Post Position Crucial in Breeders’ Cup Races

In winning the Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita last Saturday, Vivid Angel broke from the inside post, left the gate sharply, made the lead easily and coasted to a 3 1/2-length victory.

The Oak Leaf was a mile race, a sixteenth of a mile shorter than the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, but it is not the added distance at Hollywood Park on Nov. 8 that concerns owner Ed Friendly and trainer Bob Baffert.

“In a big field at Hollywood, which is what we’re likely to have, if you draw on the outside you can almost forget about it,” Friendly said. “Post position will have a lot to do with who wins the race.”

Usually post positions don’t mean that much in a two-turn race, but both of the Breeders’ Cup races for 2-year-olds--the Juvenile Fillies and the Juvenile--will start close to the first turn. There will be a run of just more than 100 yards before the horses reach that turn, and in large fields of inexperienced horses, there could be a mad scramble for position.

Baffert will be holding his breath when post positions are drawn Nov. 5. He probably will have five 2-year-olds running--Vivid Angel, Eastside Westside and Marie J in the Juvenile Fillies and Souvenir Copy and Johnbill in the Juvenile.

“Horses drawing from the nine-hole out will be at an extreme disadvantage,” Baffert said. “There’s going to be a big difference between drawing inside or outside in these races.”

The fields for Breeders’ Cup races are limited to 14 horses. The last time the Breeders’ Cup was held at Hollywood Park, 13 entered the Juvenile, and although Success Express won from the No. 11 post, that was a different situation. The race was only a mile and was run out of the chute that led on to the backstretch. The horses had to navigate only one turn.

“The winner [of this year’s Juvenile] will likely be in the first flight and will start from the inside half of the field,” said Jim Mazur, who with Peter Mallett has published a handicappers’ guide to the Breeders’ Cup.

Mazur has analyzed 28 races that have been run by 2-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles at Hollywood in the last three years. Twenty-two of the races--79%--have been won by horses breaking from the first six post positions. Posts 1 through 3 have accounted for 12 of the winners.

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The traditional post-position draw may get a fresh look at next year’s Kentucky Derby. Churchill Downs, which has been toying with the idea of letting the trainers pick their post positions, has now gotten the permission of the Kentucky Racing Commission and may install a new system.

The numbered post-position pills would still be rolled out of a bottle, but instead of deciding the slots in the gate they would determine the order in which trainers would pick their own posts.

Few trainers seem to be opposed to the proposed system, and among those in favor are Wayne Lukas and Baffert, high-profile conditioners at Churchill Downs.

“I love the idea,” said Lukas, who has won the Derby three times and started at least one horse in the race every year since 1981. “It would turn a boring non-event into a very interesting event. I understand that they’re going to give each trainer two minutes to pick his post, just like there’s a time limit in picking in the NBA draft. This will give the trainer time to confer with his owner before making a choice.”

Baffert won this year’s Derby with Silver Charm and finished second with Cavonnier in 1996 when Lukas’ Grindstone won. One idea Baffert had was to let only the trainers with the best horses pick their posts, but that would be illegal according to Kentucky racing rules.

“What Churchill has suggested is a great idea,” Baffert said. “Racing shouldn’t resist changes if it brings more excitement to the game. The draw has been televised live in recent years, and this will pump up the whole show. It’ll also mean that the trainers will have to do their homework.”

There could be some tough choices. For years, in Derbies with more than 14 horses that require the auxiliary starting gate, trainers have said they didn’t want to run from the extra gate. But in two of Lukas’ winning years, 1995 and ‘96, both Thunder Gulch and Grindstone won from the auxiliary gate. Would a trainer prefer the auxiliary gate to the No. 1 post, which has produced only one Derby winner in the last 34 years? Would a trainer take a seemingly bad post just to get away from starting next to a horse that had a reputation of being an unruly gate horse? Would a trainer with a nervous gate horse pick an outside post, so the horse wouldn’t have to stand in the gate too long while the rest of the field was loaded?

These are all questions that Derby trainers may be asking themselves if Churchill Downs makes the changes.

Horse Racing Notes

Another prospect for the Breeders’ Cup Turf was eliminated when Benny The Dip, the Epsom Derby winner, was retired to stud. Benny The Dip, trained by John Gosden, ran the worst race of his career last Saturday, finishing next to last in the Dubai Champion Stakes in Newmarket, England. . . . The Sprint picked up a runner in Royal Applause, the top European sprinter, who will come out of a brief retirement to run. “There’s not a particularly good lot of sprinters in America this year,” said Michael Goodbody, stud manager for Sheik Mohammed, who races Royal Applause.