THOROUGHBRED RACING : Speedy Safely Kept Still Has Problems With Starting Gate

Safely Kept has won 22 of her 27 starts, most of the time by breaking from the gate like a shot and swishing her tail at any would-be challengers the rest of the way. It’s a contradiction, then, that this spectacular 5-year-old mare should have such an aversion to the gate before the stall door opens.

In her most recent win, in the Chicago Budweiser Breeders’ Cup last Sunday at Arlington International, Safely Kept was typically cantankerous in being loaded. It took seven assistant starters--just about everyone in the gate crew--to coax Safely Kept into the gate.

“She’s done that often, and I have a theory about why,” said Barry Weisbord, one of Safely Kept’s owners. “She’s an awfully big mare, and pretty smart. I think she looks at that box they’re trying to make her enter and says to herself, ‘There’s no way I’m going to fit in there.’ Every time she runs, we’ve got to convince her that there’s enough room in the stall.”

Safely Kept, who went over the $2-million mark in earnings with the victory at Arlington, has won most of the money for Weisbord and his partner, Richard Santulli. She was sold for $300,000 by her breeder, David Hayden, in the middle of 1988, after winning two of her first three starts.

Three of Safely Kept’s five losses have come when she tried to beat colts, and she’s going to step outside her division again July 20, facing Housebuster and others in the $300,000 Frank J. DeFrancis Memorial Dash, a six-furlong race at Laurel. Housebuster won the Eclipse Award for sprinting last year, even though Safely Kept won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, which frequently determines the title. The year before, Safely Kept lost by a neck to Dancing Spree in the Breeders’ Cup, but still was voted the Eclipse.

Craig Perret, who has been riding both Safely Kept and Housebuster, will have to decide between the horses for the Laurel race.

“I’m guessing that Craig will take Housebuster,” Weisbord said. “He’s a colt, and there might be a breeding share involved. It’s time, anyway, that we settled on a jockey who can ride our mare right on through the Breeders’ Cup.”

To replace Perret, Weisbord won’t have to take an ad in the Daily Racing Form.

Summer Squall is back at Churchill Downs, where his trainer, Neil Howard, has been soaking his right hoof all week.

The patching on the crack that Summer Squall apparently suffered in last Saturday’s Hollywood Gold Cup will keep the 4-year-old colt out of training only for a couple of days. Summer Squall, the second betting choice, ran a badly beaten seventh in the $1-million race.

“It’s difficult to say exactly where the injury occurred,” said Cot Campbell, manager of the syndicate that owns Summer Squall. “My guess is that he felt it at the half-mile pole, where he suddenly stopped running. The injury explains his race. He’s always been such a game horse, and he’s never run a bad race without some kind of a valid excuse.”

The only thing definite about Summer Squall’s plans is that he won’t be returning to California for Del Mar’s $1-million Pacific Classic, another race in the American Championship Racing Series.

“I’m a little superstitious about going back to where I haven’t done well,” Campbell said.

It’s possible that Summer Squall could make the next race in the championship series, the New England Classic at Rockingham Park on July 20. Another option is the Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park Sept. 1. Both of those races are part of the championship series. The last race in the series, the Woodward at Belmont Park, is out of the question, because Summer Squall is a bleeder who needs medication, and horses aren’t allowed to run on Lasix in New York.

The Lasix factor will have to be considered by handicappers Saturday when Meadow Star and Lite Light have their rematch at Belmont Park in the Coaching Club American Oaks. Meadow Star, who has never lost to fillies, beat Lite Light by a whisker in the Mother Goose, and an endoscopic examination after the race showed that Lite Light had bled from the lungs, the second time she has done that in New York. Lite Light has run with Lasix elsewhere.

Meadow Star has been installed as the 4-5 favorite Saturday as she tries to become the eighth horse to sweep the New York triple--the Acorn, the Mother Goose and the Coaching Club--for 3-year-old fillies. Lite Light is even-money on the morning line, and the 1 1/4-mile race drew four other starters, including trainer Scotty Schulhofer’s pair of Car Gal and Shared Interest. The others entered are Risen Colony and Outlasting.

Meadow Star drew the No. 1 post and Lite Light has No. 5.

Horse Racing Notes

Seven 2-year-old fillies, including a yearling purchased for $125,000 and a claimer who was picked up for $40,000, will be running Saturday in the $100,000 Landaluce Stakes at Hollywood Park. Prospector’s Dame was claimed by trainer Darrell Vienna for $40,000 June 5. The expensive yearling is Unsaddled, who will run with stablemate Fluttery Danseur from trainer Brian Mayberry’s barn. Rounding out the field for the six-furlong race are Soviet Sojourn, Too Soon To Look and She’s Tops. . . . Alsbelle, a full sister to Alysheba--by Alydar out of Bel Sheba--runs Sunday at Hollywood. She cost Clarence and Dorothy Scharbauer, the owners of Alysheba, $950,000, the most they have ever paid for a horse.

After a disagreement, Bob Meldahl has given up booking mounts for Pat Valenzuela and will continue to work for Laffit Pincay. Agent Jeff Franklin has quit working for Jose Santos and will now handle Valenzuela’s business. . . . Mister Frisky is two or three weeks away from his comeback race. The 1990 Santa Anita Derby winner almost died last year because of a large abscess in his throat and is now trained by Joe Garcia, a former assistant to the late Laz Barrera, who was Mister Frisky’s trainer last year.