Always A Good Show

When the 17th edition of the Breeders’ Cup races returns to Churchill Downs for a record fifth time next Saturday, the 100-plus horses running will be hard-pressed to match what has gone on before at Louisville’s historic twin-spired track.

The previous Breeders’ Cups at Churchill have been stuffed with scintillating races, record-breaking performances and, for the suffering horseplayers, a nice sprinkling of longshot payoffs.

Not to mention sometimes uncomfortable conditions. In 1988, four years after the first Breeders’ Cup had been run at sun-splashed Hollywood Park, the temperature here barely reached 50 degrees and the afternoon was one long drizzle. But trainer Wayne Lukas and a couple of history-making horses, Alysheba and Personal Ensign, still got Churchill off to a rip-roaring start.

Lukas saddled three of the seven winners, a feat that never has been equaled. Personal Ensign, in her final race, outfinished Winning Colors, a Kentucky Derby winner, and Goodbye Halo in what has been called the best Breeders’ Cup ever run. And Alysheba, another Derby winner, darted through the mud and the nightfall to break John Henry’s career-earnings record.

Three years later, the weather was dry but even colder on the November day when Arazi, the slightly built 2-year-old colt from France, laid waste to his rivals with a ground-devouring move on the far turn.

Arazi’s winning burst brought order to an afternoon mostly devoid of reason. Two of the winners went off at 26-1, and another horse (Miss Alleged in the Turf) paid $86.20 for $2.

The Breeders’ Cup came back to Churchill on a more pleasant 75-degree day in 1994. Lukas won two more races, Pat Day riding both of his 2-year-olds to victory, and Concern, a colt that had been vanned in from Maryland the day before, led a charge of 3-year-olds across the wire in the $3-million Classic, the richest race on the card.

In 1998, in the most recent Breeders’ Cup run at Churchill, Lukas came up empty. Three of the races were won by unheralded trainers (one of them, Bobby Barnett, used to work for Lukas).

The equine standouts were Da Hoss, reprising his win in Canada two years before, and Awesome Again, who emerged from a crowd in the stretch to defeat a stellar field that included eight millionaires.

Next Saturday, Fusaichi Pegasus, another Derby winner, returns to run at Churchill for the first time since May. Lukas, who’s had a hardscrabble year, will have to win with longshots. Riboletta, a mare in the tradition of Personal Ensign, will be heavily favored in her race.

Meanwhile, it’s time to review in detail what happened back when:

1988: McGAUGHEY’S LAMENT

Trainer Shug McGaughey, an old hardboot, was supposed to be holding most of the high cards. He saddled three favorites, two of them odds-on, and had two shots with Seeking The Gold and Personal Flag in the Classic.

But the day started ominously when McGaughey’s Mining, previously undefeated, ran 10th as Lukas’ Gulch, a converted router, won with an off-the-pace ride from Angel Cordero in the Sprint.

Thirty minutes later, Cordero struck again with Open Mind in the Juvenile Fillies as Lukas, with five starters, also grabbed second with Darby Shuffle and third with Lea Lucinda.

McGaughey’s only winner came next. Undefeated Personal Ensign, her left hind leg held together by five screws, was no mudder, and at the top of Churchill’s long stretch, she was a laboring third, three lengths behind Winning Colors. Goodbye Halo was between them, and McGaughey, standing in his box seat, thought his filly was beaten.

But Randy Romero angled Personal Ensign to the outside, narrowly avoiding a bump with Goodbye Halo, and they began cutting into Winning Colors’ lead. Romero thought that he had the finish line measured, but he was the only one. The winning margin was a nose, with Goodbye Halo only another half-length back. Personal Ensign, with 13 in a row, retired with the longest undefeated streak of any major horse since Colin, who was 15 for 15 when she quit in 1908.

Lukas’ third win of the day, and the second owned by Gene Klein, was Is It True, ridden by Laffit Pincay in the Juvenile.

McGaughey’s Easy Goer, at 3-10, was second. McGaughey also ran second in the Classic, Alysheba defeating Seeking The Gold by a half-length under Chris McCarron. Alysheba’s $1.35-million payday gave him $6.6 million, the new record.

Trainer Jack Van Berg finally had his Classic. His Gate Dancer lost the first two by just a head, against Wild Again in 1984 and to Proud Truth in 1985. Then Alysheba was defeated by a nose by Ferdinand in 1987. But 1988 was Alysheba’s year. “Alysheba for President,” said a sign near the winner’s circle.

1991: SHADES OF BIG RED

The late Allen Paulson, an aerospace executive, bought Arazi as a weanling for $350,000, then named him after the pilots’ checkpoint over Arizona. Paulson tried to sell Arazi as a yearling, but pulled him back when the bidding stalled at $300,000.

Paulson sent Arazi to Francois Boutin, the premier French trainer, and after a second-place finish in his debut at Chantilly, the precocious colt reeled off six consecutive wins. Sheik Mohammed from Dubai wanted to buy Arazi outright, but settled for a half-interest for $9 million.

Looming for Arazi at Churchill Downs was the Juvenile, which would be his first race on dirt and his first try at left-handed turns. The rest of the field looked like an ordinary bunch, but Arazi still was only a modest 2-1 favorite at post time.

Nearing the quarter pole, Arazi had moved up from eighth to second, and only had the California-bred Bertrando to beat. With no urging from Pat Valenzuela, Arazi was moving so fast that he all but bolted leaving the turn. Valenzuela hand-rode him to the wire, a five-length victory that induced a gasp from the crowd of 66,204.

“He’s the Michael Jordan of horse racing,” Valenzuela said. “I couldn’t believe he was accelerating that fast. I had goose bumps. It was unreal. I thought I was on the next Secretariat.”

Arazi underwent surgery on both knees the week after the race and never found the clouds again.

1994: TOUGH TURF

Holy Bull stayed home, trainer Jimmy Croll secure that horse of the year already was his. Lure showed up, after having won the Mile two years running, but drew the outside post in a 14-horse field and finished ninth at 9-10. Barathea, from England, was much the best, winning by three lengths in a course-record 1:34 2/5.

After the Distaff, Leonard Lavin could have presented the trophy to himself. Lavin’s Alberto-Culver was the sponsor of the race and his 6-year-old gray mare, One Dreamer, pulled off a 47-1 upset. Of the three favorites, Heavenly Prize lost by a neck, Hollywood Wildcat (the winner the year before) finished sixth and Sky Beauty ran last.

With Timber Country and Flanders, Lukas engineered another sweep of the 2-year-old races. Pat Day rode them both for owner William T. Young.

In the Classic, Tabasco Cat, also owned by Young and trained by Lukas, was the tepid 7-2 favorite. There were three different leaders in the stretch, first Dramatic Gold, then Tabasco Cat and finally Concern, who defeated Tabasco Cat by a neck, giving Jerry Bailey his second of three consecutive wins in the race. And Croll was right. Holy Bull was voted horse of the year.

1998: OLD HOSS, YOUNG TRAINER

The crowd was 80,452, a Breeders’ Cup record. There were none of the heady mutuel prices from previous runnings at Churchill, but the arthritic Da Hoss, a 6-year-old gelding expertly trained by Michael Dickinson, was an extraordinary winner of the Mile and returned $25.20, the best price of the day.

Da Hoss, prevailing over Hawksley Hill by a head, had won the race at Woodbine in 1996, sat out all of 1997 because of injuries and ran only once in ‘98, a prep race at Colonial Downs a month before the Breeders’ Cup.

The only favorites to win were the juveniles Answer Lively (Bobby Barnett) and Silverbulletday. Reraise, first in the Sprint in only his sixth career start, made Craig Dollase, 27, the youngest winning Breeders’ Cup trainer.

The star-stacked Classic was supposed to settle horse of the year. It did, the title going to Skip Away even though he ran sixth, about four lengths behind Awesome Again.