THOROUGHBRED RACING : In Breeders’ Cup Sprint Races, Favorites Have Come Up Empty

Most horsemen are dreamers, but the Breeders’ Cup Sprint is for those who dream in Technicolor.

They have every right to. After Eillo and Precisionist, at short prices, won the first two runnings of the Sprint, in 1984-85, the six-furlong race has become inscrutable. Every horse entered seemingly has a chance to win.

Here are the $2-win payoffs since 1985: $24, $34.80, $13.60, $35.20, $26.40, $54.60 and $39.40.

Favorites have taken a drubbing in the Sprint as in no other Breeders’ Cup race, so each year the fields are large and unwieldy, the jockeys hell-bent and the hazards great.

The 10th running of the Sprint, at Santa Anita on Nov. 6, will not turn history around. The Daily Racing Form surveys several future books in Las Vegas and Caliente weekly, and every book has short-priced horses favored for six of the Breeders’ Cup races, the exception being the Sprint. Most of the books have the Sprint favorites at 3-1 or higher.

This year’s Sprint is so wide open that even the trainers of the 1-2 finishers in last Sunday’s Ancient Title Handicap at Santa Anita are planning to run.

The Ancient Title is the Titanic of the Sprint Stakes. Of all the preps for Breeders’ Cup races, the Ancient Title may be the worst. Eleven horses from the Ancient Title--including six winners--have gone on to the Sprint, and none has finished better than third.

The best example of the Ancient Title-Sprint jinx occurred in 1986, the last time the Breeders’ Cup was run at Santa Anita. The timing of the Ancient Title seemed to be perfect that year, 17 days before the Sprint. Trainer Jose Martin brought Groovy, his crack speedster, out from New York to get a race over the track and at the same distance as the Sprint. Groovy won the Ancient Title in 1:08 1/5.

In the Breeders’ Cup, Smile ran a fifth of a second slower but won the race. Groovy, the 2-5 favorite, finished fourth, beaten by 4 1/4 lengths.

Groovy’s problem, more than the bugaboo of the Ancient Title, might have been running his prep too close to the Sprint. According to Jim Mazur and Peter Mallett, in their 1993 handicappers’ guide called “Crushing the Cup,” prep races for the nine Sprint winners have averaged an astonishing 53 days before the Breeders’ Cup.

That figure is skewed because the sore-footed Precisionist won his Sprint in 1985 after a 4 1/2-month layoff, but the pattern for Sprint winners is still much different from other Breeders’ Cup races. Last year’s Sprint winner, Thirty Slews, had not run in 57 days.

The smartest thing trainer Bob Baffert did with Thirty Slews was to keep him out of the Ancient Title. The horses who did use that prep, Gray Slewpy and Cardmania, were 11th and 12th, respectively, at Gulfstream Park.

Now Cardmania has won this year’s Ancient Title, and if the 7-year-old gelding’s trainer, Derek Meredith, believes in superstitions, he’s not saying.

“The main thing is that now we’ve got enough points to get into the Sprint,” Meredith said.

When more than 14 horses are entered in a Breeders’ Cup race, a point system, based on 1-2-3 finishes in graded races, helps decide the order of preference.

Before the Ancient Title, Cardmania was on a 17-month, 17-race losing streak, a slump that was marked by a rash of second- and third-place finishes and lots of travel. He ran one of those races in England, two in Germany and even was shipped to Hong Kong, where he ran fourth in a $388,000 race this spring.

At Gulfstream last year, the Breeders’ Cup was run in steamy 87-degree heat. For the three Breeders’ Cups in California, the temperature has never been higher than the low 70s.

“My horse washed out (sweated) badly in Florida,” Meredith said. “He should do much better this time. He’ll be in comfortable surroundings, and he’s won three stakes here. That should be a big edge.”

Cardmania’s first 40 races were on grass. He has raced 65 times, 20 on dirt, and has won 14 times, been second nine and third 17, with earnings of $832,979.

Running second Sunday, 2 1/2 lengths behind Cardmania, was another 7-year-old gelding, Music Merci. He rallied from last place, 11 lengths behind, and although that was a sharp move, it’s a style that hasn’t been effective in the speed-favoring Sprint.

“He didn’t have the best of trips,” said Bill Spawr, who has been training Music Merci for about five months. “He’s in good shape now, and I think he deserves the chance. He’s like Joe Montana. He keeps coming back for more. He’s an old pro.”

A few trainers ago, Music Merci ran in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs, running fourth in a race in which Is It True upset the 3-10 favorite Easy Goer. Music Merci’s record stands at 12 victories and seven seconds in 34 races, with purses of $1.5 million.

At Del Mar last summer, Music Merci won two sprints as Spawr ran him for claiming prices of $50,000 and $62,500. His triumph there on Sept. 12 just missed the fifth anniversary of his victory in the Del Mar Futurity.

Music Merci’s sesamoids, those bones in the front ankles, have taken a pounding, and he’s not a horse that can stand heavy training.

Besides the Ancient Title thing, Music Merci and Cardmania have another strike against them in the Sprint: No horse older than 6 has ever won a Breeders’ Cup race.

Horse Racing Notes

Five French horses scheduled to run this weekend at Laurel were unable to be flown out of Paris because of a wildcat strike by Air France employees that began earlier in the week. Only one of the horses, Kitwood, was scheduled to run in the $600,000 Washington D.C. International on Sunday. In the event the strike continues, the Breeders’ Cup has a charter plane reserved so that French horses can get to Santa Anita for the $10-million card two weeks from today. . . . Inchinor, an English horse, is the only foreign entry in the eight-horse International. Furiously is favored at 3-1, followed by Cleone at 7-2 and The Wicked North at 9-2. Pat Valenzuela will ride Cleone and Corey Black has the mount on The Wicked North.

Senate Appointee has a fever and will not run in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Trainer Bobby Frankel will still have a horse in the race, having decided to run Jolypha in that spot instead of the Classic. . . . Corey Black, the only jockey to win on Jolypha in the United States, rode her to a fourth-place finish in last Sunday’s Goodwood Handicap and will be replaced by either Pat Day or Pat Eddery for the Distaff. . . . Mike Smith, the leading jockey in the country with $10.8 million in purses, said that he will leave New York about a week before the Breeders’ Cup to familiarize himself with Santa Anita, where he has never ridden. Smith will have several Breeders’ Cup mounts, the most prominent being Sky Beauty in the Distaff and Lure in the Mile.

Samourzakan is the 118-pound high weight for Saturday’s $75,000 Henry P. Russell Handicap at Santa Anita. Others running in the 1 1/4-mile grass race are Corrupt, El Meteoro, Arnold S., Fast Cure, Lissitski, Big Blow and the entry of D’Arros and Russian Courage.