Columnist Ralph Siraco: Final tune-ups held for this year's Breeders' Cup

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Mondays and his Southern California selections run Tuesday through Friday on the scoreboard page. Write to him c/o Las Vegas Sun, 800 S. Valley View Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89107.

Dress rehearsals for this year's Breeders' Cup were completed over the weekend. The leading man for the 15th road tour forgot his lines while a Gentlemen helped the leading lady steal the show on Broadway.

On a soggy afternoon over a muddy Belmont Park main, Skip Away was pressed into submission by Gentlemen after jumping a tractor's tire track and failing to find a diamond lane in Saturday's Jockey Club Gold Cup, while a most unlikely understudy claimed the part for at least a day.

Sharp Cat, however, used a fast path along the rail aided by an inside speed bias that produced the most outstanding performance in a weekend full of final Breeders' Cup preps, trouncing her competition in the Beldame earlier on the card.

The Breeders' Cup Preview day at America's largest race track featured five Grade I events showcasing five divisions in final tune-ups for the big show in Louisville Nov. 7.

The main event attracted the leading Horse of the Year candidate, looking to rewrite the record books and head into Kentucky with an unblemished record for the year. Both vanished in the Big Apple mud.

In Las Vegas vernacular, Skip Away tried for a hard ten and sevened out.

Carolyn Hine's pride and joy, and racing's most popular gray, was sent off at prohibitive 2-to-5 odds to capture the Jockey Club Gold Cup for the third straight year. The son of Skip Trial had a perfect 7-for-7 record this year and had a nine-race win streak dating to the 1997 Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Having banked $9,506,360 in a 36-race career that saw 18 victories, Skip Away was on the verge of breaking Cigar's all-time North American earnings record of $9,999,815.

Another Gold Cup win, a perfect season and new earnings record would have Skip Away arriving at Churchill Downs with as much anticipation and fanfare as a Kenneth Starr report on Capitol Hill.

Now he'll arrive with as much debate as a Presidential impeachment process.

Of the five rivals that faced Skippy in the Cup, only Gentlemen was given a legitimate chance to stop the gray from destiny.

A quick early-week drill that had Gentleman sporting new equipment in the form of blinkers signaled a change in tactics. When the starting gates flew open for the 1 1/4 miles Gold Cup, a prompt Gentlemen quickly established the position which is Skip Away's custom -- that of pace setter. In doing so, jockey Corey Nakatani secured a firmer path on a spotty drying-out racing strip.

Jerry Bailey, Skippy's usual chauffeur, was hustling his partner for a firm path and the lead that Gentlemen occupied. As the pair, locked in a spirited and lively battle, passed onto the long backstretch from the starting position on the first turn, Skip Away noticed tire marks left by the maintenance tractors and attempted to jump them.

In full stride, when Skippy put extreme pressure on his right front leg that would later show filling in the ankle from the strain.

Gentlemen and Skip Away continued to duel in a race of their own until midway around the final turn. In the final furlong, as Gentlemen staggered along, Wagon Limit, who had lagged in last place early in the race, came rolling along to pick up the pieces for the battle.

Trainer H. Allen Jerkens, who beat the great Secretariat twice in his career with two different horses, lived up to his reputation as "giant killer" with a victory from a colt who had won but one race this year -- until Saturday's Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Trainer Sonny Hine said Skip Away felt good and was recovering from the slight injury to his right front leg. He said Skip Away would run in the Breeders' Cup Classic, as scheduled, for his final career start before heading to the breeding shed.

Hine still wants the all-time money-earnings record, and the $110,000 that his horse received for finishing third, behind Gentlemen who held 2nd, has Skippy $383,455 short of Cigar's record.

About an hour-and-a-half earlier, Sharp Cat won the Beldame with such authority that her handlers may think of taking on Skippy and company in the Classic rather than the more appropriate and logical Breeders' Cup Distaff. The talented daughter of Storm Cat won her fifth stakes in a row since finishing second in last year's Distaff.

Taking advantage of track conditions conducive to her style, Sharp Cat took the lead from the start and crushed her opposition in a runaway. It now remains to be seen if her connections get Cup fever and send her to the wolves in the Classic or take the cool $2 million of the Distaff.

Other Breeders' Cup Preview day winners: The Frizette -- Jerry Bailey rode Confessional to a daylight victory for trainer Bill Mott while beating favorite Things Change, who looked spent. A Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies berth is likely for the winner.

The Turf Classic -- Buck's Boy benefited from a late defection by Indy Vidual that left him as the only pace of the race. Under Shane Sellers, the Boy went the distance and may have passed the Buck to Kentucky next.

The Champagne -- The Groom Is Red came from left field for jockey Corey Nakatani and most likely stamped his ticket for Louisville in the process. Trainer Nick Zito may want a dry run for his juvenile at Churchill Downs for next year's Derby to give owner Rick Pitino another shot at a rare Kentucky double, having won an NCAA Basketball Championship with the University of Kentucky.

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