THOROUGHBRED RACING : Breeders’ Cup Might Price Itself Out of Best Fields

When Hollywood Park ran the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup in July, a Breeders’ Cup official looked at the five-horse field and said: “What is this, Supplementary City?”

He was referring to Slew Of Damascus, the winner of the race, and The Wicked North, the 3-5 shot who finished fourth. Neither has been nominated to the Breeders’ Cup, that $10-million day of races at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5, but this year Slew Of Damascus and The Wicked North are only the tip of the iceberg.

In almost every division, the specter of ineligible horses hangs heavy over the Breeders’ Cup, which after 10 years of dodging most of the bullets will run its races this time with some of the best horses left in their barns.

Start with Holy Bull, the probable horse of the year, and work down from there. Unless their owners pay supplementary fees that range from $120,000 to $360,000, Best Pal, Paseana, Pistols And Roses, Cherokee Run and Montreal Red won’t be at Churchill Downs either. Best Pal has earned $5 million, more than anyone except Alysheba and John Henry; Paseana is the winner of the 1992 Breeders’ Cup Distaff and a double Eclipse Award winner; Cherokee Run is one of the favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint; and if Montreal Red wins today’s Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park, he will become the future-book favorite for next year’s Kentucky Derby.

The owners of some of these horses might reach for their checkbooks, but John Mabee, who races Best Pal with his wife, Betty, will not be among them.

“The Cal Cup (a $250,000 race at Santa Anita on Oct. 29) wants Best Pal, and that’s where we’re going to run him,” Mabee said. “If the supplementary ($360,000 to make Best Pal eligible for the $3-million Classic) wasn’t that excessive, we might have gone for the Breeders’ Cup. But that’s too much to pay for a 6-year-old.”

The Mabees have been paying and paying since Best Pal was 2, because the resilient gelding wasn’t made lifetime eligible for the Breeders’ Cup with a $500 payment the year he was foaled. In 1990, after buying into the Breeders’ Cup for $120,000, Best Pal’s owners got back $10,000 when their horse ran sixth in the Juvenile. Last year, when the Breeders’ Cup Classic was run at Santa Anita, the Mabees supplemented Best Pal for $360,000. He finished 10th and earned nothing.

Paying these supplementary fees has been ironic, because John Mabee, the chairman of Del Mar, was one of the founding directors of the Breeders’ Cup and helped draft the rules.

“I’ve stood up for the high supplementary fees in the past,” he said Friday, “but I think it’s time that this be reviewed. Even if they review it, they still might not make a change, but at least they should look at it. Maybe they ought to consider something like 6% instead of what they have now.”

Since the Breeders’ Cup’s inception, the rules have allowed a horse to be supplemented for 12% of the total purse of the race, providing that the horse’s sire was nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program. If neither the horse nor the sire has been nominated, the supplementary is 20% of the purse.

Sidney and Jenny Craig, who have twice paid $200,000 for Paseana to run in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, resulting in purses of $720,000 for first- and second-place finishes, asked Ted Bassett, president of the Breeders’ Cup, to review the supplementary rule.

“Bassett said that the board didn’t want to make a change,” said Ron McAnally, who trains Paseana. “Why should they? They won’t change the rule as long as the people keep paying the money.”

Besides Best Pal and Paseana, other standouts supplemented into the Breeders’ Cup have included Bertrando, Bayakoa, Estrapade, Pebbles, Tasso, Vanlandingham and Spend A Buck. Wild Again wouldn’t have won the first Breeders’ Cup Classic, at Hollywood Park in 1984, if his owners hadn’t paid a supplemental fee of $360,000 to see their 31-1 shot run.

If for no other reason than Holy Bull, the Breeders’ Cup directors need to overhaul their tough-as-nails supplementary policy. Perhaps a one-time supplementary payment ought to count for a horse’s lifetime.

Holy Bull wasn’t nominated for the Breeders’ Cup because his owner-trainer, Jimmy Croll, made a mistake. Croll thought that he paid the $500 fee for the gray colt, but a year later he opened his desk drawer and saw that he had nominated the wrong horse. Now Croll believes that he’s holding a pat hand, one that doesn’t need to be improved by a $360,000 gamble in the Breeders’ Cup. He says that Holy Bull has done enough to be voted horse of the year, and not many in the game see any holes in his logic. In other words, the Breeders’ Cup needs Holy Bull more than Holy Bull needs the Breeders’ Cup. If this isn’t enough to get the winds of change stirring, nothing will.

Horse Racing Notes

Valid Wager, second to Evansville Slew in the Arlington-Washington Futurity, wasn’t supplemented, at a cost of $10,000, for Sunday’s $200,000 Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita. The 1 1/16-mile Norfolk drew a lackluster field of nine 2-year-olds, including the Richard Mulhall-trained entry of Supremo and Strong Ally. The field, in post-position order: Desert Mirage, Supremo, Z Lobo, Art Force, New Aspirations, Bienfeo, Strong Ally, Awesome Thought and Nice Fred. . . . Seven horses are entered for Sunday’s $300,000 Oak Tree Invitational, a 1 1/2-mile grass stake that will be the third race on the card. Approach The Bench drew the rail, and outside the Eddie Read Handicap winner in the gate will be Sandpit, Cafe Milano, Grand Flotilla, Run Softly, Navire and Regency.