NOTEBOOK : At Least 3 Other Winners Clinch Awards

Sunday Silence isn’t the only horse that clinched a championship Saturday at Gulfstream Park. The results of the seven Breeders’ Cup races should make the decisions easier for the Eclipse Awards voters who settle divisional titles.

By winning the Classic, Sunday Silence wrapped up two Eclipse Awards--for horse of the year and 3-year-old colt.

Other Saturday winners likely to get awards include Bayakoa, best older filly or mare; Steinlen, best male grass horse, and Go for Wand, top 2-year-old filly.

Open Mind, although third in the Distaff, is still the favorite in the 3-year-old filly division, based on her seven stakes victories earlier in the year.

Despite winning the roughly run Sprint, Dancing Spree still has lost more races than he has won at shorter distances, and the vote for the sprint championship should be too close to predict.

Rhythm won Saturday, but Summer Squall, an undefeated horse who missed the Breeders’ Cup because of an injury, may still win the 2-year-old colt title.

Blushing John, third in the Classic, will probably emerge as the best handicap male on dirt, in a division distinguished only by its mediocrity.

The best female runner on grass may be Claire Marine, who skipped the Breeders’ Cup and will run in the Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita one week from today.

Gene Klein, who says he’s getting out of the business after being racing’s leading owner for the past decade, is selling more than 100 horses at Keeneland Monday.

Many of Klein’s prominent horses ran poorly on Breeders’ Cup day, and On the Line, the second choice in the Sprint, was seriously injured at the start.

Trainer Wayne Lukas said that On the Line’s superficial tendon in his right foreleg was cut, an infection may develop, and surgery will be needed. On the Line, who has been withdrawn from the Klein dispersal, was clipped by Black Tie Affair leaving the gate.

Open Mind, third in the Distaff, gave Klein his best Breeders’ Cup finish of the day. Icy Folly, a 2-year-old filly, ran second in the Lady’s Secret Stakes, a Breeders’ Cup preliminary. Winning Colors, who won the Kentucky Derby for Klein in 1988, ran ninth in the Distaff.

Sunday Silence’s win in the Classic boosted his career earnings to $4.6 million, which moves him into third place in the standings. Alysheba is No. 1 with $6.6 million, followed by John Henry with $6.5 million.

After it was announced that all Breeders’ Cup horses would be tested for medication after the races, Gulfstream Park steward Walter Blum said early Saturday that only the first six finishers would be tested. Horses finishing first through sixth earn purse money in Breeders’ Cup races.

“Usually in Florida we only test the first three finishers,” Blum said. “Plus any special horses the stewards elect to test, such as beaten favorites.”

Three horses--Political Ambition and Warning in the Mile, and Norquestor in the Sprint--were scratched because of physical reasons. Owners of horses running in the Breeders’ Cup get their entry fees refunded if they’re removed because of veterinary reasons. The entry fee in those two races was $20,000 per horse.

Bayakoa, who cost her owner $200,000 to run as a supplementary entry, was the third supplemental horse to win a Breeders’ Cup race. The others were Wild Again in the 1984 Classic and Pebbles in the 1985 Turf.

Trainer Brian Mayberry and owners Jan, Mace and Samantha Siegel didn’t have a horse in a Breeders’ Cup race, but with their run of luck at Gulfstream Park they should have at least tried.

Mayberry brought four horses west from his California stable and won with all four, including a sweep of the three supporting features leading up to the Breeders’ Cup card Saturday.

It was old home week for Mayberry, as well. His parents live in the Miami area, and he trained on the South Florida circuit for years before going to California.

The Mayberry-Siegel sweep began Friday with Doyouseewhatisee in the Chief’s Crown Stakes. Saturday, Tasteful T.V. won the Lady’s Secret Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, Stormy but Valid took the Life’s Magic Stakes for older fillies and mares, and Edgy Diplomat pulled a $28.40 surprise in the Proud Truth Stakes.

Total haul for the four stakes was $260,790, less about $50,000 in traveling expenses and late entry fees.

“One thing you don’t really appreciate this far from home is California speed and California riders,” Mayberry said. His jockeys were Laffit Pincay, Gary Stevens and Eddie Delahoussaye.

Stevens continues to be snakebitten in the Breeders’ Cup. Shut out again this year, he is now 0 for 20.

His best finish Saturday was a third aboard longshot Star Lift in the Turf. His best bet of the day, On the Line, was stepped on and went lame in the Sprint.

“I’m not ready to give up yet,” said Stevens with a shrug after finishing sixth on Slew City Slew in the Classic. “But I am beginning to wonder if I’m meant to win one of these things.”

If Stevens was depressed about his 0-for-7 day, he didn’t show it.

“Heck no,” said the rider, who came back from a broken hand in September. “Me and my wife are going to the Bahamas to swim, fish, gamble and shop.”

In winning the Distaff on Bayakoa, Pincay took the lead among Breeders’ Cup jockeys with five winners.

Pincay’s celebration could be dampened by possible stewards’ action as a result of his disqualification in the Sprint. He rode the California entrant, Sam Who, to fourth place but was dropped to last for racking up the field 30 yards out of the gate.

“The horse (Safely Kept) out side of me came in,” Pincay said. “And my horse shied away. Then, when my horse made contact with the next horse over, it turned him even more at an angle. I tried to straighten him out, but nothing worked.”

Blum, the steward, appeared to lend Pincay’s version of the incident some credence in his explanation of the foul.

“The filly on the outside did veer inward but made no contact with Pincay’s horse,” Blum said.

Now, the stewards must decide if Pincay can be held to blame, or if Sam Who takes the whole rap.

Jay Hovdey contributed to this story.