Also-Rans at Breeders’ Cup, 2-Year-Olds Seek Better Results

A few of the 2-year-olds who weren’t good enough on Breeders’ Cup day will try to hit some high, season-ending notes this weekend as Hollywood Park wraps up its fall meeting.

In today’s Hollywood Futurity, High Yield and Captain Steve, who were third and 11th, respectively, last month in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Gulfstream Park, face five other colts, including Malabar Gold, a $1-million yearling who’s trained by John Shirreffs, the hottest conditioner in town.

Surfside, who ran third when her stablemate, Cash Run, uncorked a 32-1 upset in the Juvenile Fillies at Gulfstream, heads a six-horse field in Sunday’s Hollywood Starlet. After Hollywood’s 31-day season ends Monday, local racing will go on hiatus until Santa Anita’s opener Dec. 26.

High Yield and Captain Steve, both stakes winners, were considered stronger threats going into the Juvenile, but the Santa Anita shipper, Anees, pulled off a 30-1 shocker that will probably earn him the division title. High Yield or Captain Steve would have deeper credentials with a win today, but the way Anees won, coming from last place to win by 2 1/2 lengths over a track that was unkind to closers the rest of the day, is expected to convince Eclipse Awards voters.

Since the Breeders’ Cup, Captain Steve has won a second stakes race in Kentucky, the Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs on Nov. 27. High Yield hasn’t won since his victory in the Hopeful at Saratoga on Sept. 4, and as the 7-5 favorite was a disappointing sixth in the Kentucky Jockey Club. Trainer Wayne Lukas’ colt gets a new rider. Corey Nakatani replaces Jerry Bailey, who was aboard for the last five starts. Nakatani won three races at Hollywood on Friday.

Malabar Gold’s record is similar to what Anees had done going into the Breeders’ Cup. The key difference is that Anees had already been around two turns; today’s 1 1/16-mile distance will be Malabar Gold’s first try beyond 6 1/2 furlongs, but in his last start, on Nov. 20, he was a 12-length winner against maidens. Before that, in his debut, he was unable to hold a lead and finished second at Santa Anita.

Shirreffs, the private trainer for Marshall Naify’s 505 Farms, has six winners in eight starts at the meet and has a strong group of 2-year-olds that could lead to a concerted run at the Kentucky Derby next year.

Two of the other starters in the Futurity--Purely Cozzene and Cosine--are sons of Cozzene, the 1995 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner and champion turf male that year. Purely Cozzene, who broke his maiden on dirt at Hollywood in July, is returning to the main track after three grass starts, including a second at Hollywood in a minor stake last month. Trainer Bob Baffert, who won the 1997 Futurity with Real Quiet, is taking three shots today, running Cameron Pass besides Captain Steve and Purely Cozzene.

Cosine is an invader from Kentucky, where he won both of his starts and gave his trainer, Jim Baker, reason to move him into stakes company. Pat Day, who will ride Cosine for the third consecutive race, comes to town as the No. 3 jockey on the all-time wins list, behind Laffit Pincay (8,839) and Bill Shoemaker (8,833). Day, who has won 7,615 races, is 46, about seven years younger than Pincay.

Day will ride Surfside on Sunday in the Starlet. Surfside had three wins and a second going into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, but her late-running style didn’t work at Gulfstream. A late charge left her 1 3/4 lengths short of Cash Run.

Lukas, who also trains High Yield, is shooting for his seventh Starlet win with Surfside. Lukas’ first win in the stake came with Althea in 1983, and later he won four in a row, a streak that ended with Love Lock’s victory in 1997.

Surfside, sired by Seattle Slew, is a daughter of Flanders, the 1994 champion 2-year-old filly who was never beaten in a race but was disqualified from the purse after winning the Matron Stakes at Belmont Park in ’94. Flanders tested positive after the Matron for isoxsuprine, an illegal blood-vessel dilator that helps foot circulation, but the New York State Racing and Wagering Board, after about five years of legal battles, didn’t make a final ruling until Thursday, when it announced that the $64,740 winner’s share would be redistributed. Lukas, at one time facing a 60-day suspension, instead was given no days and fined $500. The board said that because of the small amount of the drug in Flanders’ system, it was unlikely that the medication enhanced her performance.

Horse Racing Notes

Laffit Pincay, recording his 27th win of the meet on Friday, trails Pat Valenzuela by one going into the last three days. Valenzuela was blanked Friday. . . . Sapphire Ring, probable favorite in today’s Dahlia Handicap, may not run because of a bruised foot. . . . Wayne Lukas, who doubles as a quarter horse owner-trainer with wife Laura, is running Walk Thru Fire, a 15-1 shot, in tonight’s $1,256,198 Los Alamitos Million Futurity, which will be the richest race in California this year. The favorite at 6-5 is Separatist, whose fastest qualifying time was matched by So Dashing on Dec. 3. Separatist, who’ll be ridden by Eddie Garcia, has won eight of 12 starts for trainer John Cooper, who picked up his 1,000th win at Los Alamitos a week ago. . . . At Los Alamitos on Sunday, SLM Big Daddy, a two-time winner of the Champion of Champions, is given only an outside shot in the $350,000 race. SLM Big Daddy is winless at Los Alamitos this year and was sixth in the Los Alamitos Championship. The favorites are Corona Cash, Old Habits and Tailor Fit.