Edge Is on the Outside : Horse racing: Marquetry draws No. 1 post for Classic, and Frankel isn’t smiling.

When the Breeders’ Cup was first held at Santa Anita, in 1986, the inside post positions ruled the day. Of the five races on dirt, Lady’s Secret won her race from the No. 5 post, and the other four winners were from spots even closer to the rail.

Track conditions change from year to year, and even from day to day, but on Saturday, when 82 horses run in seven races in the 10th Breeders’ Cup, trainers with horses breaking from the inside on dirt seem to be least comfortable with their positions.

At Wednesday’s post-position draw, none of the trainers for the Sprint Stakes wanted the inside, and when Marquetry drew the No. 1 spot for the Classic, trainer Bobby Frankel didn’t exactly do backflips.

“You never like to draw the one hole,” Frankel said.

Santa Anita’s track played fairly Wednesday, with speed and come-from-behind horses winning, and horses were at no disadvantage whether they were inside or outside.

Frankel is running a three-horse entry in the $3-million race, with his Bertrando looming as horse of the year if he wins. The rest of the field will probably concede the lead to Bertrando and then try to catch him before the 1 1/4 miles are finished.

“I would have preferred that Marquetry draw outside of Bertrando,” Frankel said. “But, overall, I’m happy with the draw.”

Bertrando drew the No. 8 spot, and Frankel’s other horse, the late-running Missionary Ridge, is No. 7. The Frankel trio was installed as a 2-1 favorite, with Best Pal, who drew No. 4, next on the morning line at 3-1.

Marquetry doesn’t have the speed out of the gate to keep up with Bertrando but is expected to be in contention early. Because of the No. 1 post, jockey Kent Desormeaux will probably have to gun Marquetry out of the gate to avoid being caught behind a herd of horses, and expending a horse early at the Classic distance could be a fatiguing exercise. Desormeaux’s assignment will be the most difficult of any jockey in the race.

“My main concern with Marquetry is his stablemate (Bertrando),” Desormeaux said. “It’s a question of trying to find a way to the winner’s circle while dealing with Bertrando. We’ll be on our own in this one. When we ran together in the last couple of races, we didn’t want to be detrimental to Marquetry’s chances or to Bertrando. So we kind of let Bertrando have as easy a lead as we could. I mean, I wasn’t going to push Bertrando until somebody pushed me. But we’ve got some decisions to make for Saturday.”

All three of the Frankel horses have different owners, but they are joined in the betting because of the California rule that requires horses to run together if a trainer owns one of them. Frankel owns Marquetry in a partnership. Marshall Naify and Eddie Nahem own Bertrando, and Missionary Ridge races for Peter Wall.

In the Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 21, Bertrando, Missionary Ridge and Marquetry ran 1-2-4; in the Hollywood Gold Cup on July 3, Best Pal beat Bertrando by 2 1/2 lengths while Marquetry was running fourth and Missionary Ridge fifth.

In Saturday’s second richest race, the $2-million Turf, the 2-1 favorite, Kotashaan, drew No. 13 in a 14-horse field.

“I would have preferred to be more inside,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “But the start isn’t the biggest part of the race with my horse’s (late) running style.

“Kent (Desormeaux) should be able to take back and be in a nice spot. I’d rather be in the 13 than the three. I’ll trade a bad post for racing luck rather than have a good post and wind up with bad luck.”

Bien Bien, a familiar Kotashaan rival last winter at Santa Anita--Mandella’s 5-year-old beat him twice, including the San Juan Capistrano Handicap--is the second choice on the morning line. Next in the odds at 6-1 comes Intrepidity, one of five starters from French trainer Andre Fabre’s powerful barn.

Intrepidity, a 3-year-old filly, will run as an entry with Sheik Mohammed’s Opera House, who is trained by Michael Stoute. Intrepidity has won four of six races this year, her last start a fourth-place finish in the Arc de Triomphe, which was run in a quagmire. Opera House, third in the Arc, has won three major races in England this year.

Fabre’s other starters in the Turf are Apple Tree, Dernier Empereur, Serrant and Wemyss Bight. The only other trainer to run five horses in a Breeders’ Cup race is Wayne Lukas, who won the 1988 Juvenile Fillies with Open Mind at Churchill Downs while his other runners were finishing 2-3-6-11.

In Saturday’s other grass race, the $1-million Mile, Lure’s bid to win for the second consecutive year may have been compromised by drawing the No. 12 post in a 13-horse field. The Mile starts in front of the stands, with a short run to the first turn.

“I wouldn’t have asked for that post,” said Lure’s trainer, Shug McGaughey. “But he doesn’t have to be in front. With his new running style, he can run from off the pace.”

Lure, who has five victories and two seconds in seven starts this year, is a 7-5 favorite. The favorites for the other races are Meafara at 7-2 in the Sprint, Dehere at 6-5 in the Juvenile, Phone Chatter at 9-5 in the Juvenile Fillies and Hollywood Wildcat at 2-1 in the Distaff.

Horse Racing Notes

The gates at Santa Anita open at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, with post time for the first of 10 races, the $100,000 Cascapedia Handicap, at 10:10 a.m. After the seven Breeders’ Cup races, the track will also run the $100,000 Smile Handicap and the $150,000 Skywalker Handicap. . . . The Smile, which drew 14 horses to run seven furlongs, is as good a race as the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. The field includes Ibero, Memo, Slerp, The Wicked North, Softshoe Sure Shot and Casual Lies. . . . The Breeders’ Cup fields include six previous winners, five from last year and Fly So Free, winner of the 1990 Juvenile. Seeking back-to-back victories are Paseana, Lure, Gilded Time, Fraise and Thirty Slews. Gilded Time is 10-1 and Thirty Slews 8-1 in the Sprint and Fraise is 12-1 in the Turf. . . . Coup De Genie, trainer Francois Boutin’s starter in the Juvenile Fillies, has never raced on dirt, but she will be treated with Lasix after bleeding while finishing fifth in her last start in France. . . . Craig Perret made a deal with trainer Roger Attfield to ride Alydeed for all his races this year. To honor his commitment, Perret couldn’t ride Birdonthewire in New York. But after Alydeed’s fifth-place finish in the Vosburgh, owner Bud Willmot told Attfield to replace Perret with Don Seymour. Perret doesn’t have a mount in the Sprint, and Birdonthewire, at 9-2 the second choice, will be ridden by Mike Smith. . . . Smith, Chris McCarron and Gary Stevens are jockeys who will ride all seven Breeders’ Cup races. . . . For the record: It was incorrectly written in a Tuesday story that Stevens dropped his whip while finishing second with Theatrical, behind Manila and Jose Santos, in the 1986 Turf. “Santos dropped his whip,” Stevens said. “I knocked it out of his hand, and he still won the race.” . . . At a meeting at Santa Anita Friday, the National Turf Writers Assn. will consider recommending that Jesus Bracho be stripped of his Eclipse Award for outstanding apprentice in 1992. Calder Race Course stewards have recommended to Florida state officials that Bracho be banned for life after apparently falsifying his apprentice standing when he arrived from Venezuela to begin riding in the United States. The turf writers sponsor the Eclipse Awards, along with the Daily Racing Form and the tracks that belong to the Thoroughbred Racing Assns.