, there were reminiscences of his epic victories, but just as much fun was trying to recall the occasional horse that beat him.

Secretariat finished first in 17 of 21 starts--the stewards disqualified him for interference after he ran first in the 1972 Champagne--and the horses that actually beat him were not a distinguished group.

In the first race of his career, Secretariat ran fourth behind Herbull, Master Achiever and Fleet ‘n Royal. He was third in the 1973 Wood Memorial, behind stablemate Angle Light and Sham. Later that year, trainer Allen Jerkins beat Secretariat twice, with Onion, a $25,000 horse from the claiming ranks, and Prove Out.

“Onion suffered a tendon injury after he beat Secretariat,” Jerkens said. “Everybody thought it was a fluke when he won the Whitney, but I thought he was on his way to becoming a fine handicap horse. If he hadn’t had the injury, he was going to prove what a good handicap horse he was.”

Avenging Force, who will be remembered as the only horse who ever beat King Glorious, ran for the first time in almost five months last week and finished last at Bay Meadows.

King Glorious, who was 1-9 when Avenging Force suffered sore shins while beating him at Golden Gate Fields, has been sold as a stallion prospect to Japanese interests for a sum estimated at more than $1 million. The sale deprives the Breeders’ Cup Sprint of one of its leading contenders. King Glorious won eight of nine starts and earned $1.1 million.

Finishing second, four lengths behind Hawkster in the Oak Tree Invitational is not enough to discourage trainer Bobby Frankel from trying to win his second consecutive Japan Cup with Pay the Butler.

The trouble for Frankel is that Hawkster might also run Nov. 26 in the Tokyo race, which was worth more than $1 million to owner Edmund Gann when Pay the Butler won the stake a year ago.

Pay the Butler is winless in nine starts since that victory and is only four for 33 overall.

“We know he likes the track in Japan, and he liked the firmness of the Santa Anita course,” Frankel said. “He was second the race before, at Louisiana Downs, but that was after being pricked in a hoof by a blacksmith shortly before the race.”

Horse Racing Notes

Sewickley, On the Line and Speedratic are running Saturday in the New York Racing Assn. Mile at Aqueduct. . . . Chris McCarron rides On the Line, and has the mount earlier in the day on Winning Colors, who needs a solid performance in a grass race to merit a trip to Florida for the Breeders’ Cup. . . . Laffit Pincay will be at Laurel Sunday to ride In Extremis in the Budweiser International. Pincay, who has won nine million-dollar races, more than any other jockey, expects to have mounts in all seven Breeders’ Cup stakes.

At Santa Anita this weekend, Present Value and Rahy, who finished 1-2 last time, will run in Saturday’s Goodwood Handicap, and on Sunday Claire Marine will be favored in the Las Palmas Handicap. Rahy will carry 121 pounds, two more than Present Value, and Claire Marine has a 125-pound impost, five more than any other expected starter. . . . Arthur Hancock, principal owner of Sunday Silence, said that trainer Charlie Whittingham will decide whether Pat Valenzuela keeps the mount on the Kentucky Derby winner in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Valenzuela missed his fourth consecutive day of riding at Santa Anita Thursday and has missed seven of the first 14 days of the Oak Tree meet. He is not named to ride today or Saturday.

Whittingham spent part of this week giving a deposition in the divorce settlement between Howard and Elizabeth Keck. One thing at issue is the breeding career of Ferdinand, winner of the 1986 Kentucky Derby. . . . The California Equine Retirement Foundation, which tries to find homes for old geldings, is having an auction and casino night at the Pasadena Hilton on Oct. 28. Not all retired geldings are as well-cared for as John Henry, the two-time horse of the year, who will leave his home at the Kentucky Horse Park to appear at Santa Anita Oct. 28-29 in conjunction with Eque-Fest, a show of breeds other than thoroughbreds.

Some tour organizers for the Breeders’ Cup have been surprised to learn that the parking fee will be $75 a bus at Gulfstream Park. . . . Maryland-based Kent Desormeaux, who is on target for breaking Chris McCarron’s record of 546 wins, set in 1974, will ride in New York next year. Desormeaux had 476 winners through Tuesday and has been able to postpone a stewards’ suspension until next year. . . . Taking a cue from Jose Canseco, who is about twice his size, Bill Shoemaker has gotten into the 900-line business. Starting Friday and running through Nov. 4, a message by Shoemaker of about five minutes can be heard by calling 1-900-246-SHOE. The cost is $2.95 for the first minute and 95 cents a minute thereafter. . . . Shoemaker, who has won more than 8,800 races world-wide, scored his first win in Australia Thursday, riding Cosign, an 8-1 shot, to a 1 3/4-length victory in the Moe Cup, a race held annually in a small Australian bush town.

Bay Meadows, which suffered minor damage in Tuesday’s Bay Area earthquake, will resume racing Saturday. . . . The owners of Prized don’t want to try Easy Goer again and will run their colt in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, which will be his grass debut. . . . Annoconnor suffered a leg injury and is out for the year. . . . Dash for Speed is a heavy favorite in the Breeders Championship Classic, one of seven quarter horse races on Championship Day at Sunland Park, the New Mexico track near El Paso.

Haut Arandu tied the Santa Anita record for a mile on grass with a 1:33 1/5 time in Wednesday’s fifth race. . . . Playing Taps, the second-place finisher in a race at Hollywood Park on July 15, tested positive for a prohibited drug--a medication used to treat horses’ feet which can also be a stimulant--and has been disqualified. . . . There will be 15 races at Santa Anita on Breeders’ Cup day Nov. 4--the seven from Gulfstream on television and eight live races. First post is 9:30 a.m.