Surfside’s Victory Gives Lukas Ideas

Not long after Surfside’s seven-length romp in Sunday’s $380,250 Hollywood Starlet, trainer Wayne Lukas was talking about running the long-striding filly against colts next year.

Lukas couldn’t have been any less subtle by saying, “We’re thinking about taking the Winning Colors approach.”

Only three fillies have ever won the Kentucky Derby, the last being the Lukas-trained Winning Colors in 1988. Only two fillies have started in the Derby since, Lukas’ Serena’s Song (16th in 1995) and trainer Bob Baffert’s Excellent Meeting (last this year).

Surfside hardly was tested at Hollywood Park in the Starlet, running against four other fillies with far fewer credentials, but she turned in a clocking of 1:43 2/5 for 1 1/16 miles, only a fifth of a second slower than Captain Steve, winner of Saturday’s Hollywood Futurity.

“She’s as good as there is,” Lukas said. “I think she’s the best (2-year-old) filly in the country, and she’s got unlimited potential.”

But Surfside probably won’t win an Eclipse Award because of her third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Gulfstream Park last month. Her stablemate, Cash Run, won that day, but Cash Run was beaten at Churchill Downs three weeks later, and the Eclipse for 2-year-old fillies is likely to go to Chilukki, second in the Breeders’ Cup but undefeated in six other starts.

“[Surfside] was disoriented going into the first turn in Florida,” Lukas said. “She lost touch with the field. Then she had a tough time on the second turn too. She tried to win on class, but it wasn’t in the cards.”

The richly bred daughter of Seattle Slew, the 1977 Triple Crown champion, and the Lukas-trained Flanders, the champion 2-year-old filly in 1994, Surfside gave Lukas his seventh win in the Starlet, and the fifth in the last six years. Lukas didn’t have a starter in the stake last year when Excellent Meeting won.

Pat Day, who’s third on the career-wins list with 7,616, behind Laffit Pincay’s 8,842 and Bill Shoemaker’s 8,833, has ridden Surfside in all her races, which have produced four wins, one second and one third. Bred and owned by William T. Young’s Overbrook Farm, the filly earned $228,150 Sunday, bringing her total to $677,350.

Besides the Breeders’ Cup, Surfside’s other loss came in running second to Circle Of Life in the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga in September.

“Her head wasn’t on her game that day,” Day said. “Then she came back [in the Frizette at Belmont Park a month later] and ran her best race.”

Surfside paid $3 for $2 in the Starlet. She’s Classy, the 28-1 shot who was the longest price in the field, finished second under Pat Valenzuela, one length ahead of Abby Girl and Corey Nakatani.

Neither Lukas nor Day expected Surfside to be close early, but she and She’s Classy alternated for the lead. Surfside distanced herself from the others at the top of the stretch and rambled home without feeling Day’s whip.

“She’s special,” Lukas said. “She doesn’t look like her mother, but she’s got her mother’s ability. You like your daughter to look like her mother, but this one looks like her dad. But she’s got a mind like her mother. The Seattle Slews have a tendency to be a little bit hot, but she’s not, she’s very good.”

Day, who lives in Louisville, flew home after the Starlet, but will be back for opening day--Sunday--at Santa Anita to ride Cat Thief in the $200,000 Malibu Stakes. Cat Thief is shortening up, from the 1 1/4-mile Breeders’ Cup race, and will be running seven furlongs for the first time since January, which was 11 races ago.

Horse Racing Notes

Hollywood Park’s 31-day meet ends today with Laffit Pincay leading Pat Valenzuela, 30-28, in the jockeys’ race. Neither rider won Sunday. Valenzuela has eight mounts today and Pincay seven. . . . Trainer John Shirreffs’ sixth-race win with Tarheel Woman, a first-time starter, was his seventh in 10 starts at the meet. . . . Corona Kool’s calamitous season ended on the right note Saturday night when the quarter-horse filly beat Separatist, the 4-5 favorite, by a neck in the $1.2-million Los Alamitos Million Futurity. Corona Kool, ridden by Sam Thompson and trained by Donna McArthur for Lucas Racing Inc., paid $6 to win. So Dashing was third and Natovas Princess finished fourth. Winner of six of 11 starts this year, Corona Kool earned $491,279. In a trial for the All American Futurity in August at Ruidoso Downs, Corona Kool flipped in the gate before the race, then bled badly during the race. At Los Alamitos last month, Corona Kool collapsed from a breathing problem after finishing third in the Golden State Futurity.