BREEDERS’ CUP : The Heat Was On, but Horses From Southland Stayed Cool

Officially, the California Cup is next Saturday at Santa Anita, where an entire card for California-bred horses will be run.

No California-breds won any of the seven Breeders’ Cup races Saturday at Gulfstream Park--there was only one running--but the day became a California Cup of sorts.

Six of the Breeders’ Cup races were won by Southland-based jockeys. Five were won by trainers who work in California. And five of the horses are regularly stabled in California.

Not even in the three Breeders’ Cups run at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita have Californians dominated the races in so many ways. Even some of the runners-up were Californian longshots who didn’t seem to have much of a chance: Magical Maiden was third in the Distaff; Quest For Fame was third in the Turf and Reign Road was fourth in the Classic. The minimum purse for a Breeders’ Cup race is $1 million, and the prize money for those three horses was $120,000, $240,000 and $168,000, respectively.

These were the California-connected winners:

--The $3-million Classic: A.P. Indy, ridden by Eddie Delahoussaye and trained by Neil Drysdale.

--The $2-million Turf: Fraise, ridden by Pat Valenzuela.

--The $1-million Distaff: Paseana, ridden by Chris McCarron and trained by Ron McAnally.

--The $1-million Juvenile: Gilded Time, ridden by McCarron and trained by Darrell Vienna.

--The $1-million Juvenile Fillies: Eliza, ridden by Valenzuela and trained by Alex Hassinger.

--The $1-million Sprint: Thirty Slews, ridden by Delahoussaye and trained by Bob Baffert.

Fraise has been in the care of New York trainer Bill Mott, but he is owned by Californian Madeleine Paulson. Eliza races for Paulson’s husband, Allen.

The only Breeders’ Cup winner devoid of any California affiliation was Lure, who came from New York to win the Mile.

The weather--85-degree temperature and 90% humidity--certainly didn’t hurt the Californians’ chances. The European contingent of 22 horses were shut out, Europe’s worst Breeders’ Cup showing since the 1989 Breeders’ Cup was held in similar weather at Gulfstream.

Baffert says the Southland horses are naturally tougher because they run against each other all year.

“Come to Del Mar in the summer and see how tough it is out there,” Baffert said Sunday. “We run (speedy front-runners) in California. Running 21 (seconds) and change (for the first quarter of a mile) is routine. We’ve got tough racing, the greatest jockeys and the greatest trainers. It’s really competitive.”

This competitive edge, combined with an unexpectedly fast Gulfstream racing strip, played into the hands of the Californians.

Earlier this year, Gary Jones, a Southland trainer, was in England talking to British conditioner Alex Scott. Sheikh Albadou had won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs last year, and Scott was asking about the kind of track the horse would run on at Gulfstream.

“I told Alex that the track would be deep and cuppy,” Jones said Sunday morning on the Gulfstream backstretch. “That’s the way Gulfstream usually was. Boy, was I wrong. They had this track just like Santa Anita. It was like a highway out there.”

Sheikh Albadou finished fourth. The best finish by any European horse was third. Jones’ only starter, Turkstand, ran last in the Juvenile Fillies.

Records started falling on Friday at Gulfstream and continued on Saturday. In the two days, five records were either set or matched for the track or the Breeders’ Cup series.

“Five wins by California trainers,” Jones said. “Too bad I wasn’t one of them. But it was still a great day for California.”

Horse Racing Notes

Jockey Eddie Delahoussaye received an 18-carat gold watch valued at $14,500 for being voted most valuable Breeders’ Cup participant by the media. Pat Valenzuela could have won a Rolls-Royce if he had won with all four of the horses he rode for owner-breeder Allen Paulson. Instead, Paulson gave his contract jockey a lesser car for bringing home two winners.

Because Mr Brooks’ broken leg was the third incident that led to deaths of four horses in the Sprint in the last four years, Breeders’ Cup officials are going to review the safety of the six-furlong race.

One of A.P. Indy’s owners, Tomonori Tsurumaki, who lives in Japan, apparently would like to run the horse in the $2.9-million Japan Cup at the end of the month. His American partners reportedly have said that A.P. Indy needs a rest. On Sunday, Tsurumaki said that the decision would be left to trainer Neil Drysdale.