Breeders’ Cup Dud Resurfaces

The furor that engulfed Ricks Natural Star in the Breeders’ Cup in Canada last month has surrounded the hapless 7-year-old gelding at Los Alamitos, where he is scheduled to run against one other thoroughbred and five quarter horses tonight.

While the $3,500 claiming horse from New Mexico tries to win for the first time since 1993, the Ontario Racing Commission in Canada is conducting an investigation into whether the horse was mistreated after finishing last in the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Oct. 26.

In California, a leading owner-breeder who says that the Los Alamitos race is a farce, is charging that the California Horse Racing Board reversed itself in not giving Ricks Natural Star a thorough pre-race examination by a state veterinarian.

And Daron Long, the leading rider of Arabians at Los Alamitos, has decided not to ride Ricks Natural Star and will be replaced by Adolpho Rodriguez.

Meantime, William Livingston, the 67-year-old veterinarian who shocked Breeders’ Cup officials by running his cheap claimer against some of the best grass horses in the world in the $2-million Turf, is saying that he won’t make any money unless Ricks Natural Star wins tonight, which doesn’t seem likely. The Daily Racing Form has him listed at 6-1, the fourth choice, in the 870-yard, $8,000 race.

“It cost me $3,500 just to fly him here,” Livingston said. “The only way I’ll come out ahead is if I win the $40,000.”

Los Alamitos has guaranteed Livingston a $5,000 appearance fee, and will pay him a $40,000 bonus if Ricks Natural Star wins.

Unable to exclude Ricks Natural Star from the race last month at Woodbine, Breeders’ Cup officials will be meeting in Florida in late February to tighten their eligibility rules.

Los Alamitos has taken the opposite approach, welcoming Ricks Natural Star to run on a card that includes the $234,171 Los Alamitos Derby for quarter horses.

But Zory Kuzyk, who has been in the quarter horse business for 25 years, is opposed to Ricks Natural Star running, and said she was told by a Los Alamitos steward that a full examination of the horse would be conducted by a state veterinarian Thursday morning.

“Then I called back and was told that the exam had been called off by Roy Wood,” Kuzyk said.

Through a spokesman, Wood said Thursday night: “There’s nothing in the horse’s record to justify any action.”

Ricks Natural Star will be running tonight on Lasix, a diuretic given to horses that bleed from the lungs. Ricks Natural Star, a Lasix horse most of his ignominious 24-race career, wasn’t treated with the medication for his Breeders’ Cup race and Livingston, contrary to a recent report in the Thoroughbred Times, said that he didn’t bleed after the race.

“I didn’t get back [to the barn] right away, but I did get back there,” Livingston said. “I checked him out. There was no sign of any residual bleeding. There’s nothing wrong with my horse.”

Jean Major, director of the Ontario Racing Commission, said that his agency is pursuing a post-Breeders’ Cup complaint filed by Livingston, as well as looking into suggestions that the horse was abused after the race.

“Our commission vet said that the horse showed no evidence of bleeding,” Major said. “But because of what we’ve heard, we’re still looking into how the horse was treated.”

Livingston has charged that his Breeders’ Cup jockey, Lisa McFarland, was under orders from the racing commission to keep Ricks Natural Star clear of other horses in the race. Ricks Natural Star was near the lead for half a mile before dropping back during the run down the backstretch. It was estimated that it took him 30 seconds to reach the finish line after the next-to-last race finisher crossed the wire.

“I followed [Livingston’s] prerace instruction,” McFarland said. “The horse didn’t get to the lead as easy as Dr. Livingston thought he would. After that, the horse seemed to know that he was outclassed.”

Ricks Natural Star, bought last year by Livingston for $3,000, had been idle for 14 months when the veterinarian transported him 2,000 miles from New Mexico to Toronto for the Breeders’ Cup. The horse has won two races and earned $6,093. Livingston said that the horse had a navicular disease and that before buying him he treated him with a vaccine he has developed.

Listed as the trainer for Ricks Natural Star tonight is Bobby Wayne Grayson. Livingston, who said that he passed the written state test for trainers by one point in New Mexico, was listed as both the owner and trainer at Woodbine, which has a reciprocity licensing agreement with the United States. Ingrid Fermin, a steward at Los Alamitos, said that Livingston had not applied for a California trainer’s license.

“I couldn’t afford it,” Livingston said. “The cost for the workman’s comp was $3,000.”

Horse Racing Notes

Dashing Folly, who has won her last eight starts, is an odds-on favorite in the Los Alamitos Derby. . . . Jockey Pat Valenzuela’s attorney told the Santa Anita Municipal Court Thursday that his client is in drug rehabilitation and Valenzuela’s arraignment has been postponed until Dec. 12. Valenzuela is facing two misdemeanor charges, one of which is drug-related.