Look Back: Rainbow Frames Inside Information's Distaff

Inside Information got a heavenly prize at the end of her record-setting Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I) when a rainbow framed her in an arc of color. This sent the Belmont Park crowd, awed by the filly's explosive stretch drive, into a frenzy, and jockey Mike Smith obligingly took his time bringing her to the winner's circle.

What had begun in the rain ended in the sunshine of a promise fulfilled.

The pot of gold for the 4-year-old Private Account filly held the Distaff's $520,000 first prize and a possible Eclipse Award as 1995's champion older female. She had beaten her main contender for the championship, stablemate Heavenly Prize, by a whopping 13 1/2 lengths, nearly doubling what had been the widest winning margin in Distaff history.

And her time over the muck that had become Belmont's main track, 1:46.15, also was a record for the Distaff at 1 1/8 miles. Like Cigar's final time in the Classic (gr. I), Inside Information's Distaff clocking muted any talk that track condition alone could be held responsible for such an overpowering performance.

For trainer Shug McGaughey and the Phipps family, the pot of gold included another first-place prize and another possible Eclipse. In the first race on the Breeders' Cup card, My Flag had taken the Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) for the stable. My Flag was sired by champion Easy Goer and produced from Private Account's daughter Personal Ensign, who ended her career with a victory in the 1988 Distaff and an Eclipse Award as champion older female.

My Flag and Heavenly Prize race for Ogden Phipps, current patriarch of a family that has been at the forefront of the industry since the 1920s. Inside Information races for his son, Ogden Mills (Dinny) Phipps, chairman of The Jockey Club and owner of 1989 Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) winner Rhythm. The elder Phipps, 86, was on hand for the 12th Breeders' Cup, but Dinny Phipps, 55, led in both of the stable's winners and was accompanied in winner's circle ceremonies by his children Ogden II, Dais, Samantha, Lilly, and Kelley Farish.

"My grandmother and grandfather were deeply involved in racing, as is my father," Phipps said. "And now my father has seen fit to let me own a piece of his stable, and all my children own a piece of his stable. So I hope it's going to go a long way from here."

Coming in the same year that another venerable stable, that of Paul Mellon, ended its tenure on American soil, the Phippses' success was good news for anyone who values racing tradition.

While breeding the best to the best and hoping for the best certainly has paid off for the Phipps stable, so has the hiring of McGaughey in 1985. The 44-year-old Lexington native learned efficiency and patience while working for Hall of Fame trainer Frank Whiteley and his son David, and he hasn't forgotten what he learned. He has handled the grand livestock afforded him by the Phipps family like a master violinist presented with a succession of Stradivariuses.

In the strategic game of training racehorses, McGaughey has few peers. He kept his two world-class 4-year-old fillies apart this year until the Distaff, picking their spots. With Heavenly Prize, that meant four consecutive grade I wins, while Inside Information was compiling a six-for-seven 1995 record, including a trio of grade I triumphs.

For their final preps before the Distaff, McGaughey chose the Beldame (gr. I) on Oct. 7 for Heavenly Prize, and the Spinster (gr. I) a day later for Inside Information, whom the trainer said was the better shipper of the pair. A half-dozen Spinster winners had won the Keeneland stakes prior to the Breeders' Cup; Inside Information became the seventh.

A week before the Breeders' Cup, McGaughey got a work under Heavenly Prize, five furlongs in 1:01 2/5, before the storm hit that would cancel racing that afternoon. Next day, while other trainers slept in, he sent Inside Information to the track for a half-mile in :47.

"My thinking was that since the track had been sealed since Saturday morning, the bottom probably was good, and it was," McGaughey said. "I think it was a better racetrack than it was going to be on Monday after they raced over it on Sunday. I hate to get out of my game plan, but sometimes you have to. I think I made the right decision."

The clear front runners for the Eclipse as outstanding trainer this year are Bill Mott, who has Cigar, and D. Wayne Lukas, who has had another spectacular year. But on racing's biggest day, it was McGaughey, like an overgrown leprechaun, who worked the real magic.

Field of dreamers

Bolstered by a home court advantage, not to mention two very outstanding runners, the Phipps entry justified its 4-5 Distaff odds. Second choice at 5-2 was Serena's Song, who had sewn up the Eclipse as champion 3-year-old filly for Lukas and owners Robert and Beverly Lewis. She had finished second in the Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) last year, losing to stablemate Flanders by a head. Flanders suffered a career-ending injury in the race and was named divisional champion, but it's hard to imagine that there could have been a better 3-year-old filly this year than Serena's Song.

Evidence of the Rahy filly's toughness and durability was plentiful: 12 starts, nine wins, six grade I victories, and $1.5 million in earnings, more than twice the 1995 total of any other Distaff starter. She was the only 1995 Kentucky Derby (gr. I) horse racing in the Breeders' Cup.

In the Beldame, Serena's Song raced uncontested on the lead, getting a half-mile in :48.08. That and four pounds were enough. She held off Heavenly Prize for a three-quarter-length victory over a track listed as fast, but holding some moisture from recent rains.

In the Distaff, the weight assignments were identical, 119 pounds for 3-year-olds, 123 for older horses. But there were differences, notably the presence of Inside Information, whose tactical speed guaranteed a realistic pace. McGaughey vowed that the Spinster winner would "make things very busy up near the lead. If they go a half in :48, Serena's Song's going to be laying second, because she'll be in front."

Lukas and jockey Gary Stevens dismissed suggestions that Serena's Song had to be on the lead, maintaining that in the Beldame, Stevens had simply taken advantage of a situation that presented itself. Commenting on her versatility, Lukas said, "Serena's Song deals the cards, and the rest of them play the hand."

Whenever the Phipps father and son have horses in the same race, McGaughey always saddles the elder Phipps' horses, so assistant trainer Buzzy Tenny tightened the girth on Inside Information for the Distaff. As paddock watchers peered from beneath umbrellas, programs, and Racing Forms, the field of 10 took a quick turn around the walking ring before heading onto the track.

Inside Information, a plain-faced, brownish bay of sleek but modest proportions, bobbled slightly at the start, and visions of the Ballerina (gr. I) instantly loomed. The Saratoga race was the only time she wasn't able to use her speed to advantage, and she finished second, beaten six lengths by Classy Mirage.

But she recovered quickly in the Distaff and set out after Lakeway, Serena's Song, and Mariah's Storm. Lakeway, racing about four out from the rail under Kent Desormeaux, had a half-length lead after a quarter-mile in :23. Serena's Song was even farther outside, while jockey Mike Smith, sporting a black left eye from a racquetball accident, kept Inside Information closer to the rail early on.

"Everybody's been getting off the rail here the last few weeks, but I wasn't too concerned about it," Smith said later.

It would have taken super wide-angle lens binoculars for McGaughey to watch both his fillies, for Heavenly Prize was far behind. "I couldn't believe she was that far back as quick as she was," he said.

Smith meanwhile had loosened the reins on Inside Information and would have been content merely to press the pace. But the filly, relishing the same kind of muddy track on which she won last year's Acorn (gr. I) by 11 lengths, had different ideas.

"All of a sudden, she grabbed the bit," Smith said. "Lakeway was staying so far off the fence, she just took me on up there."

Inside Information shot out to a half-length lead after a half-mile in :45.90 and extended the margin to 1 1/2 lengths after six furlongs in 1:09.42. But neither Lakeway nor Serena's Song seemed ready to throw in the towel just yet.

"She ran the turn very well, and when we headed for home, I asked her again, she switched to her right lead and took off," said Smith. "I was pretty confident at the half-mile pole, and I knew that if anytbody was going to beat her, they would have to be flying."

Trainer Gary F. Jones had instructed Desormeaux to stay away from the inside, and the trainer admitted that might have been a mistake. In any case, Jones said no one was going to catch Inside Information after she raced a mile in 1:33.50. "The track bothered her and that 33 and two bothered her," Jones said of Lakeway.

Seven lengths on top turning for home, Inside Information galloped the rest of the way to the wire, lengthening her margin with every stride. Smith, hand-riding all the way, peaked under his right arm at about the eighth pole and wondered where everyone had gone. Heavenly Prize came along the rail late to take second, followed by Lakeway, Forested, Serena's Song, Golden Klair, Top Rung, Borodislew, Mariah's Storm, and Vinista.

"She was very lethargic early," jockey Pat Day said of Heavenly Prize. "I was waiting for her to find her stride and take hold of me and go on, like she's done in the past. Today, she didn't do that. She came on with a little half-hearted run, enough to be second, but certainly not the kind of explosive move we've seen from her in some of her past races."

"She was kind of skating out there," said Serena's Song's rider, Gary Stevens, who used four pairs of goggles compared with Smith's one. "She wasn't getting a real good hold of it. I squeezed her and asked her for more at the three-eighths pole, and she gave it to me, but Inside Information just galloped away from me."

A subdued Lukas said Serena's Song came back fine and would be prepared for a winter campaign at Santa Anita Park. "It was just one of those things," he said. "She didn't handle it. A lot of them didn't."

McGaughey admitted that even he was surprised that Inside Information drew off like she did. The winning margin set a new standard for the Distaff, erasing from the record books Princess Rooney's seven-length triumph in the inaugural Distaff in 1984. Inside Information's winning time, 1.40 seconds faster than Bayakoa's 1989 Distaff record, came within six-tenths of matching Secretariat's 1973 track record. (The first four Distaffs were raced at 1 1/4 miles.)

Inside Information seems likely to resume a tradition, interrupted by One Dreamer last year, of Distaff winners getting Eclipse Awards. All 10 winners prior to One Dreamer were named divisional champions. For Heavenly Prize, there was no third-time charm, and there probably won't be another Eclipse. She ran third in the Juvenile Fillies in 1993 and was beaten by a neck in the Distaff last year, when she was named champion 3-year-old filly.

Heavenly Prize, whom some felt could have been second to Cigar in the Classic, may get her chance to face Cigar at 1 1/4 miles early next year. The 4-year-od Seeking the Gold filly is to race at least a couple of times in Florida prior to joining Inside Information in the broodmare band at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky, and McGaughey indicated that an appearance in the 10-furlong Gulfstream Park Handicap (gr. I) is a distinct possibility. If Cigar follows the same route next year that brought him to this year's Classic, that race could be on his agenda as well.

But this time, the day belonged to Inside Information. Phipps said after the Distaff that she had done enough and would be sent to Claiborne to be bred next spring. He hadn't yet planned the matings of the Phipps mares for '95, but he'll no doubt have his pick among Bluegrass stallions.

"Inside Information is going home," Phipps said, "and she deserves it."