Dare And Go, Cigar Prep for Showdown

From 39-1 in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar in August, Dare And Go has gone to the even-money favorite for Saturday’s $300,000 Goodwood Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Santa Anita. This is what a win over Cigar--and having only three opponents in the Goodwood--will do for a horse.

Cigar’s 16-race winning streak ending with that second-place finish at Del Mar, but he rebounded with a solid victory in the Woodward on Sept. 14. He will race only five rivals Saturday in the $1-million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park. After that, the paths of Cigar and Dare And Go are expected to cross once more in the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Woodbine in Toronto on Oct. 26.

Cigar, who has earned $9.3 million, is 1-5 Saturday and his trainer, Bill Mott, will be surprised if he doesn’t win.

“He seems to be on his toes, very sharp,” Mott said. “I think that if he gets beat, it will be human error that will lead to it.”

The horse with the best chance of knocking off Dare And Go is Alphabet Soup, who posted his only wins around two turns this year during the winter meet at Santa Anita. Since winning the Pacific Classic, Dare And Go has been training at Hollywood Park, and both his trainer, Richard Mandella, and his jockey, Alex Solis, have been encouraged by several workouts.

“He’s a very different horse,” Solis said. “He acts like he knows that he beat Cigar. He has a very different attitude. He’s all game now.”

Alphabet Soup is 6-5 on the morning line for the 1 1/8-mile race and will be running with a jockey change, Chris McCarron having replaced Chris Antley. Savinio, who first won on dirt in the San Diego Handicap at Del Mar on July 27, is 4-1, and Powerful Punch, a winner only once in the last two years, is 8-1. Dare And Go will carry 122 pounds and spot Alphabet Soup two pounds.

The 1 1/4-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup is run under weight-for-age conditions, which means that Cigar will carry 126 pounds, the same as another older horse, Mahogany Hall. The other starters--Skip Away, Louis Quatorze, Editor’s Note and Secreto De Estado--are all 3-year-olds and run with 121 pounds.

Skip Away, listed as the 5-1 second choice, will get only this one chance to beat Cigar. He’s not eligible for the Breeders’ Cup and trainer Sonny Hines and his wife, Carolyn, have said that they won’t pay the $480,000 supplementary fee that would get Skip Away into the Classic.

Editor’s Note won the Belmont Stakes over the same track in June, but he’s 12-1 Saturday and his trainer, the usually cocky Wayne Lukas, isn’t rash enough to suggest that he’ll beat Cigar.

“It’s a race within a race,” Lukas said. “There’s Cigar, and then there’s the rest of us. It would be foolish to predict an upset. It’s a privilege to be on the same track with Cigar. We’re going to bust our behind to try and beat him, but realistically that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

“Cigar is really, really one of the great ones. Greatness is thrown around a lot in our industry, but I believe that with longevity he will go down as one of the really great marquee horses of all time.”

At Santa Anita Thursday, entries were drawn for the seven weekend races worth $1.5 million, and in an alarmingly recurring sign of the times, only 44 horses will run. The other $300,000 race, Sunday’s Oak Tree Turf Championship, drew five horses, only one more than the Goodwood, prompting trainer Jenine Sahadi to say, “I’m curious to see what Khoraz will do at a mile and a quarter, and where else can you run against only four horses for $300,000?”

Joining Khoraz in the gate will be Bon Point, Golden Post, Admise and Gold And Steel. The field is so ordinary that Bon Point, who has finished ahead of only three horses in his last two starts, is the 8-5 favorite.

Saturday’s other stakes at Santa Anita are the $200,000 Oak Leaf for 2-year-old fillies and the $175,000 Oak Tree Breeders’ Cup Mile Handicap on grass.

Wealthy, winner of her only two starts by 16 lengths, is 2-1 in the 1 1/16-mile Oak Leaf, which will be her stakes debut. Others entered are Silken Magic, Clever Pilot, City Band, Sixy Saint, Montecito, One More Angel and Fillaree.

Another Sahadi runner, Megan’s Interco, is 9-5 in the Mile Handicap. The 7-year-old gelding will be challenged by Rameau, Inner City, Urgent Request, Felon, Riton and Gold And Steel, who is also entered in the Oak Tree Turf Championship.

Horse Racing Notes

Cigar’s stablemate, Geri, is a modest favorite in tonight’s $750,000 Buick Meadowlands Cup Handicap in New Jersey. The 11-horse field also includes Dramatic Gold, who teamed with Kent Desormeaux to win the Del Mar Breeders’ Cup Handicap in his last start. Geri, second to Siphon in the Hollywood Gold Cup, will carry 119 pounds, the same as Dramatic Gold. . . . Corey Nakatani, who rode Wednesday as the Oak Tree season opened, took off his mounts Thursday. Dawn Nakatani, the jockey’s sister, died Tuesday night after police found her strangled in her apartment. . . . Larry The Legend, the 1995 Santa Anita Derby winner, is out for the year because of a bruised foot.