McAnally Rediscovers Breeders’ Cup : Horse Racing: After rarely having an entry in this rich series in the past, noted trainer could have a big day Saturday.

HALLANDALE, Fla. —  On Sunday morning at Gulfstream Park, trainer Ron McAnally was not a man without a horse. He was a man without a horseshoer.

Bayakoa, McAnally’s 5-year-old mare, was about to work seven furlongs in preparation for her appearance Saturday in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Distaff but she had a loose shoe on her left hind foot.

McAnally went over to the barn of another California trainer, Charlie Whittingham, to see if he knew anything about Gulfstream blacksmiths working on Sunday.

“Let me do it, Ron,” Whittingham joked. “I’ll do it and put the nail right through her frog (a soft area on the bottom of the hoof).”

Whittingham trains Goodbye Halo, one of the 10 fillies and mares that will be trying to beat Bayakoa in the 1 1/8-mile race. Bayakoa has been nailing Goodbye Halo at the wire almost all year. She has beaten Whittingham’s filly in five races, the last time by 11 1/2 lengths when Goodbye Halo finished second in the Spinster at Keeneland three weeks ago. The only time Goodbye Halo interrupted the pattern, in the Chula Vista Handicap at Del Mar on Sept. 2, Bayakoa was last. Bayakoa spotted Goodbye Halo seven pounds that day, and McAnally believes it was because his mare was in heat and didn’t run her race.

This Saturday, both horses will carry 123 pounds. The Distaff could be part of a big day for McAnally, who is nationally known because of John Henry but has been almost invisible in the first five years of the Breeders’ Cup.

McAnally, 57, trained John Henry for most of the two-time horse of the year’s career, and together they won eight Eclipse Awards, seven for the horse and one for McAnally, who was the best trainer in 1981.

McAnally’s work with John Henry went far beyond just showing up on race day and throwing a saddle on the resilient gelding’s back. John Henry was never a completely sound horse, and McAnally gingerly spotted him in races that came at times when he was physically sharp--all the while pleasing a strong-minded owner, Sam Rubin, who had no experience with top horses and frequently thought that John Henry could run more often than he did.

John Henry would have given McAnally a rare Breeders’ Cup starter in 1984 at Hollywood Park, but the horse went wrong a week before the Turf Stakes, costing Rubin $133,000 of a $400,000 supplementary fee that he had already paid.

McAnally was able to run Savannah Dancer, a $2.5-million yearling purchase by Allen Paulson, and she finished fifth in the Juvenile Fillies at Hollywood Park.

This year, McAnally has rediscovered the Breeders’ Cup and then some. Besides Bayakoa, he has three other starters--Single Dawn and Balla Cove in the Juvenile, and In Extremis in the Mile.

McAnally is almost as confident about Single Dawn as he is about Bayakoa. The 2-year-old colt’s only win in four starts came against maidens, but McAnally thought he had valid excuses while finishing third in the Del Mar Futurity and second in the Norfolk at Santa Anita. Single Dawn had traffic problems at Del Mar, then drew a bad post position and had mud kicked in his face at Santa Anita. Grand Caynon, the horse that beat Single Dawn by 1 1/2 lengths in the Norfolk, is also running in the Juvenile, a race that may decide the divisional championship. Trainer Shug McGaughey’s entry of Adjudicating and Rhythm is expected to be favored.

Hawkster, another horse that McAnally thinks is good enough to win a Breeders’ Cup race, is undefeated on grass but is skipping Saturday’s Turf Stakes to run in the Japan Cup later this month.

Bayakoa’s owner, Frank Whitham, was willing to supplement her into the Distaff by paying a required $200,000 fee (because neither the Argentine-bred mare nor her sire, Consultant’s Bid, was nominated). However, Hawkster’s owner, Shelly Meredith, didn’t think the expenditure of a $240,000 supplementary fee was a prudent thing to do, and who can fault him? First place in the Turf Stakes is worth $900,000, but winning in Tokyo means a payoff of more than $1 million, with no entry fee required, and the Japanese track pays all of the horse’s traveling expenses.

“The thing is, this (Breeders’ Cup) race looks like it will be easier to win than the one in Japan,” McAnally said. “Yankee Affair and Carroll House, the Arc (de Triomphe) winner, are running in Japan, and those are two tough horses.”

It is also impossible for McAnally to forget John Henry’s ill-advised trip to Japan in 1982, when he reacted badly to quarantine restrictions, lost more than 100 pounds and almost died. Looie Cenicola, then McAnally’s assistant, escorted John Henry to Tokyo before the race.

“I remember getting a phone call from Looie one day,” McAnally said. “He said, ‘Ronnie, I think we’re going to lose this horse.’ ”

John Henry won the 1984 male turf title without running in the Breeders’ Cup. McAnally thinks that Hawkster, who has won four straight grass races, including a world-record performance for 1 1/2 miles at Santa Anita, could still earn the title with a victory in the Japan Cup, but in the four years since ‘84, the male champion on grass has finished either first or second in a Breeders’ Cup race.

But back to last Sunday. McAnally found a blacksmith, and Bayakoa got her new shoe, then worked seven furlongs in a satisfactory 1:27. She has won eight of 10 races this year, the victories coming at five different tracks, and earned almost $1 million.

“She’s a bit of a basket case but she has handled every kind of track,” McAnally said. “She’s just like John Henry in that regard. She needs to be pampered. She likes to stand on the track for 10 minutes before she’s galloped, and John was the same way.”

Laffit Pincay, who has ridden in all but four of the 35 previous Breeders’ Cup races, will ride Bayakoa, Single Dawn and In Extremis for McAnally. Pincay has four wins, three seconds and seven thirds in the series. Gary Stevens has the mount on Balla Cove, an English import bought recently by Harvey Cohen, the Encino lawyer who also owns Music Merci.

Trainer Wayne Lukas plans to gang up on the free-running Bayakoa in the Distaff, entering three speed horses--Winning Colors, Highest Glory and Wonders Delight--who could soften up McAnally’s mare for a late run by another Lukas entrant, Open Mind.

“I don’t think Bayakoa necessarily has to be by herself on an easy lead to win,” McAnally said. “In the Spinster, there was a filly who was in front the first quarter of a mile, and I looked at my horse’s tapes from her Argentina races. She won while laying third a couple of times.”

Winning Colors, who had throat surgery and has won only two of 11 starts since taking the Kentucky Derby in 1988, probably will run her last race, since she is being sold at owner Gene Klein’s dispersal auction next Monday and is likely to be retired for breeding.

Open Mind appears to be Lukas’ only real challenger in the Distaff, and after winning 10 straight stakes, she finished third, 3 3/4 lengths behind Bayakoa, in the Ruffian Handicap at Belmont Park on Sept. 24.

Wonders Delight has been inconsistent this year, winning only against lesser company, and Highest Glory, despite four straight victories, is attempting to make a big jump in class. Even Lukas, the around-the-clock optimist, would be surprised if Highest Glory won.

“She should make the lead, or be there (close) for at least the first mile,” Lukas said. “I don’t expect to beat Bayakoa, but I think she’ll give her fits.”

Horse Racing Notes

Chris McCarron, who will ride Sunday Silence for the first time in the Breeders’ Cup Classic Saturday, flew in from California to work the colt Tuesday morning at Gulfstream Park. Sunday Silence worked five furlongs in a good 1:00 1/5, then galloped out another eighth of a mile in 1:16 2/5. This was the third time McCarron has worked the horse. He has the mount Saturday because Pat Valenzuela, who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness with Sunday Silence, drew a 60-day suspension at Santa Anita last week after testing positive for cocaine. McCarron left shortly after the workout to ride at Santa Anita Wednesday and will be back at Gulfstream to ride in some stakes races Friday. “Sunday Silence goes very smooth; he’s got good action,” McCarron said. “I’m tickled to death to get this mount, but I would have preferred getting it under different circumstances. But since what’s happened has happened, I’m flattered to be in this position.”

Goodbye Halo ran third in a three-way photo finish with Personal Ensign and Winning Colors in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff. . . . El Senor and Secret Hello, both of whom would have had good chances in the Juvenile, are ailing and have been scratched. . . . Houston, the $2.9-million yearling who fizzled as a 3-year-old this year, has undergone arthroscopic surgery for a bone chip in his knee and is being pointed for sprints and middle-distance stakes in New York next year.