Criminal Type Has Top Credentials

Should Criminal Type be voted horse of the year despite his season-ending injury the other day, he will be the first horse in five years to win the award without having won a Breeders’ Cup race.

The last four--Sunday Silence, Alysheba, Ferdinand and Lady’s Secret--all clinched their titles with Breeders’ Cup victories, Lady’s Secret winning the Distaff and the three others the Classic.

Only in the first two years of the Breeders’ Cup did winners of its races fail to win the national title. In 1984, John Henry was voted horse of the year after an injury prevented him from running in the Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park. Slew o’ Gold lost the Classic and the title by about half a length, finishing third (second after a stewards’ disqualification) in that slam-bang finish with Wild Again and Gate Dancer, who caused the trouble through the stretch.

John Henry edged out Slew o’ Gold in one of the closest Eclipse Awards votes. It took a popular-vote tiebreaker to determine the winner after the Daily Racing Form, one of the three voting groups, had favored John Henry; the turf writers had sided with Slew o’ Gold, and the track racing secretaries had split their votes.

The next year, Spend a Buck was voted horse of the year, polling 37% of the popular vote, even though he was retired at the end of the summer with a leg injury. There was a notable lack of competition for the Kentucky Derby winner. Proud Truth, who ran fifth in the Derby the only time he faced Spend a Buck, won the Breeders’ Cup Classic, but still finished 34 votes behind Spend a Buck.

In 1987, Ferdinand won in similar style. Ferdinand, having won only three of nine starts, nosed out Alysheba, the Derby and Preakness winner, in the Classic at Hollywood Park. With 38% of the total horse of the year vote, Ferdinand was a narrow winner over Theatrical, the male grass champion.

Criminal Type’s record is much better than Ferdinand’s was. The 5-year-old son of Alydar has won seven of 11 starts, and neither different track surfaces nor the rigors of travel bothered him. He was winning at Santa Anita at the start of the year, he won at Pimlico in the spring and then he won twice in New York, sandwiching in a cross-country trip to Hollywood Park, where he disposed of Sunday Silence.

Different distances have also been no problem. Criminal Type has won twice each at a mile and 1 1/8 miles; and once each at 1 1/16, 1 3/16 and 1 1/4 miles.

The premature end to Criminal Type’s season, caused by a sore ankle, has opened the door for other horse-of-the-year candidates, who must do more winning in order to impress voters.

A horse that scores consecutive victories in Saturday’s Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park and on Breeders’ Cup day Oct. 27 at the New York track would naturally get consideration. But who could that be? Sunday Silence, Easy Goer and Housebuster preceded Criminal Type to the sidelines, and the horses left, with the exception of Izvestia, the Canadian question mark, have shown no consistency.

Izvestia will run Saturday in the Gold Cup.

“Who knows how good he is?” says Wayne Lukas, who trains Criminal Type. “He’s been winning big up in Canada (eight victories and a second in nine tries this year), but let’s wait and see what he does against our horses.”

Sentimentally, many voters would like to see Go for Wand, the 3-year-old filly, win Sunday’s Beldame at Belmont and then try to beat males in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Only five females have been horse of the year, the last being Lukas’ Lady’s Secret in 1986. Go for Wand, who has already clinched her division title, has a trainer, Billy Badgett, who is interested in running in the Classic, but an owner, Jane Lunger, who will have to be persuaded.

“We don’t even know if Go for Wand is the best female horse in the country yet,” Lukas said. Indeed, Go for Wand would have to beat Bayakoa and Gorgeous in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, which may be a tougher assignment than running in the injury-depleted Classic.

A forgotten horse is Summer Squall, who ran second to Unbridled in the Kentucky Derby. Summer Squall’s redemption in the Preakness seems a long time ago, and although his owners were right to skip the Belmont, the decision may still cost him votes.

Summer Squall’s only appearance since the Preakness was a Pennsylvania Derby victory, little more than a glorified workout, and he is scheduled to run in the Meadowlands Cup next Friday. Summer Squall needs a victory in the Classic at Belmont, where because of state rules he wouldn’t be able to run with the anti-bleeding medication he requires.

Horse Racing Notes

Dr. Somerville, the French import who was scheduled to run in the $500,000 Oak Tree Invitational at Santa Anita on Saturday, died Wednesday after receiving a vitamin injection. “Horses get these injections 100 times a day without an incident,” said Brad MacDonald, the American trainer who would have saddled Dr. Somerville for Sheik Maktoum al Maktoum Saturday.

The Invitational, the richest race of the season, has drawn a field of 11, including Pay the Butler and Saratoga Passage, who ran second and third, respectively, behind Hawkster in the stake last year. Others entered are Live the Dream, who could give trainer Charlie Whittingham his 10th triumph in the race; Valdali, Rial, Eradicate, Wajd, Delegant, Mehmetori, Marquetry and Soft Machine.

Brown Bess, last year’s female grass champion, carries high weight of 120 pounds, facing five opponents in the California Jockey Club Handicap at Bay Meadows Saturday. There will be betting on the race at Santa Anita. . . . During a time when many tracks are putting more information into their programs, the Daily Racing Form has dropped the Belmont Park past performances from its Los Angeles edition. The Form is also discontinuing its Monday and Tuesday papers, unless there is racing at a major California track on those days. . . . Itsallgreektome is headed for Belmont to run in the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Oct. 27.