Despite Recent Luck, Lukas Is Optimistic : Breeders’ Cup: Trainer probably won’t have any favorites in Saturday’s races. But he expects to win.

ELMONT, N.Y. —  Wayne Lukas, who recently went through a 38-race slump at Santa Anita, was told one of his promising fillies had broken down at Belmont Park Tuesday morning. The filly, Hey Hey Paula, had to be destroyed.

It has been that kind of autumn for Lukas, the trainer with the most Breeders’ Cup accomplishments, who goes into Saturday’s seventh running with little chance of winning any of the seven races.

“We’re like a cat,” the unflappable Lukas said. “We’re always landing on our feet.”

After six years and 42 Breeders’ Cup races, the Lukas barn has won 10, seven more than either Shug McGaughey or Neil Drysdale, who are tied for second place. Lukas’ horses, which have finished second 10 times and run third six times, have earned $7.8 million, almost $4 million more than those run by Charlie Whittingham, who is next on the money list.

But today, when the names of seven Lukas horses are dropped into the entry box at Belmont, none will be listed as a favorite by the track handicapper. Seven of Lukas’ 10 Breeders’ Cup winners, either by themselves or while running as part of multiple-horse entries, went off the favorites.

Lukas, who with more than $12.5 million in purses will lead the nation for the eighth consecutive year, says that Steinlen, winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile and running in the same race Saturday, offers his best chance for victory. But Steinlen, who hasn’t won since July and has only three victories in nine races this year, might go off at 5-1 Saturday in a grass race that lacks a distinct favorite.

Lukas’ other starters are Shy Tom in the Classic; Luthier’s Launch in the Distaff; Carson City and Senor Speedy in the Sprint; and Deposit Ticket and Fire in Ice in the Juvenile. The Juvenile Fillies, which Lukas has won with Twilight Ridge and Open Mind, and a stake that has accounted for 20 of Lukas’ 59 Breeders’ Cup starters, doesn’t have a single runner from the trainer’s barn this time.

The customary clockwork schedule at Lukas’ barn was interrupted for about an hour Tuesday morning after Hey Hey Paula, out of Big Dreams, the dam that produced the sprinter Housebuster, came back from the track limping.

After consulting with their veterinarian, Lukas and Howard Kaskel, who shared ownership in the 2-year-old, agreed that the only thing that could be done was to give the filly a lethal injection. Hey Hey Paula had not been scheduled to run in the Breeders’ Cup.

Much later, Lukas analyzed his Breeders’ Cup position and took his familiar stance.

“In 1988, everybody was saying that we were having a down year,” the trainer said. “Then bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! We had it all.”

At Churchill Downs in the Breeders’ Cup that year, Lukas won with Gulch, Open Mind and Is It True and had two second-place finishes and a third.

Although Lukas could come up empty in the Breeders’ Cup for the first time since 1984, when the first event was held at Hollywood Park, he still might be smiling late Saturday. Developments in the races might result in horse-of-the-year honors going to the Lukas-trained Criminal Type, who was taken out of training because of a sore leg after running sixth in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont on Sept. 15.

The turf writers, track racing secretaries and Daily Racing Form voters won’t cast their ballots for national honors until early next year, but Lukas feels that Criminal Type accomplished enough before his injury to merit their support. Criminal Type won seven of 11 starts, earned $2.2 million and scored major victories in the Pimlico Special, the Metropolitan Handicap, the Hollywood Gold Cup and the Whitney Handicap.

Among his victims were Sunday Silence, Easy Goer and Housebuster, all of whom would be factors in Breeders’ Cup races if they hadn’t been injured.

“He not only won, he went around the country to do it,” Lukas said. “You should judge horses by who you beat, and how you do it, and by those standards Criminal Type deserves the title.”

Go For Wand, the favorite in Saturday’s Distaff, and Meadow Star, who by winning the Juvenile Fillies could close out the year with an undefeated record of seven victories, are other horse-of-the-year candidates, and trainer Ron McAnally, whose Bayakoa will be the second betting choice in the Distaff, feels that she also deserves consideration.

Lukas says that Criminal Type should be rated over all three distaffers because they didn’t beat male horses this year.

Horse of the year or not, Criminal Type’s racing career appears to be over. He was sent to Calumet Farm in Lexington, Ky., where a decision on his racing future is pending.

“I don’t think he’ll run anymore, although it’s not my decision to make,” Lukas said. “If it was anybody but Calumet, I’d say that there’d be a chance he’d come back. But once you get to the farm at Calumet, you usually wind up going to stud. We’ve never won the Classic, and he would have had an outstanding chance. He was the flagship of our operation this year.”

Steinlen is another horse Lukas will be losing to the breeding shed, probably after Saturday, although there is a chance that he might run in the Japan Cup next month. Steinlen is winless in his last two grass starts, and running on dirt for the second time in a 44-race career on Oct. 6, he was last in the Jockey Club Gold Cup here.

“He’s a fall horse and on Tuesday he worked (half a mile) in 49 (seconds) flat, so he’s ready,” Lukas said. “The dirt race was an experiment that didn’t work. We were just hoping to add to his stud value by trying him on dirt. I’m factoring the race in as a workout on his record.”

Horse Racing Notes

With horses being officially entered today, there was a late report Tuesday that a trainer’s switch might further change the field for the $3-million Classic. Francois Boutin is said to be considering running Priolo, the French colt, in the Classic instead of the Mile. Priolo, who has five victories in eight starts, all on grass, was pre-entered last week for both races.

Priolo’s shift to the Classic could squeeze out Lively One, who reportedly is the 14th and final horse on the preference list. If Lively One doesn’t run, he would be the second California-based colt to be at Belmont but unable to start in the Classic. Quiet American is also without a berth.