THOROUGHBRED RACING : Layoff Time Wasn’t of Essence for One Breeders’ Cup Winner

The oddest prep for a horse who went on to win a Breeders’ Cup race?

This vote goes to Wild Again, who warmed up for the 1984 Breeders’ Cup Classic, a 1 1/4-mile dirt race at Hollywood Park, by running in a one-mile allowance on grass at Bay Meadows 12 days before. Wild Again didn’t even win the prep, finishing third, which partly explained his 31-1 odds after he was supplemented to run in the Breeders’ Cup.

Another unorthodox prep was run by Proud Truth, who in 1985 won the Discovery Handicap at Aqueduct, only seven days before winning the Classic at the same track.

The Discovery was a Grade III race, the same kind that Magical Maiden will try to win today when she runs in the $100,000 Linda Vista Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Santa Anita. If she performs well, the 3-year-old filly will go on to run in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Gulfstream Park on Saturday.

The Distaff field is strong with Paseana, her entrymate, Exchange, Fowda, Lite Light, Meadow Star, Saratoga Dew and Versailles Treaty. If Magical Maiden gets to Florida, she will also face another challenge. Of the 56 Breeders’ Cup winners since the series began in 1984, only Proud Truth has won a race on only seven days’ rest, and he didn’t have to travel across the country after winning his prep.

Magical Maiden might not even be favored in the Linda Vista. She will carry 121 pounds to Race The Wild Wind’s 122, and Race The Wild Wind has been favored the two times they have raced.

The first time, neither filly won. She’s Tops won the Railbird Stakes at Hollywood Park in May, Race The Wild Wind beating Magical Maiden for second.

Three weeks later at Hollywood Park, at equal weights, Race The Wild Wind was 1 3/4 lengths better in holding off Magical Maiden in the Princess Stakes.

Magical Maiden suffered from a virus after that.

“She got pretty sick,” said her owner, Clement Hirsch. “But now she’s back, and I think she’s better than she’s ever been.”

Magical Maiden returned Oct. 9, almost four months after the Princess, and trainer Warren Stute had her ready as she scored a two-length allowance victory. She beat four stakes winners, including Brought To Mind, who ran third behind Dance Smartly and Versailles Treaty in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Magical Maiden, who has run seven times this year, has won $431,745 lifetime. More than half of that total has come from victories in two races, last year’s Hollywood Starlet and the Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita in February. With four victories, four seconds and two thirds in 11 starts, the only blot on her record is a fifth-place finish in the Ashland at Keeneland last spring.

Hirsch bought Magical Maiden at auction as an unraced 2-year-old for $26,000. A daughter of Lord Avie, a champion 2-year-old in 1980, Magical Maiden is out of the Magesterial mare, Gils Magic. The same mare, bred to J.O. Tobin, also produced Magical Mile, who ran five furlongs in 56 2/5 at Hollywood in 1989, setting the track record, and won the Hollywood Juvenile two months later despite suffering a knee injury during the race. Hirsch had bought Magical Mile for $190,000.

Stute, 72, and Hirsch have raced horses together for decades, the relationship even predating the Del Mar Futurity that they won with June Darling in 1970. Neither horseman has ever had a Breeders’ Cup starter. Stute’s kid brother, Mel, 65, has had five starters, winning with Brave Raj in 1986 and Very Subtle in 1987.

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Proud Truth and Wild Again were the least-rested Breeders’ Cup winners. There have been 10 winners who had last raced either 13 or 14 days before the Breeders’ Cup: Safely Kept, Epitome, Steinlen, Miss Alleged, Twilight Ridge, Princess Rooney, Chief’s Crown, Tasso, Pebbles and Ferdinand.

The average layoff between races before a Breeders’ Cup victory is 29 days; the median time among the 56 winners is 21 days.

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Mr Brooks, an English-bred 5-year-old, is one of the most consistent horses entered in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He has won three times and finished second four times in seven races this year, and overall has won seven and been second nine times in 20 starts.

Sheikh Albadou, who will try to win the Sprint for the second consecutive year, holds a 2-1 edge over Mr Brooks in their races this year.

Mr Brooks is named after actor Mel Brooks. His sire, Blazing Saddles, has the same name as the film that Brooks made in 1974.

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The Thoroughbred Racing Assns., a trade group of about 50 tracks, and the Daily Racing Form favor including the fans in the voting for the Eclipse Awards.

The National Turf Writers Assn., the third sponsoring group for the Eclipses, favors the status quo, which has been in place since 1971. The winners are determined by a vote of the turf writers, Racing Form personnel and racing secretaries from the TRA tracks.

“The inclusion of the public is an admirable goal,” said Jenny Kellner, president of the turf writers. “But doing so at the expense of the Eclipse Awards does not appear the way to do it.”

If the fans were allowed to vote, there probably would be a shameless ballot-box stuffing by breeders and horse owners. Eclipse winners and their sires and dams are more popular for breeding, resulting in financial gain.

The argument that baseball allows fans to vote for the All-Star game lineups is hollow and unrelated to racing. The All-Star game is an exhibition; the Eclipse Awards are racing’s championships. Baseball has never considered allowing fans to vote for its postseason awards, such as most valuable player.

Horse Racing Notes

No one will have the advantage of a race over the track for the Breeders’ Cup, because Gulfstream Park, which is usually closed at this time of the year, is running what amounts to a three-day meeting. There will be racing there Friday and Sunday, sandwiched around Breeders’ Cup day. . . . The field for today’s $500,000 New York Racing Assn. Mile at Aqueduct includes Devil His Due, Ibero, Richman and Bolulight. Devil His Due’s last victory came in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct in April.

Kent Desormeaux has picked up the mount on Luthier Enchanteur for the Breeders’ Cup Mile. Corey Nakatani rode the horse to a second-place finish in the Koester at Santa Anita but Nakatani has the mount on Forty Niner Days in the Mile. Nakatani rode Forty Niner Days to victory in the Bay Meadows Handicap. Bobby Frankel trains Luthier Enchanteur. Desormeaux, who hadn’t ridden much for Frankel, clicked won with Frankel’s longshot, Missionary Ridge, in the $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar.