It's A for Alphabet, C for Cigar in Classic

By BILL CHRISTINE

Oct. 27, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

TORONTO —

Alphabet Soup was letter perfect, springing a 19-1 upset in the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Woodbine on Saturday as Cigar, outrun again, settled for a third-place finish, less than half a length behind at the wire.

As usual, Breeders’ Cup day determined several Eclipse Award championships, while making a muddle out of the horse-of-the-year picture. Cigar appeared to have his second consecutive North American title ready for delivery heading into August, but he has lost three of his last four starts, and what votes he gets will be more for the completion of a 16-race winning streak than for any consistency.

This time, Cigar was beaten by a 5-year-old roan who has run only 13 times in the last two years, and who had finished 10th, beaten by 25 lengths, the only other time he had run the Classic distance of 1 1/4 miles. But this is not the same Alphabet Soup that finished ahead of only one horse in the Santa Anita Handicap in March. Asked sometime last week if his charge was up to running 10 furlongs and winning, trainer David Hofmans said: “Not last year, but this year he is. Besides, this is the time to take Cigar on. He’s had a long, hard campaign. There are chinks in his armor.”

The 6-year-old Cigar, making his 18th start in 1995-96, was wide, outside of Mt. Sassafras, Louis Quatorze and Alphabet Soup, in a tightly packed run out of the far turn, and months ago trainer Bill Mott’s horse would have flicked ashes on those rivals. But Cigar no longer has that acceleration through the stretch. He needs to grind out the ground, and this time two of his three foes weren’t giving any. Mt. Sassafras faltered, but Alphabet Soup and Louis Quatorze were still full of fight.

Alphabet Soup edged ahead just before the sixteenth pole, and at the finish line he and Chris McCarron were a nose better than Louis Quatorze, the Preakness winner who gave McCarron’s heart flutters when he tried to come back on in the final strides. Louis Quatorze finished a head in front of Cigar, who had been first 17 times and second two times in the last 19 races, going back to a third-place finish in October 1994.

“My horse has a long neck,” McCarron said later, after winning his sixth Breeders’ Cup race and his third Classic. “That helps in photos.”

Earning $2.08 million for his owner, Georgia Ridder of Pasadena, Alphabet Soup paid $41.70 to win and was clocked in 2:01, which broke by a fifth of a second the Woodbine record set 24 years ago by Monte Christo II.

This was the first Breeders’ Cup to be run outside the United States, and a crowd of 41,250 came in bright, crisp fall weather, breaking a Woodbine record that was set in 1973.

In the races that preceded the Classic, jockey Corey Nakatani scored successive wins with Lit De Justice in the $1-million Sprint and Jewel Princess in the $1-million Distaff; adding to his record, trainer Wayne Lukas picked up a 13th Breeders’ Cup win when Boston Harbor bagged the $1-million Juvenile; trainer Nick Zito won his first Breeders’ Cup race with Storm Song in the $1-million Juvenile Fillies; and the grass races went to Pilsudski, a colt from Europe who prevailed in the $2-million Turf, and to Da Hoss, who blunted a strong European contingent in the Mile.

After Storm Song and Lit De Justice won their races, five consecutive favorites stumbled, the most notable Cigar, who went off at 3-5 under Jerry Bailey.

Of Cigar’s wide run to the finish, Mott said: “Jerry didn’t have any other option. It cost him some ground, more than he got beat by. Maybe he lost a couple of lengths on the turn. When he was at his very, very, very best, he would shoot by and open up. Maybe he’s lost a step. Probably, he shows the evidence of four years of racing, hard racing, and a lot of travel.”

Bailey had won the Classic four of the previous five years.

“Going into the [second] turn, I was wide, way wide,” Bailey said. “I had no place else to go. I couldn’t go inside. I had to play the hand I was dealt. I followed Alphabet Soup and went around him. It’s been a long two years. He never quit, and he’s still a champion, but today it wasn’t meant to be.”

Mt. Sassafras finished fourth, and after him came Formal Gold, Tamayaz, Will’s Way, Atticus, Dramatic Gold, Mahogany Hall, Dare And Go, Editor’s Note and Taiki Blizzard. Yanks Music, the filly who was the third choice on the morning line, was scratched because of a swelling in her left front ankle.

Had Skip Away, who beat Cigar in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park three weeks ago, run in the Classic, Hofmans might have run Alphabet Soup in the six-furlong Sprint. But except for the Santa Anita Handicap, run on a day when the track was deep and cuppy, Alphabet Soup’s two-turn races this year had all been good, and as McCarron said, “When he’s won at a mile and an eighth, he’s always finished well.”

Alphabet Soup was never worse than fourth Saturday. After half a mile, with Atticus, Louis Quatorze and Mt. Sassafras ahead of him, he trailed by about three lengths. At the quarter pole, the leaders were bunched up and Alphabet Soup had moved into second, with Mt. Sassafras, at 101-1, on the lead.

“He’s got a heart as big as this room,” McCarron said in a large interview area afterward. “This is a horse who always takes some riding. He likes to toy with the field a little. I feel fortunate to be on the right horse to beat Cigar when he was beatable. Dave had him trained to the absolute minute.”

In 1992, Hofmans was in Kentucky, scouting horses for Ridder. Twice this Pennsylvania-bred son of Cozzene, the 1985 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner, had been consigned to auctions by his breeder, Roy Lerman, and had failed to draw a high enough bid. He was bought back for $28,000 as a yearling and $29,000 as a 2-year-old. Finally, on Hofmans’ recommendation, Alphabet Soup was packaged with another horse and sold to Ridder for what Hofmans remembers as being “just under” $100,000.

On Saturday, Alphabet Soup won for the 10th time in 23 starts and pushed his earnings to $2.8 million. “I’m too excited to say anything,” Ridder said.

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Breeders’ Cup

$1-MILLION JUVENILE FILLIES

Storm Song (Perret): $5.20

$1-MILLION SPRINT

Lit De Justice (Nakatani): $10.00

$1-MILLION DISTAFF

Jewel Princess (Nakatani): $6.80

$1-MILLION MILE

Da Hoss (Stevens): $18.90

$1-MILLION JUVENILE

Boston Harbor (Bailey): $6.80