DEL MAR : Gregson Has Pair of Cup Hopefuls

Shades of Super Diamond. With the Breeders’ Cup about three months away, trainer Eddie Gregson is working at Del Mar with not one, but two horses good enough for those million-dollar races at Belmont Park on Oct. 27.

Although Gregson, who will turn 52 next month, won the 1982 Kentucky Derby with Gato Del Sol at 21-1, Super Diamond made more money for his barn. A sore-legged gelding who kept coming back for more, Super Diamond earned $1.4 million, winning 16 of 37 starts before he was retired to a farm near here.

Super Diamond, however, was not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup when he was a young horse, and his owners could not justify the six-figure fees it would have cost to supplement him into the races. Gregson himself told them that paying so much to run in the Breeders’ Cup, combined with trainer and jockey expenses and shipping costs, was a poor risk.

Now Gregson has Petite Ile and Sunny Blossom in his barn, and while they would also have to be supplemented, the trainer is not pooh-poohing the Breeders’ Cup. The owners of Sunny Blossom are interested in putting up the money, and the owner of Petite Ile may be catching Breeders’ Cup fever.

Petite Ile won the Sunset Handicap, beating males, on closing day last Monday at Hollywood Park, and Sunny Blossom is running Sunday in the $100,000 Bing Crosby Handicap at Del Mar.

Petite Ile will also be running here before the season ends on Sept. 12, Gregson having penciled in the $300,000 Del Mar Handicap, against males again, on Sept. 3.

“Before the Sunset, there was no thought about running in the Breeders’ Cup; we were thinking about the Japan Cup,” Gregson said. “Now, I don’t know. Right after the Sunset, the owner (Jean-Francois Malle, a Paris banker) mentioned the Breeders’ Cup. He didn’t say anything for sure, but he did mention it. Maybe it was just something said in the thrill of victory, so we’ll have to see how she does in some more races.”

It would cost Malle $240,000 to run in the $2-million Breeders’ Cup Turf. First place is worth $900,000 and second place pays $450,000, but even if the 4-year-old Irish-bred filly ran third, the $216,000 would not be enough to pay her way to New York.

The owners of Sunny Blossom would be looking at a $120,000 supplementary fee to make their 5-year-old gelding eligible for the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Sunny Blossom has already won at six furlongs--the distance of the Sprint--in New York. He was shipped back there in March and galloped off with the Toboggan Handicap at Aqueduct in 1:09 3/5, which is excellent by New York standards.

“He likes deep tracks, so Belmont would appear to be a track that he would take to,” Gregson said of Sunny Blossom, who broke the Santa Anita record for six furlongs by winning the Palos Verdes Handicap there last Dec. 30 in 1:07 1/5.

The projected plan for Sunny Blossom is to run him in the $350,000 Frank De Francis Memorial Dash at Pimlico on Aug. 18. There would be a meeting there with Safely Kept, the 4-year-old filly who was second in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Gulfstream Park and later was voted the Eclipse Award for sprinting.

“Pimlico is the filly’s home grounds, so it’s going to be tough beating her back there,” Gregson said. “We’ll also have to give her five pounds in the race. How Sunny Blossom runs there will tell us something about whether he fits in the Breeders’ Cup.”

Since the Breeders’ Cup began in 1984, Gregson has started horses four times, his best finish being a fourth in the Classic with Candi’s Gold in 1987. Tsunami Slew ran twice in the Mile, finishing fifth in 1984 and sixth in 1985, and Jade Trade, another Gregson horse, was 12th in the Juvenile in 1987.

Sunny Blossom, who will be ridden by Gary Stevens, has been assigned 121 pounds for the Crosby. Sam Who, at 119 pounds, was bothered leaving the gate in the stake last year but came on to finish fourth. Others running Sunday are Frost Free, Cresting Water, Sensational Star and Timeless Answer.

Since winning the Palos Verdes, Sunny Blossom has started four times, winning the Tobaggan and a stake at Golden Gate Fields, running second in a minor stake at Santa Anita and finishing third in the Count Fleet Handicap at Oaklawn Park.

Sunny Blossom was the 4-5 favorite in the Count Fleet, but Gregson said the Oaklawn track had been scraped before the race and didn’t have much bottom. That wasn’t Sunny Blossom’s kind of track. Belmont Park is, which makes supplementing into the Breeders’ Cup all the more tempting.

Horse Racing Notes

Bayakoa, nominated for today’s Palomar Handicap on the grass at Del Mar, will run instead against males in the $150,000 San Diego Handicap on dirt a week from today. At 120 pounds, Royal Touch is the high weight in the Palomar, with Nikishka next in the 11-horse field at 117. . . . Gary Stevens won last year’s Crosby with On the Line. . . . After being involved in a chain-reaction gate incident precipitated by Sam Who in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, On the Line never recovered from his injuries and had to be destroyed. . . . Olympic Prospect, another of California’s ace sprinters, has had some minor problems and is getting a rest, according to trainer John Sadler. It was Sadler, not Eddie Gregson, who cashed a substantial bet when Sunny Blossom won in New York.

Citidancer, a 3-year-old colt owned by the Clover Racing Stable, made his second start at Belmont Park Wednesday and won an allowance race by 10 lengths, running six furlongs in 1:09 2/5. After Citidancer beat maidens in a 12-length victory at Laurel in February, Clover paid in the vicinity of $500,000 for him. Citidancer had foot problems and refused to train when Clover first got him, but under Jeff Lukas in New York he has become a colt with potential. A son of Dixieland Band, his dam is Willamae, which makes him a half-brother to Willa on the Move. . . . Clover’s Prized is at Del Mar, getting ready for the Eddie Read Handicap on Aug. 12. . . . The Arlington Challenge Cup, which will be run a week from today, lost another horse when Clever Trevor chipped a bone in his knee. . . . Sunday Silence, the heavy favorite in the stake, worked five furlongs in :59 at Arlington, galloping out another eighth of a mile in 1:11 4/5.

Medication information is important to some handicappers, but sometimes slip-ups occur. On Wednesday, in the first division of the Oceanside Stakes at Del Mar, trainer Darrell Vienna told racing officials in the walking ring that his 3-year-old colt, Robyn Dancer, had run on an anti-bleeder medication before, which was contrary to information in the program. During the post parade, about eight minutes before the race, the corrected information was announced to the crowd. Robyn Dancer finished fifth as the 3-1 favorite. . . . Gregson’s last stake victory at Del Mar was when Super Diamond won the San Diego Handicap in 1987. . . . Trainer Brian Mayberry, who is based at Del Mar, practically has a division of horses at Saratoga. Scheduled to run at the Upstate New York track in August are Stormy but Valid, Forest Fealty, Prospectors Gamble, Garden Gal and Exemplary Leader.