Grass Is Greener for Favorite Trick

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, a raw, bone-chilling day at Churchill Downs, trainer Bill Mott sat on Snowflake, his big white stable pony, not far from the clockers’ stand along the backstretch. Most of the morning workouts were over, but Mott was overseeing Favorite Trick’s final grass work for Saturday’s $1-million Breeders’ Cup Mile turf race.

Before Favorite Trick could take off for his half-mile spin, there was a disturbance near the finish line across the way. Mott and Snowflake took off, to make sure Favorite Trick was all right.

There was a breakdown, all right, but it was Subordination, the colt who shipped in from New York and won the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar in August. Before he broke his left front ankle, a career-ending but not life-threatening injury, Subordination was going to oppose Favorite Trick in the Mile.

So while Favorite Trick was working his four furlongs in a competent 48 2/5 seconds, Subordination was being taken back to his barn in a horse ambulance. Surgery is possible.

“There was a delay before [Favorite Trick] worked,” Mott was saying back at his barn. “An unfortunate thing, but we’ve all been there.”

In a less damaging way, Mott is already there this Breeders’ Cup. His lineup of horses for Saturday--Favorite Trick, Escena in the Distaff, Yagli in the Turf and Confessional in the Juvenile Fillies--was reduced by one when Elusive Quality, who ran a 1:31 3/5 grass mile this year, was knocked out of the Sprint by a fever.

Mott is relaxed now, knowing he’s done the right thing with Favorite Trick, the 1997 horse of the year, by cutting him back in distance and switching him from dirt to grass. All concerned have gotten the Kentucky Derby out of their systems. That day, Favorite Trick tried to run 1 1/4 miles on dirt and finished 12th.

“He’s got this horse in absolutely the right spot,” said Patrick Byrne, who trained Favorite Trick when he won all eight of his 1997 races as a 2-year-old.

Favorite Trick went to Mott’s barn at the end of 1997, after Byrne had signed a five-year contract to become the private trainer for Frank Stronach, the Canadian industrialist who might, if reports here are anything, remove the for-sale sign from Santa Anita one of these days.

When Joe LaCombe sent Favorite Trick to Mott, at least one of Mott’s friends called with congratulations.

“Maybe you should be offering me condolences instead,” Mott said, all too aware that the downside to inheriting a reigning horse of the year is enormous. When Favorite Trick’s undefeated streak ended at nine races in a third-place finish in the Arkansas Derby, and then he beat only three horses in the Kentucky Derby, the hackers hacked away at his having been voted horse of the year over Skip Away.

Mott largely ignored those thrusts. He is used to living in a glass house, having trained Cigar, the horse of the year in 1995 and 1996.

“There’s nothing wrong with a little controversy,” Mott said Tuesday. “I can take a few hits. This horse was not cut out to be the same horse at 3 that he was at 2. After the [Kentucky] Derby, we started giving a lot of thought to doing what we’re doing with him now.”

Favorite Trick ran three more times on dirt after leaving Churchill Downs, winning at 1 1/16 and 1 1/8 miles and finishing fifth at seven furlongs. His only grass race was a corker, a 3 1/2-length win at a mile at Keeneland on Oct. 17.

“The last time he’s felt this good was when he won the [Breeders’ Cup Juvenile],” jockey Pat Day said to Mott. Day has ridden Favorite Trick throughout his career, through 12 wins in 15 starts.

You don’t forget epiphanies. Mott said that the first time he worked Favorite Trick on grass was July 10 at Belmont Park.

“He worked by himself, and finished up the last three-eighths in [about 35 seconds],” the trainer said. “That was faster than he ever finished working on dirt. When you move a horse from dirt to grass, you usually know right away.”

Mott also developed Cigar on the rebound from another trainer, that transition going from grass to dirt. Favorite Trick is in a position to do something Cigar couldn’t, win two Breeders’ Cup races. That’s something only three horses--Miesque in the 1987-88 Mile, Bayakoa in the 1989-90 Distaff and Lure in the 1992-93 Mile--have done. Three other horses on Saturday’s card--Skip Away in the Classic, Chief Bearhart in the Turf and Da Hoss in the Mile--are also eligible to win a second Breeders’ Cup race.

The Daily Racing Form’s early line lists Favorite Trick at 12-1. Favored in the Mile is the English colt, Desert Prince, who has won three of his last four starts, all at a mile. Da Hoss, sidelined after he won the Mile at Woodbine in 1996, made his first start in almost two years last month, winning an allowance race at Colonial Downs.

“We’re running in a top-class field,” Mott said. “The post positions [to be drawn today for the field of 14] are very important. If I draw outside--say, No. 10 or farther out--my heart will sink. All indications for my horse are good. One thing’s for sure: Over the green stuff, he’s much more efficient.”

Horse Racing Notes

Skip Away arrived at Churchill Downs on Tuesday after a 17-hour van ride from New York. “The only hope of the other horses is if he doesn’t like the track,” trainer Sonny Hine said. “They’ll have a hell of a time beating him.” . . . The decision on whether Gentlemen runs in the Classic or the Mile will be announced at entry time today. It’s one of those rare times when the owner, R.D. Hubbard, wants to spend the $800,000 supplementary fee to run him in the Classic and the trainer, Richard Mandella, has reservations. Usually, trainers don’t mind spending the money and the owners balk.

Royal Anthem, lame in his stall Sunday night, appeared to be sound when he went to the track wearing a pair of glue-on shoes in front. He’s scheduled for a workout today and will probably be entered in the Turf. . . . After rain Monday and early Tuesday, precipitation is out of the forecast for the rest of the week. The weather will remain chilly, with a low of 34 degrees and a high of 54, with partly cloudy skies forecast for Saturday.