BREEDERS’ CUP : Bertrando Is Best Hope to End California’s 25-Race Drought

There will be more New Jersey-breds, two, than California-breds running in the seven Breeders’ Cup races at Churchill Downs next Saturday.

But neither of the New Jersey horses will have as good a chance of winning as Bertrando, the undefeated California-bred horse who might be favored in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, a $1-million race on the $10-million card.

If Bertrando is the favorite, it will be a first. California breeders have had 25 starters in the Breeders’ Cup during the event’s first seven years, but none has been favored, and none has won.

More typical of the West Coast’s representation are horses at the opposite end of the betting spectrum. In 1987, three California-breds went off at 113-1, 144-1 and 147-1. The topper of them all that year, however, was He’s A Saros, whose odds were 180-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Only one horse in Breeders’ Cup history has been a longer price. He’s A Saros, owned by Earl Scheib, finished eighth in a 12-horse field.

Another of Scheib’s horses sired by Saros, Fran’s Valentine, went off at 74-1 in the Juvenile Fillies on the second Breeders’ Cup card, at Hollywood Park in 1984. Fran’s Valentine finished first, but in doing so wiped out part of the field at the head of the stretch. The stewards dropped Fran’s Valentine to 10th place.

The horse that Fran’s Valentine bothered the most, and almost knocked down, was Pirate’s Glow, another California-bred. It’s been downhill for California horses in the Breeders’ Cup ever since.

There have been 23 California horses who have run in this fall festival since then, and the best finish has been by the same Fran’s Valentine. In 1986, she was more mannerly in finishing second behind Lady’s Secret, who clinched the horse-of-the-year title with a victory in the Distaff at Santa Anita.

Bertrando might end California’s Breeders’ Cup drought if he can emulate his sire, Skywalker, when the serious running starts in the 1 1/16-mile Juvenile. Skywalker, who stands at Cardiff Stud in Creston, Calif., suffered a serious leg injury when he finished sixth at Churchill Downs in the 1985 Kentucky Derby, but 17 months later, in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita, he won at 10-1.

Bertrando, who won the Norfolk Stakes by nine lengths at Santa Anita on Oct. 13, worked five furlongs there last Thursday in a slow 1:02 4/5, then was put on a plane several hours later for the flight to Louisville. His trainer, Bruce Headley, has come to Kentucky grudgingly.

“The Breeders’ Cup is a hustle,” Headley said before he left California.

“We’re putting up a lot of money just to run. If it was up to me, we wouldn’t go, but my partners want to run. I’d just as soon wait until this horse is a 3-year-old before we think about the Breeders’ Cup.

“I could rip the Breeders’ Cup, but I guess I won’t. One of the things wrong with it is that they’re putting out all this money on one day, when the rest of the year a lot of horsemen are starving. One thing about the horse, though, is that he’s done real good since he won his last race.”

Because he wasn’t nominated, Bertrando has been supplemented into the race at a cost of $120,000. This year, eliminating a purse payout for sixth place, the Breeders’ Cup has restructured the money for the first five finishers, with first place in the $1-million races growing by $70,000 to $520,000.

Those numbers don’t appeal to Headley, who can’t remember shipping a horse out of California for a race since 1967. He sent a colt to Chicago to run in the Arlington-Washington Futurity, but the horse suffered a chipped a bone in a knee during a workout and never made it to the starting gate.

Bertrando’s principal owners are Eddie Nahem, who bred the colt, and Marshall Naify of San Francisco. A former New Yorker, Nahem has an art gallery in Rancho Santa Fe and has been sending horses to Headley for several years.

Naify bought a 33% interest in the colt, reportedly for $400,000, after he won the Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 11. Nahem said Gus Headley’s share in Bertrando is down to 1%.

Another California-bred, Best Pal, was supplemented into last year’s Juvenile for $120,000. He was the 9-5 second betting choice, but finished sixth at Belmont Park and earned $10,000, not even paying for shipping expenses.

In August at Del Mar, Best Pal won the $1-million Pacific Classic, beating Farma Way, Festin, Twilight Agenda and Unbridled, who are all contenders in Saturday’s $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic.

It would have cost Best Pal’s owners, John and Betty Mabee, 12% of the purse, or $360,000, to supplement him for the Churchill Downs race, so they are keeping him home to run in another Classic, the $250,000 California Cup for California-breds at Santa Anita on Nov. 9.

A Not-So-Proud Tradition

A California-bred has never won a Breeders’ Cup race, with Fran’s Valentine being disqualified from a first-place finish and placed 10th in the 1984 Juvenile Fillies at Hollywood Park. Here are how California-breds have fared in Breeders’ Cup races.

Horse Year Race Odds Finish Pirate’s Glow 1984 Juvenile Fillies 8-1 9th Fran’s Valentine 1984 Juvenile Fillies 74-1 10th* Pac Mania 1984 Sprint 31-1 9th Earl’s Valentine 1985 Juvenile Fillies 22-1 10th Fifty Six Ina Row 1985 Sprint 49-1 14th Fran’s Valentine 1985 Distaff 5-1 5th Flying Lieutenant 1986 Juvenile 32-1 9th Gold On Green 1986 Juvenile 32-1 12th Saros Brig 1986 Juvenile Fillies 23-1 3rd Fran’s Valentine 1986 Distaff 8-1 2nd Shywing 1986 Distaff 10-1 7th Mangaki 1986 Mile 26-1 10th Nostalgia’s Star 1986 Classic 17-1 4th Flying Victor 1987 Juvenile 9-1 4th Jade Trade 1987 Juvenile 113-1 12th Zany Tactics 1987 Sprint 3-1 9th Vilzak 1987 Turf 147-1 4th Circus Prince 1987 Turf 144-1 10th Nostalgia’s Star 1987 Classic 48-1 7th He’s A Saros 1987 Classic 180-1 8th Approved To Fly 1988 Juvenile Fillies 42-1 4th Calestoga 1988 Sprint 7-1 11th Best Pal 1990 Juvenile 9-5 6th Cacoethes 1990 Turf 5-1 9th Flying Continental 1990 Classic 4-1 11th

* Disqualified from first place.

Note--Here is the breakdown of states and countries where Breeders’ Cup winners have been bred: Kentucky 26; Florida 10; Great Britain 4; Ireland 3; Argentina 2; Maryland 1; New Jersey 1; Oklahoma 1; Pennsylvania 1.