BREEDERS’ CUP : Still Hungry : Lukas Might Miss Winner’s Circle Again

The hand that trainer Wayne Lukas has dealt himself for Saturday’s $10-million Breeders’ Cup has no aces. There is not even a wild card, and for the first time since the Breeders’ Cup began in 1984, Lukas might go two consecutive years without winning one of the races.

After being blanked the first year, Lukas won two Breeders’ Cup races each in 1985, ’86 and ‘87, added three victories in 1988 and won one more in 1989. He has won 10 races; no other trainer has won more than three. His horses have earned $8 million; the next trainer on the money list, Charlie Whittingham, has $4.2 million. Whittingham, who is not represented this year, has started 22 horses; Lukas has had 65.

In last year’s Breeders’ Cup at Belmont Park, Lukas started six horses, and the best finish was a fourth in the Mile Stakes by Steinlen, who had given Lukas his 10th victory the year before at Gulfstream Park.

The lowest odds of any of Lukas’ starters a year ago was Steinlen at 9-2, and none of his nine horses will be favored Saturday at Churchill Downs. Lukas’ best chance will be in the Juvenile with Dance Floor, who didn’t win a stake until the Futurity at Keeneland 10 days ago, and in the Mile with Star of Cozzene, a $120,000 supplementary entry. Star of Cozzene’s sire, Cozzene, won the Mile in 1985; his 3-year-old has three victories in four tries on grass, and has shown he can run well when the turf is soft. Expected rain this weekend would make the course spongy.

Otherwise, Lukas’ contenders in the eighth Breeders’ Cup appear to be overmatched. Deposit Ticket and Media Plan, who will start in the Sprint, have combined for three victories in 15 starts this year. Lukas’ Distaff runners are Grand Girlfriend, who is two for 14 in her career, and Train Robbery, one for 12 this year. Big Sur, another Lukas colt in the Juvenile, has been beaten by more than 50 lengths in his last four starts.

In the Classic, Lukas has two established stakes winners, but Farma Way hasn’t been able to beat many of the same rivals since his Pimlico Special victory in May, and Twilight Agenda has a front-running style that doesn’t suit Churchill Downs’ tiring track in a 1 1/4-mile race.

Lukas doesn’t mention it, but his Breeders’ Cup dropoff has come in the years since the 1990 death of Gene Klein, the former owner of the San Diego Chargers who spent millions on horses. Five of Lukas’ Breeders’ Cup winners--Twilight Ridge, Lady’s Secret, Success Express, Open Mind and Is It True--were owned by Klein and his wife, Joyce, and Klein’s Winning Colors also gave Lukas his only Kentucky Derby victory, in 1988.

“In July,” Lukas said, “I thought we had a chance to have four or five champions. Our stable was really on a roll. But A Wild Ride was injured. Sharp Dance, who beat some of the Distaff horses in the Rare Perfume a few weeks ago, hadn’t been nominated, and her owner (Joe Allen) didn’t want to go for the $240,000 it would have cost to supplement her.”

The Lukas operation, which will lead the nation in purses for the ninth consecutive year, has totaled $12 million in purses and won more than 35 stakes, tops in both categories.

“This has been another great season,” Lukas said. “If I had the choice between having a great season and having a big Breeders’ Cup day, I’d take the season every time.”

The last time the Breeders’ Cup was held at Churchill Downs, in 1988, Lukas had the biggest day by a trainer ever. His Gulch won the Sprint; Open Mind won the Juvenile Fillies and Is It True won the Juvenile. A Lukas entry ran 1-2-3 in the Juvenile Fillies, his Winning Colors lost by a nose to unbeaten Personal Ensign in the Distaff, and Steinlen was second in the Mile. Total Lukas purses for the day: $2.193 million, a Breeders’ Cup record.

“Nobody predicted that we’d do much that year, so maybe this Saturday can be the same way,” Lukas said. “I remember in 1988, a lot of people said that (trainer) Shug McGaughey might win four races. He only won one (with Personal Ensign), and he almost had a coronary with the one he did get.”

Gulch and Is It True were not expected to win. Is It True, who was 9-1, was facing Easy Goer, who was 3-10 after four consecutive victories, including one over Is It True in the Champagne Stakes at Belmont three weeks earlier.

“Is It True’s victory was the biggest kick I’ve ever had,” Lukas said. “About a thousand newspaper guys had told me what a mortal lock Easy Goer was. Pat Day was riding Easy Goer, and I thought he’d be very confident. Laffit (Pincay) was on our horse, and he got three lengths ahead of Pat at the head of the stretch. When Pat moved with Easy Goer, it was too late.”

This Saturday, Day will be riding Dance Floor and Star of Cozzene, Lukas’ two best bets. A victory in either of those races might equal the kick that Lukas got the time Day didn’t win with Easy Goer.

Horse Racing Notes

Entries for the seven races will be drawn today. . . . Solar Splendor, winner of the Man o’ War and Turf Classic at Belmont this fall, is doubtful for the Turf. The 4-year-old gelding flipped over on the grass course at Belmont after a Monday gallop and suffered a hip injury. . . . Cruachan, who has had two victories and two seconds in five starts in England, has been withdrawn from the Turf. . . . Lester Piggott, who was 54 when he won last year’s Mile on Royal Academy, will ride Showbrook in the Juvenile. Piggott, who will turn 56 on Nov. 11, won a race in Germany in his only ride on Showbrook. . . . Steve Cauthen will ride In The Groove in the Turf. Cauthen is the contract rider for Sheik Mohammed in Europe and needed his release before he could take the Breeders’ Cup mount. Cauthen, 31, has been the English riding champion three times. Cauthen has had seven Breeders’ Cup rides, his best finish a second aboard Strawberry Road in the Turf in 1985.