De Seroux Improves Breeders’ Cup Lineup

It didn’t take long for reinforcements to arrive at trainer Laura de Seroux’s barn.

De Seroux, who will saddle leading Breeders’ Cup Distaff contender Azeri today in the Lady’s Secret Handicap as the Oak Tree Racing Assn. begins its 26-day meet at Santa Anita, picked up another top horse Tuesday.

Ballingarry, a 3-year-old Irish-bred colt who won Sunday’s $1.5-million Canadian International at Woodbine, was purchased by a group that includes De Seroux’s husband.

Ballingarry, Azeri and Dublino, the Del Mar Oaks winner, make for a strong Breeders’ Cup contingent for De Seroux, who was forced to retire the multiple stakes winner Astra last month when the 6-year-old grass mare came out of her last race with a respiratory infection.

The Lady’s Secret launches Oak Tree’s head-long dive into a concentrated round of preps for the Breeders’ Cup at Arlington Park on Oct. 26. There will be four more important stakes Saturday, including the $500,000 Yellow Ribbon, and three stakes--one of them the $500,000 Goodwood Handicap-- highlight Sunday’s card. Total graded-stakes money for Oak Tree’s opening week comes to $2.35 million.

The deal to buy Ballingarry, who had been owned by Susan Magnier of Ireland-based Coolmore Stud and trained by Aidan O’Brien, had been agreed to in principle before the Woodbine race, but the colt still ran in Magnier’s name because there wasn’t time for a veterinarian checkup.

The new owners include Sidney Port, Marsha Naify, and the trainer’s husband, Emmanuel de Seroux--an international bloodstock agent who sniffed out Ballingarry and engineered the sale.

Laura de Seroux said that the sale price was in the seven-figure range. Port, who is the principal owner, is a Chicagoan who was a long-time partner of the late trainer Charlie Whittingham, for whom De Seroux worked as an exercise rider in the late 1970s. One of the horses that De Seroux has trained for Port is Until Sundown, who won last year’s Affirmed Handicap at Hollywood Park.

Although De Seroux referred to Ballingarry as a member of the “second tier” of Coolmore horses, the Daily Racing Form immediately moved the colt into second spot behind Beat Hollow in its ranking of North American male grass horses. Ballingarry, a son of Sadler’s Wells, Europe’s preeminent sire, has won four of 10 starts and earned $1.3 million, $900,000 of the total coming last Sunday. He was second in the Italian Derby and third in the Irish Derby.

Ballingarry will run in the $2-million Breeders’ Cup Turf, which at 1 1/2 miles is the same distance as the Canadian International. De Seroux expects to run Azeri in the $2-million Distaff and Dublino in the $1-million Filly & Mare Turf. These will be the first Breeders’ Cup starters for the 50-year-old conditioner, who trains her horses at San Luis Rey Downs, the training center in Bonsall, Calif.

At 127 pounds, Azeri could become the highest-weighted distaffer to win the Lady’s Secret, first run in 1993. The 4-year-old filly’s seven rivals will carry between 111 and 116 pounds.

“I don’t see the 127 pounds as being a problem,” De Seroux said. “She just won carrying 126, and I don’t think she’s going to hurt herself. With maturity, she’s gotten stronger.”

Azeri, who has been ridden by Mike Smith while winning eight of nine starts, last ran in the Clement L. Hirsch Handicap at Del Mar, where she won by two lengths. That was the filly’s fifth consecutive win since her only loss, by one length to the East Coast shipper Summer Colony in the La Canada at Santa Anita on Feb. 9.

Mark Hennig, who trains Summer Colony, will take another shot at Azeri today with Mystic Lady, the Belmont Park-based filly who has earned $1 million but has won only one of six starts this year.

“This isn’t Summer Colony I’m sending out there this time,” Hennig said. “But this filly’s coming around. A mile and a sixteenth is what she likes, and there aren’t that many opportunities at that distance.”

Mystic Lady, who will be ridden by Gary Stevens, has had eight wins and four seconds in 14 tries at 1 1/16 miles.

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Alex Solis, two-time Oak Tree riding champion, will start the meet serving a five-day suspension that was issued at Del Mar. Under the designated-race rule, which applies to many stakes races, Solis will be riding this week, starting with the mount on Elaine’s Angel in the Lady’s Secret.

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Oak Tree Facts

* What: 34th annual Oak Tree Racing Assn. meet.

* Where: Santa Anita Park, Arcadia.

* When: 26 days, today through Nov. 3. No racing Monday and Tuesday, except Monday, Oct. 14.

* First post: Saturdays, Sundays and Oct. 14, 12:30 p.m.; Weekdays, 1 p.m.; Oct. 26, 9:30 a.m.; Nov. 2, noon.

* Major races: $200,000 Lady’s Secret Handicap, today; $500,000 Yellow Ribbon, $200,000 Ancient Title Handicap, $200,000 Norfolk, $250,000 Oak Tree Mile, Saturday; $300,000 Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship, $500,000 Goodwood Handicap, $200,000 Oak Leaf, Sunday; $100,000 Sen. Ken Maddy Handicap, Oct. 12; $150,000 Oak Tree Derby, Oct. 13; $150,000 Carleton F. Burke Handicap, Oct. 27; California Cup (10 stakes worth $1.35 million), Nov. 2; $200,000 Las Palmas Handicap, $100,000 Morvich Handicap, Nov. 3.

* Last year’s leaders: Owner--Red Baron’s Barn, $389,969; trainer--Bill Spawr, 13 wins; jockey--Laffit Pincay, 33 wins.