BELMONT STAKES : Tabasco Cat Headed Back to California for Training, Rest

“Want a little salad, big boy?”

With that, trainer Wayne Lukas and one of his grooms, holding a lead shank on each side, took a freshly groomed Tabasco Cat from the barn to a large, nearby grazing area at Belmont Park.

If there’s anything that Tabasco Cat does better than out-kick Go For Gin in the stretch of Triple Crown races, it’s eat grass. The 3-year-old colt with three white stockings even took a Wimpy-sized bite out of a tree limb Sunday, despite the efforts of Lukas and the groom to keep his attention on the main course.

“He’ll chew on that branch, and then spit it out,” Lukas said.

Saturday’s Belmont Stakes was a virtual carbon copy of the Preakness three weeks before, with Tabasco Cat coming from off the pace to win and Go For Gin finishing second. Go For Gin capitalized on a sloppy track and a ragged start by several horses, including Tabasco Cat, to win the Kentucky Derby. Tabasco Cat finished seventh at Churchill Downs.

If the New York Racing Assn. had its druthers, there would be a rematch between Tabasco Cat and Go For Gin in the Travers at upstate Saratoga in mid-August, with Holy Bull tossed into the mix, but it’s not likely that the best 3-year-olds in the country will tangle until Belmont Park in the fall, or at the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs at the end of the year.

On Tuesday, Tabasco Cat is going back to California, where Lukas will send him to his Santa Ynez farm, about 90 miles north of Los Angeles, for a light training program that will get him ready for the Travers. “It’s like Club Med up there,” Lukas said. “This horse came out of the Belmont in perfect shape. He’s not showing any wear and tear from the Triple Crown races. He’s a tough rascal.”

Go For Gin, beaten by three-quarters of a length in the Preakness and two lengths in the Belmont, will remain at trainer Nick Zito’s Belmont Park barn until Saratoga opens in late July. Zito plans to bring his colt back to the races in the Forego Handicap, a seven-furlong race for older horses at Saratoga in mid-August. Then Go For Gin will run in two Belmont Park races, the Woodward and the Jockey Club Gold Cup, before running in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5.

Holy Bull, who beat older horses handily in the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont last month, was eliminated at the start as the Kentucky Derby favorite, then bypassed the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Trainer Jimmy Croll’s immediate plans are to run in the Dwyer Stakes at Belmont and then the Haskell at Monmouth Park.

Holy Bull is not eligible for the Breeders’ Cup, and Croll, who also owns the gray colt, would have to pay a penalty of $360,000 before he could run in the $3-million Classic.

Zito has now been second in three Belmonts, losing to Go and Go with Thirty Six Red in 1990 and finishing a head behind Hansel with Strike the Gold in 1991. Tabasco Cat gave Lukas his first Belmont victory in eight tries.

Before Tabasco Cat made his 3-year-old debut, winning the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows in January, Pat Day called Lukas and said that he wanted to ride the colt. Day had ridden Tabasco Cat twice as a 2-year-old, winning a minor stake at Keeneland and finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita.

“If he hadn’t called, we probably would have used a California jockey, somebody like (Gary) Stevens or (Chris) McCarron, to ride at Bay Meadows,” Lukas said. “We sure wouldn’t have flown a jockey all the way across the country for that race. I wasn’t crazy about him, even after he won that stake at Keeneland. He probably deserved to be second in the Breeders’ Cup, but if you had said to me then that this was a Triple Crown horse, I would have said that that would be a long stretch.”

Before the Belmont, Lukas talked on the phone with his son, Jeff, who’s still recuperating from near-fatal injuries suffered when Tabasco Cat knocked him to the ground after breaking away from his handlers at Santa Anita six months ago. The younger Lukas is scheduled to rejoin his father at Santa Anita this month.

“The track’s fast, dad,” said Jeff Lukas, who was watching earlier races on the national telecast.

“We’ll be closer (to Go For Gin) because of that,” Wayne Lukas said.

“Watch the fractions,” Jeff Lukas said.

“Pat’ll have all that down,” Wayne Lukas said.

“Remind Pat not to let Chris (McCarron) steal away (on Go For Gin),” Jeff Lukas said.

Pat Day heard about the conversation. “I’d say that Jeff’s back already,” the jockey said.