THOROUGHBRED RACING : Breeders’ Cup Sprint: Perilous Duty

The scratching of Safely Kept from the Breeders’ Cup Sprint may have been related to the perils a horse must face in the most hazardous race the day has to offer.

“It’s nothing horrible,” co-owner Barry Weisbord said of Safely Kept’s training injury. “If it were some other horse or another race, she would run through the problem. But we don’t need to put ourselves in a position where we might be second-guessing ourselves the rest of our lives.”

Safely Kept, second at Gulfstream Park in 1989 and first at Belmont Park last year, has been among the lucky ones--a horse that ran in the Sprint twice and survived. Of all the Breeders’ Cup races, this six-furlong stake, the shortest distance on the schedule, has taken its toll:

--Eillo, the Sprint winner at Hollywood Park in the first Breeders’ Cup, died several days later after suffering an intestinal disorder.

--At Gulfstream Park, Sam Who, breaking from the 12th post in a 14-horse field, took a left turn leaving the gate and wiped out several horses inside him. On The Line, one of the horses in Sam Who’s way, gushed blood when his right leg was sliced. Veterinarians were unable to repair On the Line’s damaged leg and he eventually was destroyed. And Sam Who has dropped into the cheap claiming ranks.

--At Belmont Park, Mr. Nickerson, bleeding internally, went down as the field approached the far turn and died almost instantly. Shaker Knit fell over Mr. Nickerson and by nightfall he, too, was dead. Corwyn Bay, the 2-1 second choice, and his rider, Eddie Delahoussaye, averted going down, but after they finished eighth, an examination showed that the Irish-bred colt had suffered a career-threatening tendon injury.

Corwyn Bay, following a season as a stallion at Cardiff Stud in Creston, Calif., has returned to the races this fall, but without the sharpness he showed a year ago.

Even without Safely Kept at Churchill Downs, there will be a 12-horse field next Saturday for the Sprint, many of them firing from the gate, quarter horse style. The unwieldy pack is typical. In seven years, the Sprint has drawn 87 horses, making it the most popular of the Breeders’ Cup races except for the Mile, which has attracted 88 starters.

Because racing luck means more in the Sprint, it is the most difficult to handicap. Eillo won as the favorite, but since then, six consecutive favorites--Mt. Livermore, Groovy (twice), Mining, Sewickley and Dayjur--have failed. The average $2 payoff on a Sprint winner has been more than $21. Even Safely Kept, who had been voted national sprint champion the year before, paid $26.40. Throw out the Sprint, and the other Breeders’ Cup favorites have won 43% of the time.

A glance at the records of the 12 horses remaining in this year’s Sprint indicates that there are no troublemakers. But with the Sprint, you never know. All it takes is one wayward horse to turn the whole thing into a free-for-all.

Tom Meeker, president of Churchill Downs, is estimating that $10 million could be bet on the national Pick Seven that will be part of this year’s Breeders’ Cup races.

A few states have not approved the Pick Seven--New Jersey and Washington are two--but California and New York, where 36% of the $46 million was bet off-track on last year’s races, will offer the bet.

The Pick Seven is a $2 minimum bet that can be placed up until five minutes before post time for the first Breeders’ Cup race next Saturday. Of the net pool, 75% will be paid out on tickets that have all seven winners, with the rest going to tickets with six winners. Should no one pick seven winners, the entire net pool will go to those holding tickets with the greatest number of winners.

At Hollywood Park’s off-track betting facility, Pick Seven betting will begin after the fourth race from Santa Anita next Friday. Fans can also bet the Pick Seven Friday night, during the simulcast of the quarter horse program from Los Alamitos. Regular betting on the Breeders’ Cup begins at Hollywood Park at 8 a.m. next Saturday, with the first race, the Sprint, scheduled for 9:15 a.m.

Last year, the Breeders’ Cup conducted a nonparimutuel Pick Seven contest through coupons in newspapers, and 61 people out of about 225,000 entrants picked all seven winners.

Horse Racing Notes

The Very Subtle Sales Stakes, scheduled for Friday at Santa Anita, was canceled when only three fillies were entered. The $75,000 purse will be carried over to Wednesday’s Desert Wine Sales Stakes, which will be worth $150,000 and open to male and female 2-year-olds. . . . Kostroma, who set a world record for 1 1/8 miles on grass with a time of 1:43 4/5, will run in the 1 1/4-mile Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Santa Anita on Nov. 10. Campagnarde, third in the Las Palmas, also is expected to return in the Yellow Ribbon, possibly with stablemate Flawlessly from trainer Charlie Whittingham’s barn.

Laffit Pincay is in Lexington, Ky., today, riding Yours Only in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Keeneland. . . . Gary Stevens is at Aqueduct to ride Mr. Integrity in the New York Racing Assn. Mile. . . . Julie Krone will undergo surgery on her left arm after she rides in the Breeders’ Cup. The arm has bothered her since a spill in November of 1989. Krone expects to resume riding early next year at Gulfstream Park.

The oldest entrant in the Breeders’ Cup is El Senor, the 7-year-old roan who will run in the Turf. This will be his fourth appearance in the series, after having run sixth, seventh and third the last three years. The only horse to run four times in the Breeders’ Cup is Precisionist, who won the Sprint in 1985. . . . Marquetry’s biggest victories--in the Hollywood Gold Cup and the New England Classic--came when ridden by David Flores, but he will be replaced in the Classic by Pat Eddery, the Irish rider who won the 1985 Turf with Pebbles.