BREEDERS’ CUP : Trainer Proves That It Can Be Better to Pay Late Than Never

He is Ron McAnally on the racing Hall of Fame plaque in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., but call him “Mr. Supplementary” as far as the Breeders’ Cup is concerned.

No trainer has had better luck with supplementary starters than McAnally in the previous 56 Breeders’ Cup races, and on Saturday at Gulfstream Park, McAnally will start two, and possibly three, horses whose owners paid dearly to make them eligible.

When the fields are drawn for the seven-race, $10-million card today, definite McAnally entrants are Paseana in the $1-million Distaff and Sea Cadet in the $3-million Classic. McAnally had also hoped to run Bistro Garden in the $1-million Mile, but the 4-year-old colt might be too deep on the alternates’ list to qualify.

Breeders’ Cup fields are limited to 14 horses, with eight determined by points earned in graded races during the year and the other six picked by an international panel of racing secretaries.

If all three of McAnally’s horses are entered, the their owners will be paying $680,000 in supplementary fees--$360,000 for Sea Cadet, $200,000 for Paseana and $120,000 for Bistro Garden.

Horses can be made eligible for the Breeders’ Cup for a $500 payment shortly after they are foaled. Other horses are allowed to run with the payment of a penalty equal to 12% of the purse--20% if the horse’s sire also wasn’t nominated, which is the case with Paseana.

McAnally has saddled 10 Breeders’ Cup starters, with Bayakoa, like Paseana an Argentine-bred, winning the Distaff as a supplementary in 1989 and 1990.

Of 29 Breeders’ Cup supplemental entries, only five have won. Two didn’t even start, and in 1984, for the first Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park, Sam Rubin forfeited a $133,000 supplementary fee when McAnally-trained John Henry was injured about 10 days before he was to run in the Turf.

Sea Cadet, bought at a yearling auction by Verne Winchell for only $2,800, mainly because he has a short tail, will run for a $1.56-million first-place purse. Second place is worth $600,000, and Winchell would break even if Sea Cadet finished third and earned $360,000. First place in Paseana’s race will bring $520,000. Her owners, Sid and Jenny Craig, would get their $200,000 supplementary fee back if she finished second.

The Craigs also will have Exchange in the Distaff. She is trained by Bill Spawr.

McAnally acknowledged that the supplementary entry is not a sound investment.

“There are a few things wrong with the supplementary rules,” McAnally said. “Sam Rubin should have gotten his money back when John Henry got hurt. After Frank Whitham paid $200,000 to make Bayakoa eligible the first year, that should have been a lifetime eligibility. He shouldn’t have had to pay another $200,000 the second time.

“And the supplements ought to be added to the total purse, so that at least the guy who puts it up has a chance to run for it. The Classic this year, because of Sea Cadet, ought to be worth $3.36 million.”

Breeders’ Cup officials have heard these complaints often, but they have made no move to revise the rules. This Saturday, they are losing a top horse, Roman Envoy, because his owner, Fred Hooper, doesn’t like the idea of paying a $200,000 supplement and not having the fee added to the purse. Roman Envoy was an impressive winner of the Kelso Handicap at Belmont Park on Oct. 10. Lure and Val Des Bois, who ran second and third in the Kelso, will run in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Running for the first time in six months after an ankle injury, Sea Cadet won the Meadowlands Cup on Oct. 16 and earned $300,000, increasing his all-time total to $1.7 million. The supplementary deadline was Oct. 19, and McAnally and Winchell went down to the wire in considering the Classic.

“I told Verne that we’ve got a fresh horse, running against horses that have had long campaigns,” McAnally said. “That was a plus. We won the Meadowlands race, but Jolie’s Halo didn’t run his race that night and there wasn’t that much else behind us. I also reminded Verne that Sea Cadet loves Gulfstream (he won the Donn Handicap and the Gulfstream Park Handicap here last winter). But in those races, there wasn’t much behind us, either.”

The morning of the deadline, a reporter from New York called McAnally at his barn office at Santa Anita, and the trainer told him that since he hadn’t heard from Winchell, Sea Cadet wouldn’t be running. After training hours, McAnally got in his car and the phone rang. It was Winchell, deciding to run. There have been reports that a Kentucky breeding farm, where Sea Cadet will stand at stud next year, has paid a small part of the $360,000.

A big day by McAnally on Saturday would enable him to make a run at Wayne Lukas, who is leading McAnally by more than $2 million in his bid for an unprecedented 10th consecutive national money title. Lukas, who doesn’t have a strong group of horses for Saturday, has won nearly $9 million.

“We’ve had a fantastic year,” McAnally said. “But you still remember the ones that got away. You try to block them out, but you can’t. . . . Even though we had a good meet at Del Mar, it could have been a lot better. We had horses that ran second 17 times.”

Horse Racing Notes

Alcando, trained by Bill Shoemaker, is among 17 grass distaffers entered in the $250,000 Bayakoa Handicap. . . . Contested Bid, at 117 pounds, is the highweight for the $250,000 Prized Handicap. . . . Pat Day will ride Beal Street Blues in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, after her victory in the Del Mar Debutante and a third in Belmont’s Frizette under Gary Stevens.

When the Gamble Paid Off

Supplementary horses who have won Breeders’ Cup races

Horse Year Race Supp. Fee Purse Earned Wild Again 1984 Classic $360,000 $1,350,000 Pebbles 1985 Turf $240,000 $900,000 Tasso 1985 Juvenile $120,000 $450,000 Bayakoa 1989 Distaff $200,000 $500,000 Bayakoa 1990 Distaff $200,000 $450,000