For Yanks Music, It’s Either Classic or Distaff

The first time that Yanks Music ran this year, a trainer with another horse in the race was raving about his filly to Leo O’Brien.

“She’ll have to be good,” said O’Brien, who trains Yanks Music, “because my filly’s a Grade I filly.”

That spring day at Aqueduct, Yanks Music won by 5 1/2 lengths for her third consecutive win. That streak ended a month later, but other than two second-place finishes, O’Brien’s 3-year-old has won everything else. She has also fulfilled the trainer’s prophecy about being Grade I material by winning the Mother Goose, Alabama, Ruffian Handicap and Beldame Stakes.

In the last two races, she has run down Serena’s Song, last year’s champion 3-year-old filly. Michael Fennessy, co-owner of Yanks Music, may go looking for new challenges if he decides to run his filly in the Breeders’ Cup Classic instead of the Distaff a week from today at Woodbine in suburban Toronto.

“He’s leaning toward the Classic, and I’m leaning to the Distaff,” said O’Brien, a 56-year-old former steeplechase jockey from Dublin. “No matter which way we go, I’ll be 100% behind the decision.”

The winner of the $4-million Classic earns $2.08 million; the first-place finisher in the $1-million Distaff receives $520,000. Cigar, winner of the last year’s Classic, will be favored again, but take away the records of Cigar and Yanks Music and the rest of the 14-horse Classic field has won only 38% of its starts this year. Only eight horses are expected to run in the Distaff, but they are a formidable group. Serena’s Song, who has earned $3 million, deserves another chance. Different has run in Argentina and the United States and won nine of 10 starts, and her owner, Sidney Craig, is putting up a supplementary fee of $200,000 just to get her in the race. Jewel Princess is a major stakes winner from California who has been either first or second in her last five races, and My Flag, good enough to run third against colts in this year’s Belmont Stakes, won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies a year ago.

When Yanks Music won the Ruffian by a neck, Serena’s Song’s trainer, Wayne Lukas, pointed out that the O’Brien filly enjoyed a 10-pound edge in weight. The next time, in the Beldame at Belmont on Oct. 6, Yanks Music had only a four-pound advantage when she overtook Serena’s Song to win by three-quarters of a length.

“I’d like to see Yanks Music run in the Classic,” said a smiling Gary Stevens, who rides Serena’s Song.

The Distaff is 1 1/8 miles, the Classic 1 1/4 miles, but with her late kick, Yanks Music would seem to be comfortable with either distance. She won the 1 1/4-mile Alabama at Saratoga in August and was still full of run at the wire.

“They’re both pretty darn tough races,” O’Brien said. “Cigar is awesome, and there are some other tough horses in the Classic. With a full field, you’ve got to be worried about traffic problems too. If we ran in the Distaff, I’d have to be concerned about the fillies we haven’t met. [Trainer Wally] Dollase’s filly [Jewel Princess] is a good one, and [trainer Ron] McAnally’s filly [Different] has done everything that’s been asked of her.”

Fillies and mares running against colts in the Breeders’ Cup have done quite well, winning nine of 74 starts, but all of those wins came in either the Sprint or the two grass races. In the Classic, only two females have tried, Triptych running sixth in 1986 and Jolypha finishing third behind A.P. Indy and Pleasant Tap in 1992. Under the weight-for-age conditions of the Classic, Yanks Music would carry 118 pounds, eight fewer than Cigar. In the Distaff, she would carry 120 pounds, three fewer than Serena’s Song, Jewel Princess and Different, who are all 4-year-olds.

Yanks Music is ridden by John Velazquez, O’Brien’s son-in-law, who is No. 10 on the most recent national money list with $7.7 million in purses. Michael Fennessy, who bred Yanks Music and races her in partnership with Audrey Cooper, has done his best to sell the Air Forbes Won-Traipsing filly, and would have unloaded her as a 2-year-old if she had brought $30,000 or $40,000 at auction. But Yanks Music attracted a bid of only $6,500 as a yearling, so Fennessy bought her back, and he kept her again last year when the bidding stalled at $20,000. Yanks Music’s dam, Traipsing, was also unwanted. At a Keeneland breeding-stock sale last November, while in foal to Alwuhush, she was bought back for $12,000.

Fennessy would have run Yanks Music through the sales ring one more time, at Saratoga as an unraced 2-year-old last year, but O’Brien talked him out of it. “She was a late [May] foal, but I’ve always thought that she looked like a Grade I filly,” the trainer said. “She’s not a big filly, but she’s the ideal size. She’s aggressive, and she’s got a huge heart.”

The decision on the Classic or the Distaff must be made by Wednesday, when entries are taken for the seven Breeders’ Cup races. A blow could be struck for patriotism if Cigar and Yanks Music finished 1-2 in the Classic. They both run in star-spangled, red-white-and-blue racing silks.

Horse Racing Notes

Listening, who won the Hollywood Oaks and then broke awkwardly before finishing fourth, 7 3/4 lengths behind Yanks Music, in the Alabama, heads today’s field in the Linda Vista Handicap at Santa Anita. . . . On Sunday, Odyle, fifth in the Woodbine Million, returns to grass against five rivals in the $125,000 Volante Handicap. . . . Alyrob, making his first start since an eighth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, finished second, behind Elmhurst, in Friday’s feature. . . . Pat Day, the leading Breeders’ Cup jockey with eight wins and $12.4 million in purses, will ride Paying Dues in the Sprint for trainer Clifford Sise. Laffit Pincay was aboard when Paying Dues finished fourth and was moved up to third on a disqualification in the Ancient Title Handicap.