Riboletta and Tiznow Will Be Supplemented to Breeders’ Cup

The owners of Riboletta and Tiznow, two of the hottest horses in the country, said Wednesday that they would be paying steep supplementary fees to make the horses eligible for the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.

Aaron and Marie Jones, who race Riboletta, will pay $400,000 so she can run in the $2-million Distaff, and Cee Straub-Rubens and Mike Cooper, the partnership that owns Tiznow, will pay $360,000 to enable him to run in the $4-million Classic, the richest of eight races worth $13 million on the Breeders’ Cup card.

Both horses could have been made eligible for the Breeders’ Cup with a payment of $500 when they were foals. Riboletta’s supplementary fee is 20% of the Distaff purse because her sire, Roi Normand, also wasn’t nominated to the Breeders’ Cup. The Joneses, who bought Riboletta for about $600,000, didn’t own the Brazilian-bred mare until after she had run 11 times in South America.

Tiznow’s sire, Cee’s Tizzy, is a Breeders’ Cup-nominated stallion, but because Tiznow wasn’t made eligible three years ago, his owners were forced to pay 9% of the Classic purse before he could run. The first third of all supplementary payments is due Monday, with the balance to be paid Nov. 1, the day entries are drawn for the eight races. Most of the supplementary money is added to the race purses.

Riboletta and Tiznow scored impressive victories last weekend, Riboletta’s defeat of Beautiful Pleasure in the Beldame at Belmont Park virtually clinching a divisional title and also thrusting her into horse-of-the-year contention. In the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn.’s weekly poll, Riboletta took over first place for the first time this year, replacing Lemon Drop Kid, whose four-race winning streak ended with a fifth-place finish in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

The Joneses had three options with Riboletta: Pay $400,000 to run in the Distaff, pay $800,000 to run in the Classic, or skip the Breeders’ Cup altogether.

“The $800,000 supplementary is certainly big enough to get your attention,” Aaron Jones said. “But I’ll wait until I get a good colt to run in the Classic, and keep Riboletta within her division. I’m told that we’ve already clinched the division title, and although I don’t understand the politics of the voting, maybe we’ve still got a chance for horse of the year too.”

Without running in the Classic, Riboletta would need outside help to win horse of the year. She would have to win the Distaff, then hope that the favorites in the Classic--Fusaichi Pegasus, Lemon Drop Kid and Albert The Great--all get beaten.

The Joneses’ other talented distaffer, Plenty Of Light, who won Saturday’s Three Chimneys Spinster at Keeneland, won’t run in the Distaff.

Beautiful Pleasure, who won last year’s Distaff and then was voted an Eclipse Award, will get a chance to even the score against Riboletta in the Breeders’ Cup.

Tiznow, unraced as a 2-year-old because of a fractured leg, didn’t break his maiden until after this year’s Triple Crown races had been run, but in his last three starts he was second against older horses in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar; won the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs; and beat an unrelenting Captain Steve in Sunday’s Goodwood Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita.

Trainer Jay Robbins says Tiznow will do his serious training at Santa Anita and only gallop over the Churchill Downs strip before the Breeders’ Cup. Trainer Eduardo Inda shipped Riboletta from New York to Kentucky on Monday.