And Away He Goes

I don’t know who lost how much at Hollywood Park’s windows Saturday. I’m sure we’ll all hear some stories later. Until then, the only person I felt sorry for at the Breeders’ Cup was jockey Jerry Bailey.

I’ll explain, after I try to describe how the Breeders’ Cup lived up to its unofficial title as horse racing’s greatest day even if some of the greatest horses were absent.

Southern California contributed, providing, as often is the case in early November, a moderate climate for a crowd of 51,161 and, as occasionally is not the case, air so clear you could see the Hollywood sign.

Hollywood Park contributed, providing a track so fast that Breeders’ Cup records were either broken or tied in six of the seven races. Bettors contributed more than $67 million, a record handle for Southern California tracks.

Success was spread liberally, except among California-bred horses which, for the 14th time in 14 Breeders’ Cups, failed to produce a win.

Their best chance Saturday appeared to be in the Sprint with Richter Scale, bred by a former L.A. County probation officer named Clydene Boots, who has a farm near Murietta. But Richter Scale finished 13th among 14 horses.

The winner of that race, however, is trained by local favorite Jenine Sahadi. Last year she became the first woman to train a Breeders’ Cup winner, and she repeated in the Sprint, this time with 16-1 choice Elmhurst.

The last time the Breeders’ Cup was at Hollywood Park, Sahadi’s job was to oversee the auxiliary press box as one of the track’s public-relations staffers.

Only one trainer visited the winner’s circle more than once Saturday. Pat Byrne, the Anglo-Irishman who had never won a race in the Breeders’ Cup, became the only trainer besides Wayne Lukas in 1988 and ’94 to have both winners in the races for 2-year-olds, the Juvenile Fillies and the Juvenile.

His Favorite Trick ran away with the Juvenile to improve to 8-0 this year, setting himself up as the early Kentucky Derby favorite for 1998 and possibly the only 2-year-old to win the Eclipse Award as horse of the year besides Secretariat.

“Why not?” Byrne said.

That might have been answered two races later, when Skip Away posted an equally impressive victory in the Classic.

“If that wasn’t a horse-of-the-year performance, I don’t know what was,” Skip Away’s jockey, Mike Smith, told trainer Sonny Hine.

Which brings us to Jerry Bailey.

Let’s not take up any collections for him. He has had six Breeders’ Cup winners in the last seven years and was the jockey for the most famous of them all, Cigar. But he couldn’t help but think Saturday about what could have been.

This particular look at the unpredictability of a jockey’s life began after the Woodward Stakes six weeks ago, when Hine reacted to Skip Away’s 5 1/2-length loss to Formal Gold by dismissing longtime jockey Shane Sellers and replacing him with Bailey.

Hine didn’t let Sellers down easily, complaining he was “hyper” and “succumbing to the pressure of riding this horse.” Neither is a comment a jockey is likely to include on his resume.

I’m not sure if it made Sellers feel better Saturday when his close friend, Smith, dedicated Skip Away’s victory to him.

I’m not sure if it made Sellers feel better when Hine praised him.

But I’m pretty sure it made Sellers feel a lot better when he won the opening race, the Juvenile Fillies, by 8 1/2 lengths on Byrne’s Countess Diana.

“I’m very emotional,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of things happen to me in the last couple of weeks.

“When they took me off Skip Away, they criticized me. The media criticized me. I didn’t know what they were talking about. I was numb going into this race.

“I had to keep telling myself to do what I always do. Pat believed in me. He said, ‘Just do your job.’ ”

At the same time, Hine also has been vindicated.

Since the Woodward, Skip Away has won both of his races, the Jockey Gold Club three weeks ago by 6 1/2 lengths with Bailey aboard and Saturday’s Classic by six lengths with Smith.

Hine tried to be conciliatory afterward.

“Shane’s a great rider,” he said. “But the horse was complacent. We had won two of our last nine. I changed the exercise riders in the morning. I almost changed the groom.

“The horse seemed to respond to the changes. Everything gets old after a while. I went to two top riders, Bailey and Mike Smith, who has the highest percentage of wins of any rider in the Breeders’ Cup.”

Smith was the only jockey to win twice Saturday, also riding Ajina to victory in the Distaff. He has eight Breeders’ Cup victories, second among jockeys behind Pat Day’s nine.

Bailey? He had six mounts Saturday, finishing second on one and third on two others. A respectable afternoon. But he could have been on Skip Away in the Classic. Hine offered him the ride, but Bailey already had committed to Behrens.

“I was in trouble the first time I hit the ground,” Bailey said. “No horse at all.”

He didn’t even have a good view of the winner. Behrens finished seventh, 12 lengths behind Skip Away.