Good Things Are Coming in 3s for This Year’s Classic

The Breeders’ Cup Classic, dominated in recent years by older horses, is loaded with 3-year-olds. Fusaichi Pegasus, the Kentucky Derby winner, and five others from the same class were pre-entered Wednesday for the $4-million race at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.

Cat Thief, last year’s Classic winner at Gulfstream Park, was a 3-year-old, but before him a 3-year-old hadn’t won the race since Concern, in 1994 at Churchill Downs.

This year, four of the first five betting favorites are likely to be 3-year-olds. Fusaichi Pegasus, returning to the Louisville track for the first time since the Derby, will be favored. The next four in the betting will probably be Lemon Drop Kid, Albert The Great, Tiznow and Captain Steve, with Lemon Drop Kid the only 4-year-old.

“This is an exceptional crop,” said Nick Zito, who trains Albert The Great. “It’s taken some of them time to develop, but it’s a real good group.”

Other 3-year-olds pre-entered in the Classic are Giant’s Causeway, who won five consecutive Group 1 grass races in England this year before a second-place finish in his last start, and Pine Dance, whose final Breeders’ Cup prep is in the Pegasus Handicap at the Meadowlands in New Jersey on Friday night.

Seventeen horses, three more than the maximum, were pre-entered, at a cost of $40,000 each, for the 1 1/4-mile dirt race. The first eight spots went to the horses with most points for high finishes in graded North American races this year; the last six berths were determined by an international panel of track racing secretaries.

Guided Tour, first on the three-horse also-eligible list, is likely to draw in, since North East Bound, who was cross-entered, is expected to run in the Mile, a $1-million turf race.

Other horses assured of spots in the field are Dust On The Bottle, Euchre, Gander, Golden Missile, Vision And Verse and Cat Thief--winless in 10 starts with three seconds and three thirds since his Breeders’ Cup win. Agol Lack and Jadada were rated behind Guided Tour on the alternates’ list.

Lemon Drop Kid, winner of last year’s Belmont Stakes and Travers before running sixth in the Classic, rebounded this year to become the country’s best older horse. But after winning five of seven starts, he was fifth, 9 1/2 lengths behind Albert The Great, in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Oct. 14.

“You lose one race and this is what happens to you,” said trainer Scotty Schulhofer, referring to those who have discarded Lemon Drop Kid. “He’s as good as he’s ever been, and he might even be better. He was eliminated at the start [bumped by another horse] in that last race and didn’t have a good, clean trip. He came out of the race mad more than anything else.’

A total of 135 horses were pre-entered, seven more than last year, when the Breeders’ Cup card was expanded from seven to eight races. Breeders’ Cup officials were surprised that 18 horses, not otherwise nominated, were supplemented at costs between $90,000 and $400,000.

The old record for supplements was eight in 1985, the second year of the Breeders’ Cup. Unlike then, most of the supplementary money is now added to the purses, which could result in a $13-million day growing to almost $15 million.

*

The Television Games all-racing network, its expansion plans in California deterred when Gov. Gray Davis vetoed a bill that would have legalized telephone betting, has reportedly laid off more than a dozen employees, including Julie Krone, the Hall of Fame jockey who worked as a commentator.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

FACTS AND FIGURES

* What: 17th Breeders’ Cup

* Where: Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

* When: Nov. 4

* TV: Channel 4 (coverage 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. PST)

* Races (scheduled post times PST): Distaff (10:10 a.m.); Juvenile Filles (10:45 a.m.); Mile (11:20 a.m.); Sprint (11:50 a.m.); Filly & Mare Turf (12:25 p.m.); Juvenile (12:55 p.m.); Turf (1:30 p.m.); Classic (2:10 p.m.)

CLASSIC WINNERS

Race winners who went on to be named horse of the year in the same year are in bold-faced type.

*--*

YEAR WINNER AGE 1999 Cat Thief 3-year-old 1998 Awesome Again 4-year-old 1997 Skip Away 4-year-old 1996 Alphabet Soup 5-year-old 1995 Cigar 5-year-old 1994 Concern 3-year-old 1993 Arcangues 5-year-old 1992 A.P. Indy 3-year-old 1991 Black Tie Affair 5-year-old 1990 Unbridled 3-year-old 1989 Sunday Silence 3-year-old 1988 Alysheba 4-year-old 1987 Ferdinand 4-year-old 1986 Skywalker 4-year-old 1985 Proud Truth 3-year-old 1984 Wild Again 4-year-old

*--*