So what if Fusaichi Pegasus, the highly acclaimed Kentucky Derby winner, won’t run tomorrow in Belmont Park’s Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup after stubbing his toe last weekend, preferring to await the Breeders’ Cup Classic Nov. 4 at Churchill Downs?
Trainer Scotty Schulhofer believes his 4-year-old superstar, Lemon Drop Kid, is the top thoroughbred in America and that, Pegasus or no Pegasus, the Kid will claim Horse of the Year honors with a Gold Cup victory.
“If he don’t, then there’s no justice,” Schulhofer said yesterday at the post-position draw. “He’s the easiest horse I’ve ever trained, he’s the best I’ve ever trained. He eats, he sleeps, he does everything perfect. He couldn’t be doing any better.”
Lemon Drop Kid is a racing rarity, winning Grade 1 races each of the three years he’s run. He took the Futurity at Belmont as a 2-year-old and the Belmont Stakes and Travers last year at 3. But through both campaigns he was an immature, inconsistent colt until Schulhofer equipped him with blinkers last spring and named Edgar Prado to replace Jose Santos in the saddle.
Since then, after finishing third in the Pimlico Special, LDK ripped off consecutive scores in the Brooklyn, Suburban and Whitney handicaps, followed by a game score in the Woodward when he held off old rival Behrens by a head in a heart-thumping stretch duel.
“A lot had to do with Edgar,” said Schulhofer. “He rides him different from Jose. He gets him into the race earlier, and the blinkers have helped, too.”
Trainer James “007” Bond was shaken when his veteran handicapper, Behrens, finished second in the Suburban, third in the Whitney and second in the Woodward, but he’ll be stirred if the 6-year-old can finally turn the tables on Lemon Drop Kid in the mile-and-a-quarter Gold Cup.
“He’s a hard-luck type of horse,” Bond said. “He has barely lost three Grade 1 races (dropping the ’97 Travers and ’99 Whitney by a nose to go with the Woodward). Those could have made him a superhorse.
“He’s come back as good as ever. I still believe in him, even if some people have written him off. Believe me, he still wouldn’t be in training if I didn’t think he could do it.”
Lemon Drop Kid was installed the 4-5 morning-line favorite, with Behrens at 2-1. Albert The Great, Skimming, Gander, Agol Lack and Vision and Verse complete the field.
The Jockey Club Gold Cup could prove anti-climactic, coming an hour after the Grade 1, $750,000 Beldame at a mile-and-an-eighth, a virtual match race that pits an immovable object, Beautiful Pleasure, against an irresistible force, Riboletta.
Along with Heritage of Gold, who runs tomorrow in the Spinster at Keeneland, Beautiful Pleasure and Riboletta are the leading contenders for champion mare.
Beautiful Pleasure, the defending champ, is 3-for-5 this year, including front-running romps in the Shuvee and Hempstead last spring at Belmont, where she’s 4-for-6 lifetime.
“She does like it here,” said Donna Ward, Beautiful Pleasure’s assistant trainer and exercise rider. “She likes the big, sweeping turns, the wide track and the footing.”
But Riboletta has been nearly unstoppable this year going 6-for-9, including her last five in a row. Last out she shipped in from California to take the Ruffian at Belmont by 7½ lengths, dueling on the lead most of the way before exploding down the stretch.
Her trainer, Eduardo Inda, was assistant to Hall of Famer Ron McAnally when he trained champion mares Bayakoa and Paseana, who, like Riboletta, were imported from South America.