Boston Harbor Makes Record Run for Lukas

Boston Harbor, winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Woodbine on Saturday, broke the record for most purses in a year by a 2-year-old.

Boston Harbor’s win was worth $520,000, increasing his total for seven races to $1,928,605. Boston Harbor is trained by Wayne Lukas, who also trained Mountain Cat, the old record-holder with $1.4 million in 1992. Boston Harbor’s earnings were boosted by a $1-million bonus that came from sweeping a four-race series in Kentucky.

George Steinbrenner’s Acceptable, ridden by Shane Sellers, was unable to overtake Boston Harbor after a long stretch duel and was beaten by a neck. Ordway, the 7-5 favorite, finished third, 2 1/2 more lengths back. Paying $6.80, Boston Harbor reached the wire in 1:43 2/5 for 1 1/16 miles.

Boston Harbor, who has six wins and one second, races for his breeder, William T. Young, who won this year’s Kentucky Derby with Grindstone and captured the Belmont Stakes with Editor’s Note.

“I thought I had him in the stretch,” Sellers said. “Breaking out of the nine hole, we had a tough run to the first turn. But the winner was game and fought me to the wire. I give my horse lot of credit, considering the bad post position he had.”

JUVENILE FILLIES

Trainer Nick Zito has won the Kentucky Derby twice, but he had never won a Breeders’ Cup race until Saturday, when Storm Song notched a 4 1/2-length win over her stablemate, Love That Jazz.

Storm Song was Zito’s 12th starter in a Breeders’ Cup. Zito saddled two second-place finishers, Acceptable in the Juvenile and Louis Quatorze in the Classic.

Storm Song is owned by a six-member syndicate that was put together by Cot Campbell and the Dogwood Stable. She is a son of Summer Squall, who won the 1990 Preakness for Dogwood. Storm Song was bought at auction for $100,000 as a yearling.

“One of our owners didn’t come because he thought he was bad luck,” Campbell said. “Bill Chappell had seen this filly get beat in the Spinaway at Saratoga and in the Matron at Belmont.”

Sharp Cat, who beat Storm Song in the Matron, finished ninth Saturday. Storm Song, ridden by Craig Perret, paid $5.20, running 1 1/16 miles in 1:43 3/5.

MILE

Da Hoss’ second Breeders’ Cup experience certainly went much better than his first.

Entered in the 1995 Sprint because his trainer, Michael Dickinson, didn’t think he’d be able to handle the soggy Belmont Park turf course in the Mile, Da Hoss struggled home last in the field of 13, 27 lengths behind winner Desert Stormer.

But over a Woodbine course labeled good, the 4-year-old Gone West gelding benefited from a ground-saving ride by Gary Stevens to win the $1-million Mile by 1 1/2 lengths over Spinning World. He was timed in 1:35 4/5 and returned $18.90.

Mark Of Esteem, the heralded European and 6-5 favorite, finished seventh in the field of 14.

“You didn’t see the true Mark Of Esteem today,” jockey Frankie Dettori said. “It was like two different courses. It was soft in the backstretch and good [down the stretch]. That wasn’t even a shadow of him.”

This was the 10th victory in 18 starts for Da Hoss and his sixth in nine races on the turf.

TURF

After drawing a blank with his first 12 Breeders’ Cup starters, English trainer Michael Stoute had the exacta in the day’s longest race.

Pilsudski, a 13-1 shot who had finished a distant second in the Arc de Triomphe in his previous start, upset Singspiel, part of a four-horse entry that was the 11-10 choice.

Ridden by Walter Swinburn, who earned his first Breeders’ Cup win only six months after being seriously injured in a spill in Hong Kong, Pilsudski won by 1 3/4 lengths in 2:30 1/5 for the 1 1/2 miles. It was the second-slowest Turf in Breeders’ Cup history.

European-based horses dominated the race as Swain and Shantou, part of the entry with Singspiel, finished third and fourth.

Ricks Natural Star, the most overmatched horse in the 13 runnings of the Breeders’ Cup, went off at only 56-1. He finished last after being second for the first half-mile.

Breeders’ Cup Notes

Paying Dues, second in the Sprint, was loaded into the No. 12 gate instead of No. 7. As a result of the error, six horses outside Paying Dues were also loaded into incorrect stalls. “A protest was not lodged immediately after the race,” said Nelson Ham, one of the three Woodbine stewards. “Therefore, if an owner or trainer of one of the horses involved in the incorrect loading does appeal, it will have to be heard at the Ontario Racing Commission level.” . . . The payoffs for the Mile and the odds on the horses in the Juvenile were not available on the tote board until about 10 minutes before the Juvenile was run. The system was knocked out when a bettor tried to bet $35,000 in U.S. funds on a horse in the Mile. The system was unable to convert the large sum into Canadian dollars.