Oak Tree Meet Starts but Has Competition

Bucking competition for horses from as far away as New York and as close as Bay Meadows, the Oak Tree Racing Assn. opens a 31-day meet at Santa Anita today.

Oak Tree has traditionally provided a spawning ground for Breeders’ Cup races later on in the fall, but this year the Goodwood Handicap, the meet’s most prestigious dirt race, has been diluted by local trainers who have elected to run their horses out of town. For every Breeders’ Cup prep race at Oak Tree, Belmont Park has a similar stake, and Belmont has an edge this time because it’s also the host for the Breeders’ Cup, on Oct. 29.

“We’re proud of the record our meet has, running races that greatly prepare horses for the Breeders’ Cup,” said Sherwood Chillingworth, executive vice president of the nonprofit Oak Tree, which operates under a lease arrangement with Santa Anita. “We’ll see how everything shakes down this year, but our record over many, many years speaks for itself.”

Six Breeders’ Cup Classic winners have emerged from Oak Tree preps, five of them horses that ran in the Goodwood, a $500,000 race that will be run Saturday, the same day as the $1-million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont.

Chillingworth and Belmont officials had little choice in the positioning of their races, which to be productive for horsemen must be three to four weeks before the Breeders’ Cup.

More than 300 horses have prepped for the Breeders’ Cup during Oak Tree, and 31 of them have won Breeders’ Cup races. The last year a Breeders’ Cup was run without a winner from Oak Tree was 1998. Skewing that record, however, only three Oak Tree graduates have won races in the three Breeders’ Cups at Belmont.

Lost In The Fog, an undefeated sprinter and the most intriguing horse in training, might not have been headed for Santa Anita, anyway, but when Bay Meadows, in San Mateo, scheduled a $100,000 six-furlong race Saturday, a week before Oak Tree’s $250,000 Ancient Title, the Southern California option all but disappeared for Lost In The Fog’s handlers. Lost In The Fog is stabled in Northern California.

While Lava Man, the Hollywood Gold Cup winner, and Borrego, winner of the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, are running Saturday at Belmont, Oak Tree will settle for the delayed return of Rock Hard Ten, who hasn’t run since his Santa Anita Handicap victory on March 5.

A strong effort by Rock Hard Ten in the Goodwood would send him to New York as a creditable challenger for Saint Liam, who is considered the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. New York-based Saint Liam has regained his stature since finishing sixth as the favorite last March in the Santa Anita Handicap.

With Lava Man and Borrego out of the picture, Oak Tree might have expected a bump at the Goodwood entry box, but a couple of other California horses -- Roman Ruler and Imperialism -- also are running at Belmont, and the division isn’t deep enough to sustain all these defections. On Tuesday, Oak Tree listed only four Goodwood probables -- Rock Hard Ten, Gotaghostofachance, Choctaw Nation and Total Impact, who was second to Lundy’s Liability last year.

“I’m just happy to have my horse back and get a race into him,” Richard Mandella, Rock Hard Ten’s trainer, said. “He had a lot of aches and pains -- no serious ailments -- after he won the Santa Anita Handicap.”

Pleasantly Perfect, Tiznow twice, Alphabet Soup and Ferdinand were the Goodwood horses who also won the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Mandella trained Pleasantly Perfect. Skywalker, in 1986, was a Santa Anita horse who won the Classic, but his prep was the Oak Tree Mile instead of the Goodwood.

Saturday and Sunday, and Oct. 8, Oak Tree will run eight graded stakes. After that, there are only four graded races, and in a twist, Oak Tree is closing the meet Nov. 6 with the California Cup, a 10-race card for state-breds with purses totaling $1.325 million.

“Hollywood Park has its Gold Rush for Cal-breds, and Santa Anita and Gulfstream Park [in Hallandale Beach, Fla.] have the Sunshine Millions, pitting Cal-breds against Florida-breds,” Chillingworth said. “All of that may have something to do with weakening the Cal Cup, which has dropped some in popularity.

“Anyway, we’re going to try the Cal Cup on the last day, which is normally a pretty good day for us.”