THOROUGHBRED RACING : Turn-Downs Turned Down? No One Sure About Shoe Rule

Santa Anita and the Breeders’ Cup don’t seem to be in agreement on the rules for horseshoes, and an owner with a horse running in the $3-million Classic on Nov. 6 is uncertain what footwear his colt will be able to wear.

“It seems like the rules contradict one another,” said Cot Campbell, who heads the syndicate that races Wallenda, that rare 3-year-old who has been able to win consecutive races this year. “One place it says we can’t wear the turn-downs, and in another place it seems to say that they’re OK.”

Turn-downs are plates that are bent toward the ground at a 45-degree angle at the open-ended rear of the shoe. Dozens of New York trainers were successful this year in shoeing their horses with the cleat-like turn-downs on the rear feet.

Colonial Affair won the Belmont Stakes wearing turn-downs. Sea Hero, winless since the Kentucky Derby, wore turn-downs for the first time and won the Travers at Saratoga in August. And trainer Allen Jerkens, winner of a dozen stakes races in New York and $4.3 million overall with a barn that includes Sky Beauty and Devil His Due, uses the shoes extensively.

The New York Racing Assn., which operates Belmont Park, Saratoga and Aqueduct, outlawed turn-downs in late September, citing track damage and safety concerns. Belmont lost an entire racing card on Sept. 17 when heavy rains eroded part of the dirt track.

When asked about turn-downs on Oct. 5, the day before Oak Tree’s season opened, Tom Robbins, Santa Anita’s director of racing, seemed to think that they would be allowed for the Breeders’ Cup. The New York fad has not spread to California--added traction not being the consideration it is at some of the sandy, deep and cuppy tracks in the East--and Wally Rohrer, the horseshoe inspector at Santa Anita, could not recall many trainers, if any, using turn-downs out here.

Later, however, Robbins changed his mind and last week issued several horseshoe guidelines that included the prohibition of turn-downs.

Regulations in the Breeders’ Cup Horsemen’s Information Guide prohibit turn-downs for grass racing, but regarding shoes for the dirt track the guide says, “All shoes approved by other racing jurisdictions may be used on the dirt course.”

Period. There are no other qualifications for shoes for dirt racing.

“That’s a real vague rule, isn’t it?” Cot Campbell said. “Racing jurisdictions. Well, Wallenda’s been in two racing jurisdictions lately--Louisiana and Pennsylvania--that have let him run with turn-downs.”

Wallenda was on a 10-race losing streak when his trainer, Frank Alexander, had him fitted with turn-downs for the Pennsylvania Derby at Philadelphia Park on Sept. 6. Wallenda won by a neck over Press Card and survived a foul claim to keep the victory. Wallenda was in turn-downs again on Oct. 2, winning the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs in a blanket finish involving four other horses.

Wallenda is scheduled to arrive at Santa Anita Monday.

“His wearing turn-downs is not an absolute necessity,” Campbell said. “But you hate to tamper with a horse’s equipment after he’s gone on a winning streak. I’m not saying I’d do anything like sue if they didn’t let him wear the shoes. I don’t think it’s one of those things you’d fight tooth and nail over. But I do feel strongly enough about the turn-downs that I’m going to explore what all this means.”

In 1992, the Breeders’ Cup was sued by the owners of Cameroon, who had a conflicting interpretation of an eligibility rule that prevented their horse from running in the $1-million Mile. The suit was eventually settled out of court. Coincidentally, one of the owners of Cameroon was C. Gibson Downing, a Lexington, Ky., attorney and breeder who was president of the Breeders’ Cup when the first $10-million race day was run at Hollywood Park in 1984.

Turn-downs seem to stimulate controversy wherever they turn up. In Canada, the Ontario Racing Commission suspended its rule barring turn-downs for the Molson Export Million, so that Sea Hero and Colonial Affair could continue wearing the shoes. Earle Mack, a New York owner, reportedly nudged his Canadian trainer, Roger Attfield, into using turn-downs on their Peteski for the first time. Some Woodbine horsemen not running in the Molson grumbled about this one-race exception. Then Peteski, who had already swept Canada’s Triple Crown, added the Molson to his stakes collection.

Mack’s fondness for turn-downs was understandable. He had been watching in New York, where turn-downs became a handicapping factor this year and Belmont Park began announcing and publishing what shoes horses were wearing. For the first 17 days of the recently completed Belmont meeting, 36% of the starters in dirt races wore turn-downs. Fifty-six of these horses won, compared to 74 winners that raced with standard rear shoes.

Jerkens said Sky Beauty, one of the favorites in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 6, and Devil His Due, a Classic contender who won a $700,000 bonus for accumulating the most points for high finishes in the American Championship Racing Series, have been wearing turn-down shoes for more than a year.

“Turn-downs improved some of my horses, and others it didn’t help,” he said. “But I don’t think it will be a factor if they don’t wear them in the Breeders’ Cup. Beauty didn’t wear them the last race, because of the rule change in New York, and she still won. In the Breeders’ Cup, I won’t be running against horses that have turn-downs, so it should be even for everybody.”

The shoes are not a jockey’s best friend. Mack Miller, who trains Sea Hero, quit using turn-downs on his horses after the Woodbine race, and Phil Johnson has never used them, both trainers fearing that a jockey could be seriously injured.

Julie Krone, one of the country’s leading riders, was kicked by a horse in a spill at Saratoga a couple of months ago. As it was, she suffered injuries that have sidelined her for the rest of the year, and had the horse been wearing turn-downs, she could have been killed.

“I don’t want to ever get kicked by a horse,” jockey Jerry Bailey said. “Especially one wearing those kind of shoes.”

Horse Racing Notes

Santa Anita will ask the California Horse Racing Board to approve Monday, Nov. 15, as the makeup date for Thursday’s cancellation. The Oak Tree meet is scheduled to end on Nov. 14 and Hollywood Park’s season is set to start on Nov. 17. . . . Bobby Frankel and Richard Mandella were among the Santa Anita trainers who vanned their horses to Hollywood Park Thursday, to avoid the smoke at Santa Anita and maintain training schedules. Among the Mandella horses at Hollywood were Breeders’ Cup contenders Kotashaan and Phone Chatter. Frankel sent all of his Breeders’ Cup probables--Bertrando, Marquetry, Missionary Ridge, Toussaud, Luazur and Jolypha.

Dove Hunt, winner of the Laurel Futurity, won’t run in Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. That reduces the field to 11. . . . The Daily Racing Form’s early line on the Breeders’ Cup has Bertrando favored at 5-2 in the Classic, Birdonthewire at 5-2 in the Sprint, Kotashaan at 2-1 in the Turf, Lure at 6-5 in the Mile, Paseana at 5-2 in the Distaff, Dehere at even money in the Juvenile and the entry of Rhapsodic and Sardula at 8-5 in the Juvenile Fillies.