Dust Settles, but Not Questions About New York Failures : Breeders’ Cup: McGaughey says the Eastern contingent might not have trained hard enough for Saturday.

Running a dismal eighth in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita, heavily favored Dehere probably had an excuse because he suffered pulmonary bleeding in the race.

Birdonthewire, the favorite in the Sprint earlier in the day, arrived in California with a shipping fever and experienced a high blood count throughout last week. He was doubtful right up to the day of the race and finished 11th.

But all of the other poor performances by New York horses in the seven races on Breeders’ Cup day are not as easily explained. Lure won the Mile on grass for the second consecutive year, but the New York runners fired blanks in all five races on dirt. Except for the victory by Lure and that by the French horse, Arcangues, at 133-1 odds in the Classic, the rest of the races were won by California-based horses.

Shug McGaughey, who trains Lure, didn’t immediately celebrate after the victory. McGaughey spent about a half-hour back at his barn, trying to figure out why the rest of his horses, and the other horses from New York, did so badly.

“Except for my filly (Heavenly Prize, third in the Juvenile Fillies), none of the New York horses did any good,” McGaughey said Sunday. “We’ve got to put our finger on this if we’re going to be competitive when we come to California.”

New York trainers probably won’t have to run in a California Breeders’ Cup until 1997. The races are scheduled for Churchill Downs in Kentucky, Belmont Park in New York and Woodbine in suburban Toronto the next three years.

McGaughey thought that two other horses he brought to Santa Anita, Miner’s Mark and Dispute, trained well over the track. But Miner’s Mark was 12th in the 13-horse Classic and Dispute ran fourth in the Distaff.

“Their jockeys (Chris McCarron on Miner’s Mark and Jerry Bailey on Dispute) told me that they both ran rubber-legged the last 40 yards,” McGaughey said.

When McGaughey spotted another New York horse, Belmont Stakes winner Colonial Affair, in the pre-race holding barn, he was certain the colt was going to run a solid race. “He was the best-looking horse over there,” McGaughey said.

Colonial Affair ran last in the Classic.

“We didn’t exactly show up here with empty wagons,” McGaughey said. “We brought some good horses to this. An hour before the first post, I was saying to my help that I couldn’t wait for the Classic, because I thought Miner’s Mark was going to win it.”

Before this Breeders’ Cup, Ron McAnally, a California trainer whose three Breeders’ Cup victories have come in Florida and New York, said that generally New York’s horses simply haven’t been as tough as California’s in recent years.

Wayne Lukas, trainer of a record 10 Breeders’ Cup winners, has a similar theory.

“The weather wasn’t a factor, because it wasn’t humid Saturday,” Lukas said. “The track was in excellent shape, so that’s no excuse. Maybe the California horses are just the best, because they run in more competitive races the year round.”

None of the New York horses ran a prep race at Santa Anita.

“A prep over the track would help,” McGaughey said. “But now, Belmont Park is offering a lot of top prep races with big purses. Our owners are back there, and we’re obligated to support these races.

“I think the New York horses were running against horses that were a little further along in fitness. Maybe we’re not training our horses hard enough in New York to run them over a track that’s looser than we’re used to. I’m not blaming the track, I thought the track was fair for everybody, but it is a different track than what we have in New York.”

Although Heavenly Prize was undefeated going into the Juvenile Fillies, McGaughey was not confident about her chances. She lacked seasoning, having run only twice, but she won those races by 16 lengths.

“I thought she was up against it coming in here,” McGaughey said.

Phone Chatter, winner of the race, had made five starts, and won the Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 9.

Another of the California-based winners, Brocco in the Juvenile, had no more experience than Heavenly Prize.

The one thing that Brocco didn’t have to do was ship almost 3,000 miles, as Heavenly Prize did.

Before the Breeders’ Cup, Randy Winick, Brocco’s trainer, said: “It’s a lot easier sending a horse over to run from the barn he’s always in.”

Winick said that he wouldn’t have run Brocco if the Juvenile had been scheduled for New York.

If there was a negative to the near-sweep by California horses in the dirt races, it was that Phone Chatter came out of the Juvenile Fillies ailing.

“She was a little off after the race,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “We found some filling (swelling) in a hind ankle. I don’t think it’s serious, but we’re not done diagnosing it. . . . She won’t run again until she’s a 3-year-old.”