This One May Be the Classic : Racing: McAnally sends Paseana against Hollywood Wildcat and Sky Beauty.

The field for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita is so tough that Sky Beauty, who has an outside chance of being voted horse of the year, is the third choice on the morning line.

When the eight-horse field for the Distaff was drawn Wednesday, linemaker Jeff Tufts made Sky Beauty 3-1, behind Hollywood Wildcat at 2-1 and Paseana at 5-2. Sky Beauty, the New York-based 3-year-old filly, has finished first 10 times in 11 starts--one of the victories was taken away on a disqualification--and has been a heavy favorite in her last eight races.

“The Distaff is the toughest race of the day,” said Ron McAnally, who trains Paseana. “It should be the feature instead of the Classic.”

Paseana, who won the Distaff last year at Gulfstream Park, was also the second choice then, behind Saratoga Dew, who ran 12th.

McAnally expected Hollywood Wildcat to be favored Saturday. Since leaving Florida and being sent to trainer Neil Drysdale, Hollywood Wildcat has won four in a row at Hollywood Park, Del Mar and Santa Anita.

McAnally feels better about this year’s Distaff than he did a year ago. Before Paseana ran at Gulfstream, the 6-year-old mare failed against males at Del Mar, running fifth in the Pacific Classic, and returning to her own division was second in the Spinster at Keeneland.

“Yes, I was beginning to think that maybe age was catching up with her,” McAnally said. “But there were reasons for what happened. She’s not a big, muscular mare, and she got squeezed by two stud horses at Del Mar. Then, the day before the Keeneland race, she got away from the exercise rider and ran off for a mile and a half.”

Paseana was very consistent this year--two victories and three seconds--until she went to Belmont Park for the Ruffian Handicap on Sept. 19. She finished last in the five-horse field, beaten by 20 3/4 lengths.

“There was a good foot of water on the Belmont track the day before,” McAnally said. “And the next day Paseana just couldn’t handle the going.”

McAnally brought back Sidney and Jenny Craig’s horse in the Spinster again, on Oct. 17, and this time she won by one length. That victory also came over a muddy track but one that wasn’t as tiring as Belmont’s.

“The first eighth of a mile that she ran at Keeneland, I knew she was getting hold,” McAnally said.

All three of McAnally’s Breeders’ Cup victories have come in the Distaff, with Argentine-bred horses that had to be supplemented into the race at a cost of $200,000 each year. The 61-year-old trainer saddled Bayakoa for victories in 1989 and ’90.

Despite Bayakoa winning the Distaff at Belmont in 1990, it might have been McAnally’s worst day in racing. In the middle of a gritty head-and-head stretch duel, Go For Wand snapped a leg, went down and was destroyed on the track in a grisly tableau.

“That was a bittersweet winner’s circle,” McAnally said. “I was so upset that I went back to a tent to get a drink. Things you can’t cope with make you shake your head, and you try to disregard them, but this one was tough to take. When something like this happens, you ask yourself, ‘Supposing it had been me? What would I have done if it had been me?’ I’ve known Go For Wand’s owner (Jane Lunger) all my life. She showed me that she was a real champion, the way she survived that day.”

McAnally’s reputation, as a trainer who cares for his game and the animals that make it possible, is well-deserved. At his barn office Wednesday morning, he and Jack Robbins, a veterinarian, looked over X-rays of an unraced filly who didn’t survive surgery to repair a broken leg.

“It was a Ruffian-type deal,” McAnally said. “When she came out of the surgery, she was thrashing around and re-injured herself and then it was hopeless. There’s a hydraulic water recovery unit, something that they have up in Santa Barbara but not at the hospital here, that helps horses when they come out of surgery. I think they cost about $40,000. I’d help pay for it if they put one in here.”

McAnally was critical of the comments made by Greg Ferraro, a California veterinarian, in a recent Sports Illustrated article that said an overuse of drugs in racing has led to runaway death and breakdown rates for horses.

“Greg was off-base about what he said,” McAnally said. “He treated our horses around here for years, and took a lot of money for doing it. I don’t know how he could say what he said. Breakdowns have been way down at this track in the last few years, and at Del Mar this summer they used the (horse) ambulance only a few times. Yes, we have medication, but it’s for the good of the horses and it’s controlled medication.”

Rick Arthur, a private veterinarian who practices at Santa Anita, also said that the local breakdown rate has been reduced in recent years.

Told about McAnally comments, Ferraro said: “I respect Ron. He’s got his opinion and I’ve got mine. But California adopted a policy of controlled medication about 20 years ago, and now I’ve come to believe that it’s been a bad choice. The horses are not better off, and I’ve never seen as much cheating with drugs in racing as I’ve seen in the last three years. They race without medication all over the world, and it seems to work for them.”

Go For Wand’s breakdown is only one of several that have marred Breeders’ Cup races. Two other horses died the same year at Belmont and last year at Gulfstream a European horse, Mr Brooks, suffered fatal injuries.

This year, the Breeders’ Cup has hired four extra veterinarians who have been inspecting Saturday’s probable starters on a daily basis at Santa Anita, in much the way a vet would make the rounds on race day.

“I welcome what’s being done,” McAnally said. “If they can find something that keeps a horse from going out there and seriously hurting himself, then it’s a worthwhile program.”