BackTrack: Lady's Secret Tops Males in Whitney

Physically, the biggest change at Saratoga Race Course this summer is a new paddock routine. Horses used to be saddled under the trees with the crowds milling about, talking to the horses, sometimes trying to pet them. It was a Saratoga tradition, but New York Racing Association officials worried that one day a member of the crowd might hurt a horse or a horse might get loose in the jammed area and run down a score of patrons ranging in age from 2 to 80.

Finally, NYRA put safety before tradition and built a huge, enclosed paddock.

"Long overdue," said Lenny Hale, senior vice president and racing secretary.

The horses are still saddled under trees and in ful view of the public.

"I love it," trainer Woody Stephens said. "It keeps the people away. It was hard to work with all the people right on top of you. I've come here for many years, and it's never been better than this."

The first week of Saratoga's 119th season stamped Eugene V. Klein's Lady's Secret as a candidate for Horse of the Year, bolstered the ranking of Peter M. Brant's homebred Gulch as the leading 2-year-old colt in New York so far this season, and perhaps produced a worthy rival for Tartan Stable's Ogygian somewhere down the line, but not for the Travers Stakes (G1) on Aug. 16.

The Saratoga racing strip remained fast and both turf courses firm for the first three days of the 24-day meeting despite threatening skies every day. On the fourth day, the first Saturday of the meeting, a typical Saratoga thunderstorm struck, beginning during the fifth race. By the time the horses took the track for the sixth event, the racing strip was a veritable sea of slop.

Such dramatic changes in track conditions do not faze the 4-year-old Lady's Secret, which was edged by Mom's Command last year in the balloting for the 3-year-old filly Eclipse Award, despite winning eight consecutive stakes. The gray Secretariat filly was a picture of composure in the paddock, and she was lightning on four legs once starter Frank Calvarese sent the field of seven on its way in the $292,500 Whitney Handicap (G1) Aug. 2.

Lady's Secret was carrying 119 pounds with jockey Pat Day in the saddle, an assignment that by scale made her the theoretical highweight with 124 pounds in the nine-furlong Whitney. The actual top weight was Mrs. Ben Cohen's Maryland invader Skip Trial, which carried 121 pounds with Jean-Luc Samyn aboard.

There was an abundance of speed in the field, including King's Swan, a 6-year-old gelding which handed 3-year-old star Ogygian his only defeat, and Sunny Galore, making his first start in the United States after winnng five of seven career outings in his native Canada.

The thinking of so many observers was that Lady's Secret faced a certain battle for the early lead and then would be a sitting duck for the late run of Skip Trial or Greentree Stable's Ends Well (116 pounds with Randy Romero). Nevertheless, Lady's Secret and her entrymate, Leonard D. Mathis' Fuzzy, 112 pounds with Richard Migliore, were narrowly favored at 13-10 over Skip Trial, the 7-5 second choice in the wagering of a crowd reported at 43,520. (Actually, the attendance was at least a few hundred less than that, since it was a T-shirt giveaway day and numerous patrons pay their way through two or more times in order to collect more shirts.)

No battle developed for early command. Day put Lady's Secret in high gear leaving the gate, and she simply outsprinted Sunny Galore to assume the lead by 3 1/2 lengths after a first quarter-mile in :23 1/5. After a half-mile in :46 3/5, the gray filly was 2 1/2 lengths in front and cruising. She was three on top after six furlongs in 1:10 4/5 and 2 1/2 on the lead at the eighth pole, the mile in 1:36 3/5.

Ends Well, a 5-year-old son of Lyphard and winner of the Michigan Mile and One-Eighth (G2) in his last start, made a good rally to move into second position on the stretch turn. If Lady's Secret had not been at her best, it would have been touch and go through the final quarter, but she was at the top of her game and it was no contest.

Trackman Jack Wilson of the Daily Racing Form debated (with himself) whether to call the victory "easily" or "ridden out." He finally decided on the latter.

Lady's Secret prevailed by 4 1/2, completing the distance in 1:49 4/5 for her sixth triumph in nine starts this year. One of her three defeats came in the Metropolitan Handicap (G1) May 26, when she fought off male opposition on the lead until inside the eighth pole and finally tired enough to finish third to Garthorn and Love That Mac.

Ends Well took second money in the Whitney by 3 1/4 lengths over Fuzzy, which earned the show award by a neck over Skip Trial.

No filly had won the Whitney since Gallorette in 1948, and the development left trainer Wayne Lukas and his son Jeff, who handles the New York division of the stable, thinking Horse of the Year.

Next morning at 7:45, Jeff was in his office on the Saratoga backstretch conferring with Wayne, who was at Del Mar, where it was 4:45 a.m.

Among the possiblle targets for Lady's Secret, the younger Lukas reported, are the Philip Iselin Handicap (G1) on Aug. 16 at Monmouth Park; the John Morris Handicap (G1) Aug. 24 at Saratoga; the Woodward Stakes (G1) Aug. 3 at Belmont Park; and the Maskette Stakes (G1) Sept. 6 at Belmont.

"We would get in the Woodward with 121 pounds and the Maskette with 125," he mused. Both races are run under allowance conditions.

Lady's Secret might have had a chance for Horse of the Year last Nov. 2, but she finished second to her older stablemate, Life's Magic, in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I).

For more on Lady's Secret, click here.