Sweet Ludy’s Impressive Run Will Be Put to the Test in Oaks

Sweet Ludy was a clear winner of the San Clemente Handicap last month but may start as no better than the third choice in the $250,000 Del Mar Oaks on Sunday.

Excellent Meeting, the multiple stakes winner who will be making her first start on turf, and Caffe Latte, who was a fast-closing second in the San Clemente in her U.S. debut, both could be shorter priced in the Grade I than the Irish-bred daughter of Be My Guest.

Sweet Ludy, owned by a partnership that includes Barry Irwin and Jeff Siegel’s Team Valor and trained by Jenine Sahadi, has four victories in nine starts and won the San Clemente despite drifting out through the stretch.

Looking to become the third consecutive 3-year-old filly to score a San Clemente-Del Mar Oaks sweep after Sicy D’Alsace last year and Famous Digger in 1997, she seems to have recovered well from a minor foot problem and some recent dental work.

Sweet Ludy, who has had problems with her mouth since arriving in the United States from Italy, had a tooth and two caps removed, but Sahadi doesn’t expect the visit to the dentist to stop the filly’s habit of drifting.

“I believe it will help some, but she does what she wants to do,” Sahadi said Friday morning. “She’s kind of goofy. She’s not nasty, but she’s always drifted a tiny bit.

“She was tough [in the San Clemente]. She pulled really hard. . . . I think she’ll be a lot more relaxed on Sunday. She’s worked five-eighths twice since the race and she has finished great in both of them.

“I think if she runs the same race as she did last time, it will be good enough to win again.”

A winner of only one of her last four starts for owners John and Betty Mabee and trainer Bob Baffert, Excellent Meeting will switch surfaces after losing as the 2-5 favorite in last month’s Hollywood Oaks.

Baffert is also changing riders. Chris McCarron will replace Kent Desormeaux, but the bottom line is that Excellent Meeting isn’t as sharp as she was earlier in the year--perhaps still feeling the effects of having run in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

“Excellent Meeting is an amazing horse, but until a horse runs on grass you don’t know how they are going to handle it,” Sahadi said. “I’m not going to skip the Oaks because Excellent Meeting is running on turf for the first time.”

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Although countless observers believe less racing is what is needed for the long-term health of the sport, the California Horse Racing Board approved a racing calendar for 2000 with a slight increase in dates for the major local tracks.

At its monthly meeting here Friday, the CHRB allotted Santa Anita 87 days for its winter-spring meet, up from 84 this year. Hollywood Park’s spring-summer meet will stay at 66 days, but its fall meet will go from 31 days this year to 35 in 2000. Racing there will run through Dec. 24, meaning the circuit will break only on Christmas before Santa Anita has its traditional opener Dec. 26. Oak Tree, which will begin its 31-day meet at Santa Anita on Sept. 29, was given 27 days next year.

Del Mar, meanwhile, will be back to 43 days next year, regaining the day it surrendered for its current meet.