Back in the Saddle

Horsemen don’t have to peruse the record book to know that it’s nearly impossible for a horse to win a Breeders’ Cup race twice. This year, however, there’s a reasonable chance that more than one horse might do exactly that.

Of the four who will try when the event is held for the 22nd time Saturday at Belmont Park, two are likely to be favored and the others are given good chances of pulling off upsets, as they did a year ago in Texas.

Of the 153 races that have been run since the Breeders’ Cup inaugural at Hollywood Park in 1984, only six have been won by the same horse twice, all in different years. A footnote is needed for the most recent; High Chaparral, who won the Turf in 2002-03, dead-heated for the win with Johar the second time around.

The others were clear-cut repeaters, starting with Miesque, the filly from France, in 1987-88. She was followed by Bayakoa, Lure, Da Hoss, Tiznow and High Chaparral. Only Da Hoss’ wins weren’t back to back. The well-managed, sore-legged gelding won the Mile in 1996, then ran only one race before he returned, as a 6-year-old, to win again in 1998. Two of the last three wins in Da Hoss’ career came in the Breeders’ Cup. Michael Dickinson’s double-barreled training job was an accomplishment for the ages.

Far less dramatically, Ashado, Better Talk Now, Singletary and Ouija Board will try to duplicate the wins they registered at Lone Star Park in 2004. Ashado is expected to be favored, as she was a year ago, in the Distaff; Ouija Board, 9-10 at Lone Star, will be favored, but not by as much, in the Filly and Mare Turf; and Better Talk Now and Singletary, while not the longshots of a year ago (one was 27-1, the other 16-1) will still go off at attractive prices in the Turf and Mile, respectively.

In 21 career races, Singletary has won eight, but he has never won two consecutive starts. That might discourage some Breeders’ Cup bettors, since Singletary won his prep race, the Oak Tree Mile at Santa Anita. But Don Chatlos, the 5-year-old’s trainer, feels that the one-turn mile at sprawling Belmont will be more favorable than the two-turn race at Lone Star.

“[Jockey David Flores] can lay close if he wants,” Chatlos said. Singletary was never farther than 3 1/4 lengths from the lead at Lone Star, but two weeks ago at Santa Anita, squeezed between horses early, he was last until he reached the quarter pole.

A year ago in Texas, the Mile favorite was a badly beaten Artie Schiller, and although he loves Belmont and will be running again Saturday, the certain favorite is Leroidesanimaux, a 5-year-old Brazilian-bred who has won eight in a row in North America, including a victory over Singletary at Santa Anita in March.

Chatlos said Singletary was too heavy for that race, the Jimmy Kilroe Handicap, and has taken off about 100 pounds in the right places since then.

“Singletary was a revelation winning [the Oak Tree Mile] from off the pace,” said Steve Davidowitz, who writes a handicapping column for the Daily Racing Form. “[Chatlos] is bringing Singletary to Belmont in career best form. ... Can he beat the streaking Leroidesanimaux? A good question that might be posed the other way: Can Leroidesanimaux beat the Singletary we saw at Santa Anita?”

Ouija Board had a well-spaced, four-race campaign that prepared her for the Breeders’ Cup at Lone Star. This year, trainer John Dunlop has been forced to improvise. In June, in Ouija Board’s first race since the Breeders’ Cup, she lost a shoe at York and suffered a small stress fracture in her left front cannon bone.

There were reports that Ouija Board might be retired, but after a lengthy rest she returned to race at Newmarket in mid-September and won against an ordinary field at 1 1/2 miles. On Saturday, Kieren Fallon, who has won the last two Filly and Mare Turfs with Ouija Board and Islington, is committed to ride Mona Lisa as trainer Aidan O’Brien’s stable jockey.

So Dunlop signed up the redoubtable Jerry Bailey. His home track is Belmont and two of Bailey’s record 14 Breeders’ Cup wins came in the 1999-2000 Filly and Mare Turf, the first years the stake was run.

In Better Talk Now’s prep for last year’s Turf, he ran fourth in the Man o’ War at Belmont. This year, Better Talk Now won the Man o’ War, and goes into the Breeders’ Cup off another layoff of almost 50 days.

Trainer Graham Motion, seeking to assure an honest early pace for the late-running Better Talk Now in this year’s Man o’ War, ran stablemate Shake The Bank as a rabbit. Shake The Bank did his job, leading by eight lengths before finishing last.

Saturday’s scratch of Motivator will enable Motion to run Shake The Bank in the Turf as well.

It may not make a difference. The Europeans frequently win this race -- six times in the last nine years -- and on the U.S. side Better Talk Now is being upstaged by Shakespeare, the lightly raced but undefeated colt from trainer Bill Mott’s barn. Mott, who trained Cigar, has won five Breeders’ Cup races but is 0 for 17 since his Escena bagged the Distaff in 1998.

Trainer Todd Pletcher won two Breeders’ Cup races last year, and Pletcher, who’s stabled at Belmont, is back with eight horses, including Ashado. The 4-year-old filly seems never to run a bad race on her home ground, and won the Beldame at Belmont on Oct. 1. She has beaten many of the horses that face her Saturday.

Like Ashado, the Breeders’ Cup will end a career for Singletary, and Ouija Board is also unlikely to run again. Better Talk Now, a 6-year-old gelding, has more races ahead of him.

“Singletary made my career,” Chatlos said recently. “It’s going to be a bittersweet day, putting him on a plane and saddling him for the final time.”

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Two-time winners

Horses that have won two Breeders’ Cup races:

*--* Horse Race Years Trainer Jockey Miesque Mile 1987-88 Francois Freddie Head Boutin Bayakoa Distaff 1989-90 Ron Laffit Pincay McAnally Lure Mile 1992-93 Shug Mike Smith McGaughey Da Hoss Mile 1996, 1998 Michael Gary Stevens, John Dickinson Velazquez Tiznow Classic 2000-01 Jay Chris McCarron Robbins High Chaparral Turf 2002-03 Aidan Mick Kinane O’Brien

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Note: High Chaparral dead-heated with Johar in 2003.