BREEDERS’ CUP : Three Get Unluck of the Draw : Horse Racing: Favorites Bayakoa, Zilzal and El Senor must try to overcome unfavorable post positions in Saturday’s races.

Three of the seven favorites in Saturday’s $10-million Breeders’ Cup races will have to overcome unfavorable post positions on Gulfstream Park’s peculiar course.

A total of 89 horses were entered Wednesday in the sixth annual Breeders’ Cup. Three horses each in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and Turf Stakes are on the also-eligible list, because fields are limited to 14 starters, so it’s likely that only 83 horses will run.

The morning-line favorites are Easy Goer at 6-5 in the Classic, El Senor at 3-1 in the Turf, Zilzal at 9-5 in the Mile, Bayakoa at 6-5 in the Distaff, On the Line at 7-2 in the Sprint, the entry of Adjudicating and Rhythm at 5-2 in the Juvenile, and Stella Madrid at 5-2 in the Juvenile Fillies. The races are worth $1 million apiece, except for the $3-million Classic and the $2-million Turf.

Favorites that will have to be at their very best because of the luck of the draw include Bayakoa, considered the best filly or mare in the country; Zilzal, undefeated and given the best chance of winning among the European entries, and El Senor, who has had traffic problems and wide trips in several of his non-winning races.

Bayakoa drew post No. 1 in the 10-horse Distaff; Zilzal will break from No. 10 in the 13-horse Mile, and El Senor is on the outside in the Turf, which has a capacity of 14 starters.

The two horse-of-the-year candidates that will account for most of the betting in the Classic will be as far away from each other as they can be at the start of the race, with Easy Goer coming out of the No. 1 stall and Sunday Silence breaking from No. 8. California-based Sunday Silence, who beat Easy Goer in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness and then ran second to his New York rival in the Belmont Stakes, is listed as the 2-1 second choice in the Classic.

Sunday Silence likes to be close early, and Easy Goer prefers putting in a late run. It would seem that Easy Goer might suffer from the inside post, where there is always the chance of getting shuffled back for the run down the backstretch, but the Classic has a relatively small field, and Shug McGaughey, who trains the colt, said he is happy with the position.

Jimmy Croll, who is starting Arlington Lassie winner Trumpet’s Blare in the Juvenile Fillies, has trained horses at Gulfstream for more than 25 years and is familiar with the track, which has tight turns, an unbanked grass course and a new dirt racing surface that concerned trainers last week. The main track got better by the weekend but may change again if the predicted scattered thundershowers occur today and Friday. Gulfstream’s main track is a mile in circumference, and the turf course is seventh-eighths of a mile.

“Post positions are important in mile races on grass and mile-and-sixteenth races on dirt here,” Croll said. “If you draw outside, you can lose a lot of ground around the first turn.”

Both of the 2-year-old races--the Juvenile and the Juvenile fillies--are at 1 1/16 miles.

The reason a No. 1 post might be all right for Easy Goer in the 1 1/4-mile Classic and not for Bayakoa in the 1 1/8-mile Distaff is that Bayakoa is a front-running mare. Outside her will be other speed horses--Highest Glory, Colonial Waters, Wonders Delight and Winning Colors--all of whom are capable of crowding Bayakoa going into the first turn. If Bayakoa is not a factor in the early pace, the victory chances improve for the late-running Open Mind, the best 3-year-old filly in the country, and Goodbye Halo.

The hot-blooded Bayakoa has lost only twice in 10 starts this year. In one loss, she broke from the No. 2 post and was unable to get rolling early; in the other, she was in the first stall and broke through the gate while waiting for the other horses to load.

Wayne Lukas, who trains Highest Glory, Colonial Waters, Wonders Delight and Open Mind, has 11 Breeders’ Cup starters and is happy with all of the post positions they drew.

Lukas’ Steinlen, the 4-1 second choice behind Zilzal in the Mile, has a chance to win the national grass title for males with a victory Saturday. Steinlen, who will break from the No. 2 post, has six wins, three seconds and one third in 10 starts during a most consistent year, and has won races at distances ranging from a mile to 1 1/4 miles.

Zilzal, a Kentucky-bred, English-raced son of Nureyev who was bought for $750,000 as a yearling by Sheik Mana al Maktoum, has never lost, winning three races at seven furlongs and two at a mile. The 3-year-old colt’s smallest margin of victory has been three lengths and he has won by as many as 10 lengths.

“I’ve seen this horse’s record,” Lukas said. “But this will be the first time he has raced around a course with left-handed turns, and he won’t be used to the dead-flat grass surface that they have here.”

The Sprint, which hasn’t been won by a favorite since Eillo took the inaugural running at Hollywood Park in 1984, was won last year by Lukas’ Gulch, and the trainer with a record nine Breeders’ Cup victories is shooting for another win in the six-furlong race with On the Line. The Sprint is so unpredictable that On the Line has been made the favorite even though he has finished behind Dispersal, Sewickley and Sam Who--other starters Saturday--in recent races.

Sam Who won five consecutive sprints in California in midyear, breaking the track record for six furlongs at Hollywood Park. On the Line avenged one defeat with a victory in the Bing Crosby Handicap at Del Mar, where Sam Who stumbled at the start and finished fourth, but in the Ancient Title Handicap at Santa Anita on Oct. 18, Sam Who was a four-length winner, in the same time of 1:08 that he registered at Hollywood Park.

Sam Who, the 4-1 second choice in the Sprint, drew the No. 13 post. The horse outside him is Safely Kept, the only filly in the field and undefeated in eight starts this year.

Because 19 horses were pre-entered in the Sprint a week ago, there was some question whether Sam Who would get in the race. When fields are oversubscribed, a point system based on high 1989 finishes determines nine of the starters, and a panel of racing officials picks the otherfive.

“No. 13 is supposed to be superstitious,” said Henry Moreno, Sam Who’s trainer. “But I’m not superstitious. I’m just glad to be in the race. Good horses should win no matter where they start.”