Paulson Sues Lundy for Improprieties

Allen Paulson, the horse owner who won two Breeders’ Cup races a year ago, is suing trainer Dick Lundy, alleging improprieties in the sale and purchase of horses in the United States and Europe.

Paulson filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court, accusing Lundy and Stephen Grod, a Newport Beach bloodstock agent, of “conspiracy to defraud.”

One of the horses named in Paulson’s suit is Loach, who was recently sold to the owners of 1991 Kentucky Derby winner Strike The Gold.

Paulson dropped Lundy as his trainer earlier this month. Lundy, who had been with Paulson for 3 1/2 years, saddled Opening Verse for his victory last year in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs. Paulson won another Breeders’ Cup race, the Juvenile, with Arazi, who was saddled by his French trainer, Francois Boutin.

Lundy, 44, is a Mount Kisko, N.Y., native who trained show horses before taking a job as an assistant to trainer Charlie Whittingham in California in 1976. Six years later, Lundy became the trainer for Virginia Kraft Payson in New York. Besides Opening Verse, some of the major winners he has saddled are Carr De Naskra, Blushing John, Fowda and Dinard, winner of last year’s Santa Anita Derby. Blushing John, winner of the Pimlico Special and the Hollywood Gold Cup, won an Eclipse Award as the nation’s best older horse in 1989.

Paulson has also filed suit against the Pacific National Bank in Newport Beach, alleging negligence in the sale of Loach.

Alex Hassinger has been saddling Paulson’s horses at Hollywood Park since the breakup with Lundy, and Paulson said recently that he planned to use several prominent trainers.

Several attempts to reach Lundy in recent weeks were unsuccessful. He was not available for comment on the suit.