Captain Steve’s Win Has Classic Look

Lemon Drop Kid may have dusted off Behrens again Saturday, but trainer Scotty Schulhofer’s colt could be picking up a new rival in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.

While Lemon Drop Kid outfinished Behrens by a head in the $500,000 Woodward, Captain Steve, a 3-year-old, was beating Golden Missile by three-quarters of a length in the $500,000 Kentucky Cup Classic Handicap at Turfway Park. Owner Mike Pegram and trainer Bob Baffert had said earlier that their horse probably wouldn’t run in the $4-million Classic because of a costly supplementary fee, but now they are reconsidering.

“We’ll think about it now,” Baffert said. “I didn’t know how he’d do against older horses, but he was training awesome and we wanted to see. He passed the test. If he’s training great, the Breeders’ Cup would be a possibility.”

The Classic is a 1 1/4-mile race. In Captain Steve’s only start at that distance, he was eighth in this year’s Kentucky Derby.

Golden Missile, the 7-5 favorite, put a head in front on the far turn of the 1 1/8-mile Turfway race, giving Captain Steve’s jockey, Shane Sellers, some doubts.

“That’s when I really thought I was running for second,” Sellers said. “I didn’t realize that this horse has the fight that he has. In the stretch, he kept digging deeper and deeper.”

Giving Baffert his third win in the race in the last four years, Captain Steve hit the wire in 1:49 4/5, paying $8.60 for $2 and earning $314,500. Captain Steve carried 115 pounds, six less than Golden Missile.

Because Captain Steve wasn’t nominated to the Breeders’ Cup, Pegram would have to pay a penalty to run. The supplement last year was $90,000 in the Juvenile, with Captain Steve running fourth and earning $59,920. Captain Steve’s supplement for the Classic is $290,000; he’d have to finish at least third for Pegram to profit, but 3-year-olds have won six of the 16 runnings of the Classic, most recently Cat Thief last year.

Early Pioneer, winner of the Hollywood Gold Cup, finished third at Turfway, beaten by 5 1/4 lengths. Cat Thief, winless in 10 starts since his Breeders’ Cup victory, finished last in the six-horse field.

At Belmont Park, the pace scenario for Skimming, who was the front-running Pacific Classic winner, didn’t develop as Ecton Park and Behrens went after him from the start. Skimming was still in the race, between Behrens and Lemon Drop Kid at the head of the stretch, but he tired badly and finished fourth, with Gander, at 40-1, running third in the five-horse field.

Lemon Drop Kid’s time for 1 1/8 miles was 1:50 2/5. Ridden by Edgar Prado, he paid $3.40 and earned $300,000 to increase his total to $3.3 million.

In the last three races in Lemon Drop Kid’s four-race winning streak, he has beaten Behrens, a 6-year-old who’s won only one of his last nine starts.

Riboletta, a 5-year-old mare that Baffert used to train, turned in a powerful Belmont performance in the race after the Woodward, winning the $250,000 Ruffian Handicap by 7 1/2 lengths over Gourmet Girl. Ridden by Chris McCarron for owners Aaron and Marie Jones and trainer Eduardo Inda, Riboletta won her fifth straight, covering 1 1/16 miles in 1:40 3/5 and paying $4.10 to win.

“I didn’t even touch her in the stretch,” McCarron said. “She had some questions to answer, and she did this rather easily. Every time I ride her, I look forward to talking on Beautiful Pleasure and Heritage Of Gold.”

Those two distaffers, the other leaders in the division for older fillies and mares, are headed in different directions, Beautiful Pleasure running in the Beldame at Belmont on Oct. 14 and Heritage Of Gold scheduled to run the same day in the Spinster at Keeneland.

The Beldame could be a possibility for Riboletta, and after that the Joneses and Inda must decide whether to pay a $400,000 supplementary fee so she can run in the $2-million Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 4.

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Bob Baffert won another race at Turfway Park, saddling Point Given for a 3 1/2-length victory in the $100,000 Kentucky Cup Juvenile. Shane Sellers was aboard. The favored entry trained by Wayne Lukas, Snow Ridge and Drumcliff, finished at the rear of the 11-horse field. . . . Lukas saddled Spain, the only 3-year-old in the field, for her one-length win in the $250,000 Turfway Breeders’ Cup Stakes. . . . Caller One, ridden by Kent Desormeaux for trainer Jim Chapman, prepped for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint with a 4 1/2-length win over Millencolin in the $150,000 Kentucky Cup Sprint. . . . Forbidden Apple, the longest shot on the board, paid $45 for winning the $200,000 Belmont Breeders’ Cup Handicap. . . . Zippy Chippy finished third at a Northhampton, Mass. track, extending his streak as the losingest horse in American thoroughbred history to 88 races. He went off as the 2-1 favorite. . . . Jockey Martin Pedroza won three races for the third consecutive day, one of them aboard Hal’s Pal in the $50,000 Phil D. Shepherd Stakes at Fairplex Park.