Churchill Downs showdown shaping up like richest race

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday 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.

Thoroughbred racing's high-stakes poker game reaches the put up or shut up stage today.

Today, those who believe in their chances to contest for the biggest payday in racing will ante up a seat at the final championship table for all the marbles in Louisville on Nov. 7.

For some, fading the pot for the showdown hand at the Breeders' Cup will be substantial. But if all the big shooters play -- as they are expected to -- then the finale at Churchill Downs will be the richest thoroughbred race ever run.

It is also fitting that the Breeders' Cup Classic would be the greatest renewal ever run.

The deadline for pre-entry for the seven Breeders' Cup races is today.

By day's end, horsemen must declare if and where they plan to run their horses in Breeders' Cup events, and those who cross-enter in more than one race must state their race of preference.

The full list will be announced to the public on Wednesday, with official entries taken a week from Wednesday on Nov. 4.

The Breeders' Cup was conceived and devised by the leaders of America's thoroughbred breeding industry to create a year-end series of championship races to showcase the sport's greatest stars.

Its objective was to enhance the breeding segment of the industry by offering the series of million dollar-plus races for all divisions of racing thoroughbreds and the value of their sires and dams. Breeders' Cup Limited enjoyed immediate and widespread support from the industry through annual nomination payments for stallions and one-time nominations for those stallions' offspring.

The Breeders' Cup is a multimillion-dollar racing and promotional program that not only comprises the Breeders' Cup Championship day -- with seven races totaling $12 million in purses -- but also the $15 million Breeders' Cup National Stakes program of 88 races across the United States and Canada.

But not all participants were eligible through stallion nominations.

To accommodate the worthy equine stars who slipped through the eligibility crack, a supplemental payment system was devised.

Those who chose could pay to play. And it didn't take long to produce the first supplemental winner.

The inaugural Breeders' Cup Classic was won by supplemental entrant Wild Again. His owners, comprised of the Black Chip Stables, put up $360,000 to earn the $1,350,000 winners share of the $3 million purse in 1984.

Since then there have been six different horses win seven other Breeders' Cup events through supplemental payments.

In 1995, Pebbles won the Turf and Tasso took the Juvenile. In 1989, Bayakoa was a supplement Distaff winner and returned in 1990 to garner that same event.

In 1992, Paseana used the same tactics to win the Distaff and in 1994 Cherokee Run bought himself into a Sprint victory.

Last year Carolyn and Sonny Hine rolled the dice and bet $480,000 on the pass line that Skip Away could produce a profit on the investment.

He did, winning the Breeders' Cup Classic and the lion's share of the then-record $4,030,400 purse.

This year, a blockbuster supplemental pool is at hand.

With the recent results of key Breeders' Cup prep races leading to a once-in-a-lifetime showdown, so to will be the payments to make three of the heavyweights eligible.

Skip Away will return this year to defend his title in an effort to wrap up not only the all-time North America earnings record, but a well deserved and elusive Horse of the Year trophy.

He has a "credit" of $400,000 from last year's participation and will have to pony up $80,000 this year to enter.

His loss in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park earlier this month has given hope to others who must pay to play in the Classic.

Gentlemen, who beat Skip Away in the Jockey Club but finished second to the winner Wagon Limit, may wind up taking another shot at Skippy in the Classic instead of a more conservative Mile start. His owner, R.D. Hubbard of Hollywood Park race track, has indicated he would pay the required $800,000 supplement to give the Argentine champion one last shot to duplicate his 1997 Pimlico Special victory over Skippy, provided trainer Richard Mandella feels confident in his chances.

A third shooter has now re-entered the Classic picture by virtue of a resounding recent victory at Oak Tree at Santa Anita. Last year's three-year-old champ Silver Charm won the Goodwood Handicap with such authority that his ticket to Churchill Downs was punched for an expected Classic battle of the grays. But, like Skippy and Gentlemen, owners Bob and Beverly Lewis must supplement the Charm to the show. His stipend is $480,000 and the Lewises have all but signed the check.

The pre-entry of Skip Away, Gentlemen and Silver Charm to this year's Breeders' Cup Classic will swell the purse to more than $5 million.

With those three and the expected entries of Awesome Again, Touch Gold, Arch, Swain, Victory Gallop and possibly Coronado's Quest, this Breeders' Cup Classic will be a race for the ages ... and for the bankroll.

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