Oak Tree Plans for Lively Start

With four of the country’s top 10 horses--and other division leaders--stabled locally, the Oak Tree Racing Assn.’s fall meet at Santa Anita would appear to be chock-full of star power. But even in these times of difficult air travel, planes can sometimes be found for horses, and the trick for Oak Tree officials is to keep the talent at home.

As the 32-day season opens today, Oak Tree seems to have anchored three of those four national leaders, which isn’t a bad average. Kona Gold, the reigning sprint champion and ranked No. 1 in the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn. Poll, is penciled in for the Ancient Title Handicap on Oct. 6, and Tiznow, defending horse of the year and ranked third in the poll, is likely to race sixth-ranked Skimming and Dixie Dot Com in what would be a lively renewal of the Goodwood Handicap on Oct. 7.

Of the big four nationally, then, only Officer, who rounds out the top 10, will have gotten away--to run in the Champagne at Belmont Park on Oct. 6--but at least Prince Ahmed Salman is running his other undefeated 2-year-old, the filly Habibti, in Sunday’s Oak Leaf, which is one of four Grade I stakes that enhance the first nine days of the meet.

Because the Breeders’ Cup, with eight races worth $1 million, is being run Oct. 27 at Belmont Park, Oak Tree has front-loaded its stakes schedule with preps for horses that figure to run in New York. The abbreviated Oak Tree meet has been an effective feeder system since the first Breeders’ Cup was run in 1984; 21 Breeders’ Cup winners prepped at Santa Anita, three of them--Tiznow, Kona Gold and War Chant--last year.

The opening-day stake, the Sen. Ken Maddy Handicap, has drawn 12 female turf sprinters, among them Serenita, an Argentine-bred from trainer Bobby Frankel’s sizzling barn, and Blue Moon, a promising French import who’ll make her second U.S. start--and first in almost a year--for trainer Ron Ellis.

At noon, an hour before today’s first post, Oak Tree will conduct ceremonies in honor of the victims of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Donations will be accepted all day for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, with Oak Tree matching contributions up to $100,000.

Besides the Oak Leaf, other Grade I races opening week are the Yellow Ribbon on Saturday and the Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship on Sunday. The Norfolk, which will be run Saturday, has accounted for four Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winners--the most recent Anees in 1999--but somehow has slipped to Grade II status. While the Grade I Champagne lures Officer to Belmont, Came Home, the other early favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, will stay home to run in the Norfolk.

The favorite in the Yellow Ribbon will be the versatile Tranquility Lake, who won the 11/4-mile grass stake last year. No horse has ever won the Yellow Ribbon twice. After last year’s win at Santa Anita, Tranquility Lake ran eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Churchill Downs, but this year, back in California, she has blossomed again and has had three victories and two seconds in five starts. Tiznow’s handlers--racing manager Mike Cooper and trainer Jay Robbins--have left the door open to run in the $1-million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont, which is on Oct. 6, the day before the $500,000 Goodwood. In his comeback from a back injury, Tiznow has already run once at Belmont, finishing third in the Woodward on Sept. 8, but the Gold Cup would give him another prep in New York, at the same 11/4-mile distance as the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic.

While still a slightly unknown quantity, Tiznow won last year’s Goodwood as a 3-year-old, carrying only 116 pounds and getting weight from three of the other horses in the field. This year, he’s the recovering kingpin. Cooper and Robbins will play the weight game and wait to see how many pounds their colt is assigned for the Goodwood.

The Belmont race is run under weight-for-age conditions, which means Tiznow would carry 126 pounds, the same impost as any other older horse.

No matter how he runs in the Goodwood, Skimming is not expected to be Breeders’ Cup-bound. A powerhouse at Del Mar, Skimming is not the same presence at other tracks, and runs especially dull races at sandy Belmont. Frankel has said that he’ll keep Skimming in California, to mine the many purse opportunities here.

On the other hand, Bill Morey Jr., the trainer of Dixie Dot Com, will run in the Goodwood because flying difficulties kept him from airlifting the horse out of town. Dixie Dot Com, second in August to Skimming in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, missed the Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park and this Friday won’t be able to run in the Meadowlands Cup in New Jersey. Morey will take the easiest option, vanning the horse the 400 miles from Bay Meadows to Santa Anita.

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At a Glance

Dates: 32 days, today through Nov. 5. Wednesday through Sunday, plus Oct. 8 and Nov. 5.

Post times: First race Wednesday through Friday, 1 p.m.; Saturday, Sunday and Monday, 12:30 p.m., except Oct. 27 (Breeders’ Cup Day), 9:45 a.m., and Nov. 3 (California Cup), noon.

Major races: Saturday, $500,000 Yellow Ribbon and $250,000 Norfolk; Sunday, $300,000 Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship and $250,000 Oak Leaf; Oct. 6, $200,000 Ancient Title Handicap; Oct. 7, $500,000 Goodwood.