Skip Away sends owners to bank
Win at Jockey Club Gold Cup would be 10th straight
Posted: Friday October 09, 1998 10:11 PM
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Skip Away is the 2-5 early favorite to beat five rivals in the 1 1/4-mile Gold Cup AP |
NEW YORK (AP) -- Call it horse sense -- the change of mind that led trainer Sonny Hine to purchase Skip Away.
Hine and his wife, Carolyn, were driving home after they and a partner had voided the $30,000 purchase of a 2-year-old because the colt had a chipped ankle.
The partner didn't want damaged goods. The trainer, however, was thinking about his wife wanting a horse for her birthday.
Besides, he thought, "I had the daddy [Skip Trial] and he ran with chips in his ankles. He ran 38 times."
So Carolyn Hine became the owner of Skip Away. And because of the ankle chip, $7,500 was chipped off the price.
"One of my best deals," Hine said at the draw for the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup on Saturday at Belmont Park.
No horse has been able to beat him in his last nine starts. And if he wins Saturday, the big, tough, gray 5-year-old will make history by breaking the $10 million earnings barrier.
The career money winner is Cigar at $9,999,815. Skip Away has earned $9,506,350 on 18 wins, 10 seconds and five thirds in 36 starts at 14 different tracks. Win No. 19 -- 10th straight -- would be worth $600,000.
Since he finished 12th in the 1996 Kentucky Derby, Skip Away has not been worse than third in 25 starts.
"He's an iron horse," Hine said. "I couldn't break him down."
Skip Away is the 2-5 early favorite to beat five rivals in the 1 1/4-mile Gold Cup. The only other horse to win the race more than twice was the great gelding Kelso, a five-time winner in 1960-64.
The 5-2 second choice is Gentlemen, who beat Skip Away in the 1997 Pimlico Special, but who this year was third to him in the Hollywood Gold Cup and second to him in the Woodward on September 19 at Belmont. He will race in blinkers for the first time.
Others in the field are Running Stag, Pacificbounty, Wagon Limit and Fire King. Each starter will carry 126 pounds.
Skip Away is to conclude his racing career when he tries for a second victory in the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic on November 7 at Churchill Downs. Whatever happens in his last two starts, it would seem Skip Away has clinched Horse of the Year. He was champion 3-year-old in 1996 and champion older horse last year.
Also on the card Saturday will be the $500,000 Turf Classic, $400,000 Beldame for fillies and mares and a pair of $400,000 stakes for 2-year-olds -- the Champagne for males and the Frizette for fillies.
Dushyantor, making his third U.S. start after 13 races in Britain, was the 5-1 pick in the 1 1/2-mile Turf Classic, and Sharp Cat, winner of the Ruffian on September 19 at Belmont, was the even-money choice in the 1 1/8-mile Beldame.
In the two 1 1/16-mile juvenile stakes, Tactical Cat, second in the Hopeful at Saratoga on September 5, was the 5-2 favorite in the Champagne and Things Change, winner of Saratoga's Spinaway on September 4, was the 6-5 choice over 9-5 Oh What a Windfall, winner of Belmont's Matron on September 20, in the Frizette.
The Champagne and Gold Cup will be shown live on an NBC telecast from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. EDT.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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