Old Trieste Set to Return, but a Strong Field Awaits

Trainer Mike Puype says that too much was made of Old Trieste’s wearing protective bar shoes when he finished third, at 2-5, in the Del Mar Breeders’ Cup Handicap last month.

“The issue was more of fitness than what kind of shoes the horse wore,” Puype said.

The sore-footed Old Trieste hadn’t run in more than three months and Puype, needing the start if a three-race plan to get to the Breeders’ Cup could be successful, ran the colt off only four workouts.

“That was a sacrificial race,” Puype said. “If we can get this horse to Gulfstream Park [for the $4-million Classic on Nov. 6], in good shape, we’ll be happy.”

The middle race on Old Trieste’s schedule is today’s $500,000 Goodwood Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Santa Anita, which has come up as tough as they come. Besides General Challenge, the favorite, the six-horse field includes Hollycomb, who was 9-1 when he beat Old Trieste by 1 1/4 lengths going a mile at Del Mar.

“On paper, this race sets up real good for General Challenge,” Puype said. “He figures to be sitting behind my horse and Hollycomb, two bona fide horses that are capable of sprinting out there in something like [45 2/5 seconds] for the opening half-mile.”

Old Trieste, who’ll be ridden by Chris McCarron, hadn’t run in more than nine months when he won the Californian at Hollywood Park in May. He was supposed to run in the Hollywood Gold Cup, but missed that race because of recurring foot problems, and then there wasn’t enough time to get ready for another $1-million race, the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, which was won by General Challenge.

Puype won’t decide until late this morning what kind of shoes Old Trieste will wear in the Goodwood.

“A bar shoe [a conventional shoe that’s closed at the back] keeps the heel from jamming,” he said, “but you lose something in traction. For racing purposes, a bar shoe isn’t as efficient as a conventional shoe.”

The Goodwood is 1 1/8 miles, an eighth of a mile shorter than the Breeders’ Cup Classic. General Challenge, who’ll be ridden by David Flores, now trainer Bob Baffert’s No. 1 go-to jockey on the West Coast, is undefeated in three starts at Santa Anita, one of them a win at today’s distance in the Santa Anita Derby in April.

Puype has watched closely as General Challenge has prepared for today’s race.

“This is no phony 3-year-old,” Puype said. “He wasn’t ready for the Kentucky Derby. Now he’s filled out, and he’s more relaxed. If Baffert can keep him sound, this horse will own the handicap division next year. He may be on his way to owning it already.”

General Challenge, 11th in the Kentucky Derby, didn’t run in the Preakness or Belmont and has won two of three starts since Flores took over for Gary Stevens, who rode the colt at Churchill Downs.

“The blinkers [that General Challenge wore in the Pacific Classic] have helped,” Flores said of the big gelding. “He’s not an easy horse to ride, but we get along pretty well now.”

In his 12 starts, Old Trieste has won only once--in three races--at Santa Anita. He hasn’t run there since winning an allowance race in April 1998. His best races have been at Hollywood Park, where he won the Swaps last year and this year’s Californian.

“There’s no question that he’s shown an affinity for Hollywood Park,” Puype said. “At Del Mar last time, he broke bad and that didn’t help. Going a route of ground on the lead, there’s not a faster horse in the country.”

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Trainer Bobby Frankel’s monthlong hot streak continued Friday at Keeneland, where Brice Blanc rode his filly Happyanunoit to a four-length win in the $558,500 Vinery First Lady Stakes.

Between Santa Anita and Keeneland, Frankel has won four important grass stakes in the last 14 days. Before Happyanunoit’s victory, Frankel had won the Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita with Spanish Fern, the Oak Tree Turf Championship with Mash One and the Keeneland Turf Mile with Kirkwall.

Friday’s win was worth $346,270 for Happyanunoit’s owners, John and Jerome Amerman, who also campaign Mash One. Pleasant Temper, who dropped jockey Pat Day in the post parade, finished second, a neck better than Fiji, the 7-5 favorite and last year’s female grass champion. Happyanunoit, paying $7.40 as the second choice, ran 1 3/16 miles in 1:53 4/5.

Happyanunoit, a 4-year-old New Zealand-bred, won her sixth race in 11 starts.

“She has a ton of talent,” Blanc said. “She just seems to be getting better and better. She’s the push-button type, and she’s awfully, awfully good right now.”

Happyanunoit beat Tuzla in early August at Del Mar, and Frankel thought he ran the best horse three weeks later when his filly, who had the outside post in a 10-horse field, lost by a head to Tuzla in the Ramona Handicap.

Not eligible for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, a new race, Happyanunoit is headed for the Matriarch at Hollywood Park on Nov. 28. Spanish Fern is expected to run in the Filly and Mare and Kirkwall will run in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Horse Racing Notes

Bobby Frankel will try to win another stake today at Keeneland when he runs Keeper Hill in the $500,000 Spinster Stakes. It’s a tough assignment for jockey Kent Desormeaux: Keeper Hill is winless in six tries this year and Banshee Breeze is odds-on to win and advance to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. . . . Sheik Mohammed’s Godolphin Stables reversed itself and Daylami is expected to be shipped from England to Florida on Monday, to run in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. After a ninth-place finish in the Arc de Triomphe, Godolphin had planned to bypass Gulfstream Park. The Turf is not considered strong this year, despite the presence of last year’s winner, Buck’s Boy, who’s won one of two recent starts, his only races this year. Daylami is the likely favorite.

Not long ago, More Than Ready was the early favorite for next year’s Kentucky Derby. Now his season is over and he will be rested until he becomes a 3-year-old. After two losing efforts in New York, More Than Ready was given a full checkup and the vets could find nothing wrong. . . . Calder Race Course near Miami, hit by more than seven inches of rain, called off racing Friday and today. Three stakes, worth $900,000, have been rescheduled for next Saturday. . . . Sendawar, the European standout who would have been favored in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, is staying home. . . . Bay Meadows, responding to complaints from the jockeys about its turf course, has closed the grass strip for the rest of the month. Today’s scheduled $100,000 Ascot Handicap, a grass race, has been postponed and probably will be run during the last two weeks of the meet, which ends on Nov. 14. . . . Laffit Pincay gained on Bill Shoemaker without winning a race. The Daily Racing Form said it was adding two foreign wins to Pincay’s total, giving him 8,799, which is 34 short of Shoemaker’s record.