BREEDERS’ CUP : Lady’s Secret, the Prohibitive Favorite, Keeps Right on Running

At around 4 o’clock Tuesday afternoon, Saul Loya found himself, as usual, slicing carrots--a seemingly unending supply of carrots from the stack of 25-pound bags at his side.

This is a daily ritual for Loya, and he has obviously become adept at the task since he still has all his fingers.

Once he had filled a large plastic tub, Loya began scooping handfuls of the carrots from the tub into three dozen or so plastic buckets placed on the ground in front of him.

Already, the buckets were three-quarters filled with a mixture of oats, grain, molasses, salt, vitamins and whatever else it takes to keep a top racehorse in the prime of condition.

By 4:30, feeding time at barn number 66 at Santa Anita, the buckets were ready for distribution.

Down the row they went, to Roo Art’s stall and Sacahuista’s, to Capote’s and Twilight Ridge’s, to Family Style’s and to all the rest of trainer Wayne Lukas’ impressive string of horses.

Eventually, a bucket reached stall number 19, where a gray filly with a charcoal mane and tail cast a wary eye on the proceedings.

It was dinner time for Lady’s Secret, the 4-year-old daughter of Secretariat and Great Lady M and a prohibitive favorite to win the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Distaff Saturday at Santa Anita.

Since she has to cover a mile and quarter in a shade over two minutes this week, it would seem she’d have switched to a special diet by now. Something to give her the racer’s edge, as it were.

But no, she gets grain and molasses and a topping of carrots just like all the rest. Her diet doesn’t change just because she has a race coming up, said Lukas, who trains the filly for owner Eugene Klein.

“In fact, we do even less than most people,” Lukas said. “A lot of people like to draw a horse. By that I mean they cut their grain back and take their hay away on race day.

“We let our horses eat right up until race time. We’ve never drawn a horse. We’ve always felt the less you do to change (normal routine) on race day, the better. A lot of horses sometimes key off certain things like putting a muzzle on them or drawing them. So we don’t do any of that.”

So Lady’s Secret’s feeding habits don’t change during a racing week, but then almost every week seems to be a racing week for the filly. Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff will be her 40th lifetime start, her 15th start this year, and her seventh Grade I race in the last three months.

No wonder she’s gray.

Seriously, though, it would stand to reason that the filly needs a rest, but Lukas said that isn’t necessarily so.

“Well, at times you wonder if you’re doing the right thing with any of these horses,” he said, “but she seems to thrive on it. The more we do with her the better she’s gotten.

“I know there’s a point where we’re going to have to stop, but, hell, the more we’ve asked her to do the better she’s responded. So until she tells us differently, we’ll keep on doing it.”

By now, Lady’s Secret must be used to it. There may be no rest for the wicked, but apparently there’s none for the good, either.

“Since we broke her as a yearling, at this time of the year coming into her January 2-year-old year, she has never stopped training one day,” Lukas said. “She has trained every single day.”

And what of her prospects in Saturday’s race? She has, after all, finished in the money in 33 of her 39 lifetime starts, winning 22 races, finishing second eight times and third three times and earning $2,508,325 in the process.

Is there a chance she’ll be beaten?

“Well, there always is,” Lukas said. “When you go out on the race track, you’ve got to prove yourself every time. But if form means anything, and past performances, hell, she stands by herself.

“But you’ve got to go out there and beat them, and it’s an unpredictable thing. But if there is a favorite in the Breeders’ Cup, you’ve got to like her.”

Should Lady’s Secret win, does she have a lock on the horse-of-the-year title as some have suggested?

“I think she’s horse of the year anyhow,” Lukas said. “But I think it’s important that she wins. I think she’s done too much not to be considered. No matter what criteria you use to evaluate them (the possible candidates), she stands out. It’s hard to make a case for any other horse.

“She’s had more Grade I wins this year, she’s won more money than any horse this year, she’s got more Breeders’ Cup points, which are scored on degree of excellence in top races, she has raced at more different race tracks, she has stepped out of her division. Plus, she has the charisma. They even had a day for her in New York (Oct. 18 at Belmont Park). She has the charisma to capture the public’s imagination. So these are all positive things.”

True, but the voters could be swayed by a less-than-stellar showing Saturday.

“Oh, yeah,” Lukas said. “They’re fickle. The voters take a ‘what have you done for me lately?’ kind of attitude. There are so many of the voters that are always looking for horse of the moment or horse of the week rather than horse of the year.”

But, Lukas said, losing is not something he’s thinking about. Lady’s Secret doesn’t like to be beaten, he said, and she recognizes when she has been.

“I think she knows when she loses,” he said. “She’s won so much that she understands the routine of going on the race track and going to the winner’s circle.”

As for temperament, Lady’s Secret is closer to the feisty John Henry in nature, which might account for her success.

“She’s not real quiet and docile,” Lukas said, “but she’s good to be around. She’s got a little bit of fight in her. She’s got a little spirit. She’s definitely not a horse that just lays back and is docile. She’s a competitor.”

Saturday’s race, with jockey Pat Day aboard, will be Lady’s Secret’s last chance to compete this year, however.

“This will wind up 1986 for her,” Lukas said, adding that Lady’s Secret will not be raced again until the spring.

But that doesn’t mean she’ll get a rest.

“We’ll keep her in light training,” Lukas said. “We won’t stop her.”

Eventually, the time will come when Lady’s Secret will have to step aside, but, barring injury, that won’t be until the end of her 5-year-old campaign.

“Her mother got better as she got older, and she’s getting better as she gets older,” Lukas said. “She’s perfectly sound. She loves it. She trains probably stronger and harder than any horse I’ve ever had--of either sex.

“We’re racehorse people, we concentrate on running horses, so what we’re doing is we’re keeping a good racehorse running and doing what she does best.”

Chances are that Lady’s Secret will change hands when she stops racing.

“More than likely, Mr. Klein will sell her,” Lukas said. “We sell all of them, although we may keep this one because she is pretty special.”

Until then, the most successful of all of Secretariat’s offspring will keep on running.

And, more than likely, keep on winning.

It’s in her blood.

She is, after all, a 24-karat--or, as Loya would say, a 24- carrot-- filly.