Supplementary Entries Fill Breeders’ Cup to Brim

When pre-entries are announced today for the 17th running of the Breeders’ Cup at Louisville, Ky., the owners of at least seven horses will be paying a near-record $1.86 million to make them eligible.

Some of the owners could have avoided these costly supplementaries by paying a measly $500 when the horses were foals. Others, such as Aaron and Marie Jones, who own the Brazilian-bred Riboletta, didn’t have that choice, having bought their mare long after the eligibility payment was due.

One-third of the supplementary payments was due Monday. The balance must be paid on entry day, a week from today. The eight Breeders’ Cup races, worth $13 million in purses, will be run at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.

The Breeders’ Cup record for supplementary payments is $1.92 million, set in 1998, also at Churchill. That year, Gentlemen’s owners paid $800,000, a Breeders’ Cup record, to get their horse into the $4-million Classic, but he bled in the race and earned nothing for finishing last in the 10-horse field.

The record number of supplementaries is eight, set in the second Breeders’ Cup in 1985, when the owners of eight horses paid $1.52 million for the races at Aqueduct in New York. Two of them, Pebbles in the Turf and Tasso in the Juvenile, won their races and their owners turned sizable profits.

Barring any unexpected payments, these are the horses whose supplemental eligibility will be announced today:

* In the $4-million Classic, Tiznow and Gander, at $360,000 apiece, and Captain Steve, $290,000.

* In the $2-million Turf, John’s Call, the 9-year-old former steeplechaser, $240,000.

* In the $2-million Distaff, Riboletta, $400,000.

* In the $1-million Mile, Ladies Din, $120,000.

* In the $1-million Filly & Mare Turf, Colstar, $90,000.

In the last few years, supplementing horses has become less expensive because of some tweaking of the Breeders’ Cup rules. Fees are still 20% if neither the horse nor the sire was nominated, but if the sire was nominated and not the horse, the payment has dropped from 12% to 9%. Also, a supplemental is good for a horse’s lifetime, not just one race, and most of the supplementary money is now added to the overall purse. This year’s supplements could make the Classic a $4.7-million race.

Having Chris McCarron available to ride Tiznow was an important consideration when the colt’s owners, Cee Straub-Rubens and Mike Cooper, considered supplementing. McCarron, whose Breeders’ Cup mounts have won seven times and earned more than $12 million, was spared a tough decision when the Joneses opted to run Riboletta in the Distaff, instead of the Classic. McCarron rides both horses. Riboletta’s supplementary payment for the Classic would have been a Gentlemen-like $800,000.

“Chris has had much to do with Tiznow turning into a professional and being able to handle high-level competition,” Cooper said. “Since [late July], Chris is the only jockey who’s ridden this horse.”

Like the rest of the country’s leading jockeys--the riders most in demand when the richest races are run--McCarron is used to facing decisions at Breeders’ Cup time.

In her last race, at Belmont Park, Riboletta not only won the Beldame Stakes, but beat Beautiful Pleasure, the winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff. The same day, Lemon Drop Kid ran a droopy fifth in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont, and the next day, at Santa Anita, Tiznow won impressively in the Goodwood Breeders’ Cup Handicap to boost his chances at Churchill Downs.

Before those results, the Classic had been perceived as not much more than a showdown between Lemon Drop Kid and Fusaichi Pegasus, the Kentucky Derby winner. Now Albert The Great, the Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, and another 3-year-old, Captain Steve, who was a gritty runner-up to Tiznow at Santa Anita, are given a chance, as is Giant’s Causeway, a European invader who has never run on dirt.

This Breeders’ Cup will be the fifth run at Churchill Downs and the second in the last three years. Usually, there’s more spacing between Breeders’ Cup visits, but Churchill stepped in when Santa Anita, in the middle of a renovation, couldn’t assure the site committee that the races could be run without problems.

Last year, at Gulfstream Park, an eighth race, the Filly & Mare Turf, was added to the card, and that program is intact. Except for the Classic, the Turf and the Distaff, the races are worth $1 million apiece.

Here’s a quick rundown on each race:

Classic--Cat Thief, the winner last year, hasn’t won since. He lost for the 10th consecutive time last month at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., and although trainer Wayne Lukas reported that the colt suffered a displaced palate in the race, Cat Thief ran out of excuses long ago.

Other than Lemon Drop Kid, the muscle in this race comes from the 3-year-olds: Fusaichi Pegasus, Tiznow, Captain Steve and Albert The Great. Gander’s camp was encouraged by his second-place finish in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Turf--Mutafaweq, winner of the Canadian International at Woodbine near Toronto, and Fantastic Light give Sheik Mohammed of Dubai two contenders. The sheik’s Godolphin Stables won this race last year with Daylami.

The Europeans, who have won five races at Churchill in the four previous Breeders’ Cups there, are expected to send perhaps four other Turf contenders. One of them, Montjeu, won last year’s Arc de Triomphe, but he ha’s flattened out this fall. Montjeu is expected to be pre-entered, then a workout Thursday at Chantilly will determine whether he makes the trip.

Distaff--Riboletta will be odds-on, the shortest price on the card. Trainers John and Donna Ward are optimistic that Beautiful Pleasure, back home in Kentucky, is capable of reversing the New York outcome. Surfside, a top 3-year-old filly early in the year before she was injured, ran an encouraging second in her comeback race at Keeneland.

Mile--The Europeans will be strong numerically for this grass race. Trainer Julio Canani, who saddled the winning Silic in last year’s Mile, takes a shot this time with the supplementary Ladies Din. Neil Drysdale, who trains Fusaichi Pegasus, will run the 3-year-old War Chant, brilliant in his grass debut at Santa Anita.

Filly and Mare Turf--The French import, Petrushka, has won three consecutive Group 1 races. Tout Charmant, another peaking horse ridden by McCarron, stopped Perfect Sting’s winning streak at Keeneland, but last weekend her trainer, Ron McAnally, was undecided about running. Tranquility Lake, another Canani trainee, was a convincing winner in the Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita.

Sprint--After running third at Churchill Downs in 1998 and finishing second to Artax in this race last year, it might be Kona Gold’s turn. Among his rivals will be Caller One, Five Star Day, and More Than Ready and Trippi, a couple of shortened-up runners from the Kentucky Derby.

Juvenile--This will be a salty East-West confrontation, with A P Valentine, the Champagne winner, along with City Zip, Yonaguska and Macho Uno taking on a California contingent that includes Flame Thrower, Street Cry and Arabian Light. Trainer Bob Baffert, who trains Flame Thrower and Arabian Light, has a third contender in Point Given.

Juvenile Fillies--Most of the noise in this division has come from New York, where Raging Fever has won five in a row. An undefeated Maryland-based filly, Xtra Heat, has sprinted to six consecutive victories, most recently shattering Gold Mover’s undefeated record in the Astarita at Belmont. The 1-2-3 finishers were Notable Career, Euro Empire and Cindy’s Hero in Santa Anita’s Oak Leaf, a prep that hasn’t furnished a Juvenile Fillies winner since 1993.

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Breeders’ Cup

Nov. 4, Channel 4, 10 a.m.

at Churchill Downs

THE FACTS

* Trainer Bobby Frankel has never won a Breeders’ Cup race (0-34).

* No horse 6 years old or older has won the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

* The three top choices in the wagering have never finished 1-2-3 in the Classic.

* Jerry Bailey (4), Pat Day (4), and Chris McCarron (3) have combined for 11 of the 16 victories in the Classic.

* The average win price is $33.70 in the Classic and the average exacta is $299.20. The average win price is $25.50 in the Turf and the average exacta is $189.60.

* Allen E. Paulsen (Cigar, Theatrical), who died earlier this year, had won more BC races (6) than any other owner in history. But the late Gene Klein (Is it True, Open Mind) enjoys the best owner percentage (minimum of 10 starts), with four winners from 17, for a 23.5% clip.

* Neil Drysdale (Fusaichi Pegasus, War Chant) enjoys the best trainer percentage (minimum of 10 starts) with five wins from 20 starts.