Denied
Skip Away finishes third as Wagon Limit gallops to upset win
Posted: Sunday October 11, 1998 12:27 PM
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Wagon Limit beat 35-1 odds and Skip Away to take the Jockey Club Gold Cup Classic AP |
NEW YORK (AP) -- Fifteen years ago trainer Allen Jerkens twice upset Secretariat. On Saturday, he did it to Skip Away.
He did it in the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup with a 34-1 shot named Wagon Limit, who pulled away from Skip Away in the Belmont Park mud, denying his quest for a 10th straight win in his bid to be the first race horse to win $10 million.
"He's very sound, but we found a little filling in his right front," trainer Sonny Hine, whose wife, Carolyn, owns the 5-year-old Skip Away, said at the state testing barn after the race. "A little filling now means a lot more later. At the moment he's not lame, he's very sound. We'll just have to wait and see. He might have jammed himself a little in the race."
Skip Away is scheduled to race for the last time in the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic on November 7 at Churchill Downs.
"I want to have the money record, but I'm not going to go for the record at the expense of the horse," Hine said. "If that means not going to the Breeders' Cup, then it means not going to the Breeders' Cup. We'll just have to wait and see."
Cigar is the money record-holder at $9,999,815.
Wagon Limit, ridden by Robby Davis, won for only the second time in 10 starts this year. He flashed past Skip Away with about a furlong remaining, then overtook leading Gentlemen about a sixteenth of a mile later.
Wagon Limit was last in the six-horse field as Gentlemen, ridden by Corey Nakatani, and Skip Away, ridden by Jerry Bailey, battled through the first three-quarters of a mile on the sloppy track in 1:09 3-5.
With a quarter-mile left, Gentlemen was two lengths ahead of Skip Away and seven lengths in front of Wagon Limit, who had moved to fourth.
It was obvious to most of the 18,360 fans at that point that Skip Away was not going to become the $10 million horse.
Wagon Limit completed the 1 1/4 miles in 2:00 3-5 and beat Gentlemen by 5 1/2 lengths, with Skip Away another 4 3/4 lengths back. Completing the order of finish were Running Stag, Fire King and Pacificbounty.
"It's awfully hard to be at your best all the time," said Jerkens, who upset Secretariat in 1973 with Onion in the Whitney and with Prove Out in the Woodward.
"I can't blame any one thing," said Bailey, who also rode Cigar. "He broke well and he seemed to handle the track well. They were going fast, but he's going faster. The bottom line is you can't always win."
Wagon Limit paid $70, $21 and $2.10. Gentlemen returned $4.40 and $2.10, while Skip Away was $4 to show.
There were four other stakes races on the card.
Sharp Cat sizzled to her fifth straight victory, four this year and all in stakes, as she finished 11 lengths ahead of Tomisue's Delight in the $400,000 Beldame for fillies and mares.
Ridden by Nakatani, Sharp Cat ($2.90) shot into the lead shortly after the start, splashed six furlongs in 1:08 4-5, a mile in 1:33 2-5 and won in 1:46 1-5 for the 1 1/8 miles, just two-fifths of a second off the stakes record set in 1990.
Buck's Boy, ridden by Shane Sellers, led all the way in winning the $500,000 Turf Classic by three lengths over Cetewayo. The 5-year-old gelding ($4.90) raced the 1 1/2 miles on a soft turf course in 2:33 1-5 for his fifth win in nine starts this year. In two $400,000 stakes for 2-year-olds, The Groom Is Red ($15), also ridden by Nakatani, came from far back and won the Champagne for males by 2 3/4 lengths over Lemon Drop Kid and Confessional ($14.40), ridden by Bailey, romped by 10 1/2 lengths in the Frizette for fillies. Both winners covered the 1 1-16 miles in 1:42 4-5.
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