Breaks Don’t Go Favorites’ Way

In the morning California fog, in pea-soup conditions reminiscent of his native land, it happened. Singspiel, who has been shipped more than 31,000 miles in the last year, was done in by the last half-mile before the Breeders’ Cup. In a workout Thursday at Hollywood Park, he broke a bone in his right foreleg and will be on an operating table today.

If London bookies have a heart--idle speculation, perhaps--they are saddened along with their countrymen. But the bottom line is that all those future-book bets on heavily favored Singspiel are secure in the till. The British are 0 for 26 in the four previous Breeders’ Cups in California, and Singspiel was to be their breakout horse. “If Singspiel cannot win,” David Carr wrote last week in an English racing paper, “it is fair to think that no British horse will ever win in California.”

At entry time Wednesday, Singspiel was installed at 6-5 in the Turf, the Hollywood Park linemaker making him the shortest-priced favorite on Saturday’s seven-race Breeders’ Cup card. This was the proverbial mortal lock for England, but now Sheik Mohammed’s 5-year-old is out of the race, the victim of what was delicately called “a mildly displaced condylar fracture of the right foreleg.”

The break is at the bottom of the cannon bone, or shin, where it connects to the ankle. (Condylar refers to a ball-and-socket joint.) Surgical screws repair these injuries all the time--Formal Gold, the early favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, had a condylar fracture of his right rear leg mended Saturday--but while Singspiel is expected to recover, he won’t race again.

A son of In The Wings, who won the Breeders’ Cup Turf in 1990, and Glorious Song, a Canadian horse of the year, Singspiel had already done plenty. Late last year, he won the Canadian International and Japan Cup. In between, his stablemate, Pilsudski, beat him in the Turf. This year, Singspiel ran on dirt for the first--and only--time and won the $4-million Dubai World Cup. In the summer, he won the Coronation Cup and Juddmonte International in England. He is being retired with nine wins in 20 starts, eight seconds and purses of $5.9 million, a record for a European horse.

“I got sick when I heard about the injury,” said Ray Baran, track veterinarian at Hollywood Park. “I got to know him last year at Woodbine, and he became one of my favorite horses. He had everything: personality, good looks, and he could run anywhere, on any kind of surface.”

The unrelenting epidemic that has choked this year’s Breeders’ Cup claimed yet another favorite. Gentlemen, early favorite for the $4-million Classic, went to the sidelines with a virus, and his successor, Formal Gold, came up lame. Last Sunday, Twice The Vice, who would have been favored in the Distaff, also suffered a career-ending injury.

The lukewarm favorite for the Turf, which earlier lost U.S. standouts Rainbow Dancer, Marlin and Influent because of injuries, becomes Chief Bearhart, who was 5-1 on the original morning line. Support will be building late for the German filly Borgia, who ran third a month ago in France’s Arc de Triomphe, finishing behind horses that aren’t here.

“We are disappointed that Singspiel isn’t running,” said Horst Lappe, the racing manager for Borgia’s owner, Dietrich Von Boetticher. “We would rather be second to him in the race than win it without him running.”

Because of the thick fog Thursday, Singspiel’s trainer, Michael Stoute, had difficulty seeing what was supposed to be a half-mile workout over Hollywood Park’s grass course. Exercise rider Kevin Bradshaw was aboard.

Twenty yards before the line, Singspiel bobbled and Bradshaw pulled him up. The rider dismounted and led him back to the quarantine barn, a distance of about an eighth of a mile. There was speculation that this journey could have aggravated the injury, but Larry Bramlage, one of the veterinarians who will perform today’s surgery, disagreed.

“Enough damage had been done when he broke down,” Bramlage said. “[Walking him back] was not a factor.”

Stoute, Bramlage and Anthony Stroud, the racing manager for Sheik Mohammed, said Thursday’s injury was not related to an earlier problem that Singspiel had with his left front leg. Early this week, there was a throbbing, which is a sign of increased blood flow.

“I checked his legs Tuesday and they were fine,” Baran said.

“Sheik Mohammed is disappointed for all concerned, especially those who have worked closely with the horse,” Stroud said. “This horse had a special place in his heart. But no one’s better at taking blows than he is.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

BREEDERS CUP ’97

Saturday, 10 a.m.

Hollywood Park

Channel 4

* INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR

Singspiel won’t run in the Turf, but many other foreigners will. C14

* INJURIES GALORE

At least 19 horses have dropped out of Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup. C14