Baffert Says Gelding Is Up to Challenge in Gold Cup

Not many geldings win the Hollywood Gold Cup, especially geldings that haven’t run in three months.

But trainer Bob Baffert, who won the $1-million race last year with Real Quiet, is enthusiastic about General Challenge’s training for Sunday’s 1 1/4-mile race at Hollywood Park.

“He’s a really great horse, and he’s the best horse in the race,” Baffert said. “Now he’s got to get around there.”

General Challenge is in position to become only the second horse to sweep the Strub Stakes, the Santa Anita Handicap and the Hollywood Gold Cup in the same year. In 1979, the year after he swept the Triple Crown, Affirmed won the two Santa Anita fixtures and the Gold Cup.

The Strub is limited to 4-year-olds, and after beating that group Feb. 5, General Challenge moved to open company on March 4 and won the Big ‘Cap by 1 1/4 lengths.

That win vaulted General Challenge to the top of the older-horse division, but he teetered badly on April 9, finishing third as the 1-5 favorite in the San Bernardino Handicap at Santa Anita. He hasn’t run since.

“There’s only one word to describe that race: disaster,” Baffert said.

It turned out that General Challenge had a legitimate excuse.

“He never ran, so we scoped him [for bleeding] right away and didn’t find anything,” Baffert said. “Then the next day they found that he had entrapped his epiglottis. He had trouble getting air, and there was a lot of inflammation.”

Two days later, General Challenge underwent surgery to correct the problem. It was about a month before he was able to resume training.

“He lost a lot of time, but he’s also filled out,” Baffert said. “He looks a lot better now.”

General Challenge, who will be entered today for the 61st Gold Cup along with eight or nine other horses, is listed as the 9-5 favorite on the preliminary morning line.

This is not a robust field. Only one other probable--Chester House--is listed among the Daily Racing Form’s divisional top 10, and the shippers from the East Coast--Pleasant Breeze and David--are underachievers. Other than General Challenge and Cat Thief, there’s not a Grade I winner running.

The last gelding to win the Gold Cup was Slew Of Damascus, who upset odds-on favorite The Wicked North in 1994. Slew Of Damascus was only the fourth gelding to win the stake since the inimitable Native Diver captured three consecutive Gold Cups from 1965-67.

Of more concern to Baffert is General Challenge’s three-month layoff. The longest winning layoff in Gold Cup history is believed to belong to Perrault, who won the 1982 running almost two months after his previous race.

Two recent Gold Cup winners failed to repeat when they came into the race with big gaps between their previous starts. Gentlemen, the Gold Cup winner in 1997, was third the next year, and Siphon ran second in 1997 after winning in 1996.

“General Challenge had gone soft on me when I first got him back,” Baffert said. “It took a while to get him back to where he was. The mile and a quarter will be a test, but he’s got a good foundation. He’s been working great.”

General Challenge, who will be ridden by Corey Nakatani, a jockey who’s winless in seven Gold Cup mounts, worked seven furlongs in an impressive 1:22 2/5 on Friday at Santa Anita. Six days before, General Challenge worked seven furlongs in 1:23 4/5, and he went a mile on June 18 in 1:36.

General Challenge is stabled at Santa Anita, where the season ended April 24, and he does all his training there. Baffert has a stable of horses at Hollywood Park, but most of his important runners train at Santa Anita.

“Santa Anita has the best surface in California,” he said. “Hollywood’s surface is loose and sandy, and it’s hard on horses. They either love it or they hate it.”

While winning eight of 15 starts and earning $2 million for John and Betty Mabee, his owners and breeders, General Challenge has run four times at Hollywood. He broke his maiden, in his first start, in November 1998. His other three Hollywood starts came last year--a win in the Affirmed Handicap, a second in the Swaps and a win in December in the Native Diver Handicap.

Cat Thief, the horse that beat General Challenge in the Swaps, is a Gold Cup probable who’s had trouble winning ever since. Cat Thief was an upset winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park, in November, but that has been his only win since the Swaps in 11 starts.

Early Pioneer, who won the San Bernardino, finishing 2 1/2 lengths ahead of General Challenge, is also expected to run in the Gold Cup.

On Sunday, General Challenge was vanned across town to Hollywood Park, where he was schooled in the spacious, European-style garden paddock.

“He’s got his own mind, and he can still be his own worst enemy,” Baffert said. “He can get excited and hot. If a horse is going to fall apart any place before a race, it will be at Hollywood Park. It’s a long way over there from their barns, and there’s too much to see for a horse not to get distracted.”

Last year, despite winning the Santa Anita Derby and the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, General Challenge was a different horse when he was shipped out of California. His worst races--fifth in the Louisiana Derby, 11th in the Kentucky Derby and 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Classic--came out of state.

After the Gold Cup, his schedule the rest of this year is expected to include another run in the Pacific Classic on Aug. 26, then a prep race for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, which will be run Nov. 4 at Churchill Downs.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Sweeping Statements

Of eight horses that have won the Strub Stakes and the Santa Anita Handicap, only one, Affirmed, has won the Hollywood Gold Cup in the same year. Here’s what the eight did in the Gold Cup:

*--*

Year Horse Gold Cup Finish Gold Cup Winner 1953 Mark Ye Well Did not run Royal Serenade 1958 Round Table Did not run Gallant Man 1961 Prove It Did not run Prince Blessed 1975 Stardust Mel 7th Ancient Title 1979 Affirmed 1st Affirmed 1980 Spectacular Bid Did not run Go West Young Man 1988 Alysheba 2nd Cutlass Reality 1992 Best Pal Did not run Sultry Song

*--*

Round Table (1957), Prove It (1962) and Best Pal (1993) won the Gold Cup, but not in the same year they swept the Strub and the Big ‘Cap.