Asking Why Horses Were in Wrong Posts Is a Loaded Question

Whether the race is a route or a sprint, most horsemen will tell you that the best post position in a large field is somewhere in the middle. That way, your horse probably won’t be pinned down on the rail and your jockey is unlikely to be caught wide on the outside.

Consequently, there were good vibes in the camp of Paying Dues when the 4-year-old gelding drew the No. 7 post in a 13-horse field for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Woodbine on Oct. 26. Trainer Clifford Sise’s horse usually breaks alertly, and being exactly in the middle for the biggest assignment of his career would seem to assure him of a favorable early position for the long run down the backstretch.

But at Woodbine--for the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Sprint, anyway--what you drew was not necessarily what you got. As the horses were being loaded into the gate, an assistant starter apparently saw the No. 12 on Paying Dues’ saddlecloth and started to lead him into a corresponding stall. Paying Dues’ program number didn’t jibe with his post position because the track handicapper had designated him as a field horse. The tote board at Woodbine has room for 12 numbers, which meant that the overflow--the horses given the least chance of winning--was dumped into the parimutuel field.

“I’m No. 7!” jockey Pat Day shouted as his mount was led to the next-to-outside stall.

“It didn’t do any good,” Sise said. “They ignored him.”

Post position No. 7 was taken by Boundless Moment, who was supposed to be No. 8. The four horses between Boundless Moment and Paying Dues were also one stall closer to the rail than they should have been.

Similar mix-ups have happened before. Sise remembers an instance at Santa Anita. Horses recently ran from the wrong positions at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. And in the worst horror for an official starter, a horse was left out of the gate before a stakes race at Saratoga several years ago. But what happened in the Sprint at Woodbine was a Breeders’ Cup first.

Paying Dues didn’t seem to mind. He broke sharply and was in third place after half a mile. With an eighth of a mile left, Day had the smell of victory. But Lit De Justice, the mild favorite, was able to find room on the inside and rallied through the stretch to beat Sise’s horse by 1 1/4 lengths. Still, it was a profitable day for Randy Welty, the majority owner of Paying Dues, and his partners, Lynn Ballantyne and Clarence Owen. Their 31-1 shot earned $200,000 for second place. In 11 starts before the Breeders’ Cup, Paying Dues had earned $247,980.

Jenine Sahadi, who trains Lit De Justice, joined Sise and some other California horsemen for a shopping trip to downtown Toronto the day before the Breeders’ Cup. “If anybody beat me, I’m glad it was Jenine,” Sise said. “We’re buddies. Her horse got a perfect trip. The sea parted for him when it had to. We weren’t going to beat him that day, no matter what the post was. The only difference it might have made was that the margin could have been less.”

At dinner with Welty after the race, the talk of the restaurant was the horses that ran from the wrong posts. The starter from Woodbine happened to be in the room, and he came over to Sise’s table and apologized.

“I don’t see how it happened,” Sise said. “Every day after the draw, the guy came by the barn and reminded us that we’d be the third horse to load. But when it came time to run, everything went blank, I guess. The crew had to be told afterward what happened. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have had a clue.”

Jean Major, director of the Ontario Racing Commission, which had jurisdiction over the Breeders’ Cup races, said this week that no action had been taken. There had been speculation at Woodbine that at least the stewards would fine the starting-gate crew.

“Since there was no protest [by an owner], nothing has been done,” Major said. “This was just a case of a mishap at the starting gate.”

Sise said that Wayne Lukas was the underbidder when Paying Dues was bought at at Keeneland auction for $31,000. After winning five of 10 starts, Paying Dues ran fourth and was moved up to third by a stewards’ disqualification in the Ancient Title Handicap, which was run at Santa Anita three weeks before the Breeders’ Cup.

“Criollito knocked us sideways, and then the hole was shut off,” Sise said. “After that, it was more the owners’ idea than mine that we go on to the Breeders’ Cup. I’m glad for once that I got overruled.”

There’s some grass breeding in the bloodlines of the son of Cure The Blues and Far Too Young, but Sise has decided to end the year with another dirt sprint, today’s Vernon O. Underwood Stakes. Criollito, who ran 12th in the Breeders’ Cup, is also entered.

Pat Day, who had never ridden Paying Dues before the Breeders’ Cup, is in from the Midwest to ride today.

“I gave Pat the option after he rode the horse at Woodbine,” Sise said. “I was surprised that he’d come for a $100,000 race.”

Paying Dues has drawn the No. 7 post again. He could very well start the race from there too.

Horse Racing Notes

Clifford Sise has nominated Paying Dues for the Santa Anita Handicap. “I think he’s capable of being stretched out,” the trainer said. “And if it rains, he’d just love the mud.” The $1-million race will be run March 2. . . . Listening and Cat’s Cradle, at 120 pounds apiece, are the co-high weights for Sunday’s $100,000 Bayakoa Handicap. Others entered for the 1 1/16-mile race are Traces Of Gold, Smolensk, Sleep Easy, Belle’s Flag and Predicted Glory. . . . Goncalino Almeida, who broke his left collarbone in a spill on Nov. 17, resumes riding this weekend.