Horse Racing / Bill Christine : Tracks Resume Battle for Breeders’ Cup

The heated battle that took place between Hollywood Park and Santa Anita for the first Breeders’ Cup races will be renewed this year, when both tracks bid for the 1986 series.

With the announcement earlier this week that the ’86 Breeders’ Cup is scheduled for Southern California, both Hollywood Park and Oak Tree, which runs its meeting at Santa Anita in the fall, said that they would apply for the date.

The first Breeders’ Cup day--seven races worth $10 million--was held at Hollywood last November, and this year’s series is scheduled for Aqueduct in New York Nov. 2.

Hollywood Park’s presentation for ’86 doubtless will have a we-did-it-right-the-first-time approach. The first Breeders’ Cup went off with few hitches and drew 64,000 fans who bet $11.4 million, a handle that ranks behind only the last two Kentucky Derby days at Churchill Downs.

Herman Smith, executive vice president of the Oak Tree Racing Assn., suggested, however, that his organization could better that. “I think we would easily draw a crowd of 75,000 if we got the Breeders’ Cup,” he said.

“Santa Anita’s gotten more than 70,000 for the Santa Anita Handicap twice in recent years, and I’m sure we’d do better than that with an attraction like the Breeders’ Cup.”

Churchill Downs officials are confident that their track will get the Breeders’ Cup in ’87. The Breeders’ Cup site committee announced that the races that year would be held in Kentucky and the other two tracks there, Latonia and Keeneland, are not equipped to handle large crowds. Churchill Downs hopes to have its new grass course ready in time for ’87.

The Breeders’ Cup is scheduled for South Florida in ’88. Based on current racing schedules, Calder is the only track open in that area late in the year, when the Breeders’ Cup races are run, but Hialeah and Gulfstream Park are expected to show interest. Hialeah and Gulfstream squabble annually over which track receives the very profitable high-season tourist dates, and they’ll probably battle over the prestigious Breeders’ Cup day as well.

The minimum bet is still $2, but it’s going to cost considerably more for visitors to attend the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs May 4.

One Louisville hotel is charging $660 for a three-night stay. Most of the hotels in the city require that guests pay for three nights, even if they’re staying only one or two. The real shock is for a hotel guest to be staying in a $60 room that suddenly turns into a $150 room when the Derby rate goes into effect the Thursday before the race.

Galloping hotel prices have been outrun by Derby Day admission prices, which have been doubled. It will cost $30 for the clubhouse and $20 general admission. Those prices are just for walking-around privileges. Seats--extremely difficult to get--cost extra.

“We haven’t had an increase in Derby prices in a long time,” said Tom Meeker, new president of Churchill Downs. “I have a daughter who goes to Prince concerts and pays that much and more. We feel we have an event that’s worth what we’re charging to see it.”

Santa Anita says it would like to make horse-medication information available for fans immediately if it could get approval from the California Horse Racing Board. In many states, the names of horses running on Lasix, a legal diuretic given to bleeders, are published, but not in California. The racing board has indicated that a public program may be available by this summer.

“There is simply insufficient reason for the board to withhold the publication of this information any longer,” Santa Anita assistant general manager Alan Balch wrote in a recent letter to Patti Mancini, chairman of the board’s medication committee.

“California remains a leader (in many areas), yet on this critical therapeutic medication issue, we lag behind. It reduces our credibility as an industry when the morning linemaker, who does not have the (Lasix) information, makes a price on a particular horse, and then watches that price drop rapidly as word spreads within the ‘inside crowd’ about the first-time use of Lasix. When such a horse wins, as has happened, and the trainer, owner or vet is quoted afterward on the use of Lasix, the public is rightly offended.”

In last Sunday’s $208,200 La Canada Stakes at Santa Anita, Squan Song, the third choice in the betting, finished last. Trainer Darrell Vienna said after the race that Squan Song bled, and she probably would run with Lasix the next time.

Horses are capable of running much better the first time they are treated.