Distaff Adds Dash of South America

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When Eduardo Inda arrived in California from Chile in 1961, he was 18 years old, spoke no English and was accompanying two horses that the late Clement Hirsch had bought in Santiago.

“It was tough,” Inda was saying at his barn at Churchill Downs. “In those days, there were few Spanish-speaking people around the barns at Santa Anita. There was hardly anybody to talk to.”

Inda watched a lot of television to improve his English, and in particular he paid attention to Warren Stute, Hirsch’s trainer, who had hired him as a groom.

“I worked for Warren Stute for 10 years,” said Inda, who eventually rose to the positions of assistant trainer and stable foreman. “He was my teacher. He’s a good horseman who shared a lot.”

Inda, 57, remembers the Argentine-bred Figonero--the 1969 Hollywood Gold Cup winner--from the Stute years, just as he cherishes the conquests of John Henry and Bayakoa--another Argentine-bred--from his 22-year association with Hall of Fame trainer Ron McAnally.

Saturday, Inda moves from the chorus to center stage, stepping into an international spotlight in the 17th Breeders’ Cup. He’ll saddle Riboletta, the Brazilian mare, in the $2-million Distaff, which usually comes up tough and this time is arguably the strongest of the eight Breeders’ Cup races. The nine-horse field includes Beautiful Pleasure and Heritage Of Gold, who finished first and third, respectively, in last year’s Distaff, plus Jostle and Surfside, the best 3-year-olds in the country.

Owners Aaron and Marie Jones have so much confidence in Riboletta and Inda that they paid $400,000 to make the 5-year-old eligible for the Breeders’ Cup.

“When I turned over many of my horses to Eduardo, I knew he would do a good job and he has,” said Aaron Jones, who owns a sawmill and timber company in Eugene, Ore. “I owed Eduardo the obligation to run. He’s done a fantastic job.”

Inda could hardly have visualized reaching this plateau when, at 11, he began working around the barn for his father, who was a trainer, in his native Santiago. His father, a diabetic, died about a year later, but racing runs deep in Inda’s family and he continued working for an uncle before Hirsch and Stute opened the doors to the U.S.

“This is a dream for me,” Inda said. “I can’t thank Mr. Jones enough. He’s one of the best owners in the country, and he buys the best horses.”

Although both are reluctant to throw daggers, there was an acrimonious breakup between Jones and trainer Bob Baffert in January, when Jones transferred many of his top horses to Inda, who had left McAnally to form his own stable five years ago.

Riboletta, bought by Jones for about $600,000 early last year, had won the Brazilian Oaks and two other stakes in South America. At first, Jones appeared to have bought a bummer. Riboletta won only one of six starts and was winless in her two tries on dirt. The Distaff is a 1 1/8-mile dirt race, and on the main track for Inda, Riboletta lost her first dirt start before winning the next seven. Although dirt seems to be Riboletta’s forte, Inda said that it’s possible that she’ll run some more grass races.

“Her first year here, she didn’t do well and didn’t seem to take to training,” Jones said. “We turned her over to Eduardo because he had knowledge of South American horses.”

Riboletta could have clinched the Eclipse Award for best older filly or mare after her two-length victory over Beautiful Pleasure in the Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park on Oct. 14, but now the mare may have to win again Saturday to secure the title.

The other option, running Riboletta for a staggering $800,000 supplementary fee in the $4-million Classic, might have pushed her into the horse-of-the-year picture.

“It was my recommendation that we run in the Distaff,” Inda said. “We can always try the boys next year. This mare is very, very good right now, and some people tell me they think she is the best horse in the United States.”

Chris McCarron, who has been aboard Riboletta for the last six of her victories during the seven-race dirt winning streak, begins Saturday’s racing with seven Breeders’ Cup wins, tied with four other jockeys for fourth place on the list.

“She is awesome,” McCarron said of Riboletta. “She just feels so strong underneath you. She kept tugging at me [in the Beldame] and when I finally let her go, she took off.”

Inda puts Riboletta in the same league as Bayakoa, who won the Distaff in 1989 and 1990, was voted two Eclipse Awards and earned $2.8 million. The two South American distaffers are soft touches compared to John Henry, who was a 9-year-old in 1984 when he won his second horse-of-the-year title.

“What can you say about John Henry?” Inda said. “He was the first [and only] horse to win the Santa Anita Handicap twice. He won the first Arlington Million ever run. He was a champion on dirt and grass. Those years were a lot of fun, but with John Henry you had to watch out around the barn, because he was a mean horse.”

Inda said that when he walked down McAnally’s shedrow, he’d make sure he was in the center of the path when he passed John Henry’s stall.

“If you didn’t stay clear, he’d go for you,” Inda said. “He was very smart. He’d wait in the corner of the stall, and when you got close enough, he’d make his move.”

John Henry also had a trick when he was being walked around the shedrow, Inda said. The crotchety gelding would stop, then put one of his legs in front of his handler’s leg, attempting to trip him when they began walking again.

Inda left McAnally for a few months in the mid-1980s, coming to Kentucky as head trainer for Tom Gentry, the maverick owner-breeder. They won some stakes together, one of them with the talented filly Excitable Lady while she was already in foal.

Inda was soon back with McAnally at Santa Anita, though. He left for good in 1995, working a year and a half for the late Marshall Naify’s high-profile 505 Farms. He was running a public stable with several owners when Aaron Jones called last January. Jones had run horses with McAnally when Inda was one of his assistants.

“Eduardo did well twice with big outfits,” McAnally said. “That proved that he was capable of being very good on his own.”

Beautiful Pleasure’s trainers, the husband-wife team of John and Donna Ward, are not intimidated by Riboletta.

“Riboletta only beat us [by] two lengths in the Beldame,” Donna Ward said. “Our mare has been beaten before, but she’s come back and won. We were disappointed in the Beldame, but the pace should be faster Saturday, and that will help our horse. Riboletta ran the fastest race of her life last time, but then again, so did our mare.”

Notes

Breeders’ Cup entries will be taken and post positions drawn today. . . . With North East Bound expected to run in the Turf, space should open for Guided Tour in the Classic. Guided Tour, who is regularly stabled at Churchill Downs, has won three of six at the track and was second to Dust On The Bottle--another Classic starter--in the Hawthorne Gold Cup on Oct. 7.

It doesn’t take much to excite trainer Wayne Lukas, and Cat Thief’s recent fast workouts--including :59 1/5 for five furlongs Monday--have him talking about winning the Classic again. Cat Thief is winless in 10 tries since last year’s upset victory at Gulfstream Park. . . . Lemon Drop Kid has been syndicated as a stallion for $30 million, but the price goes to $40 million if he wins the Classic.

A P Valentine, owned by a syndicate managed by Coach Rick Pitino of the Boston Celtics, has been sold as a stallion prospect to Coolmore Stud, the Irish company that paid $60-70 million for the stud rights to Fusaichi Pegasus. A P Valentine, the Champagne winner in only his third start, is one of the favorites in the Juvenile. He will race next year as a 3-year-old before going to stud at Coolmore’s Kentucky farm.

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Breeders’ Cup

FACTS AND FIGURES

* When: Saturday.

* Where: Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

* TV: Channel 4, coverage from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. PST

* Races: DISTAFF (1 1/8 miles on dirt, $2-million purse); JUVENILE FILLIES (1 1/16 miles on dirt, $1-million purse); MILE (turf, $1-million purse); SPRINT (6 furlongs on dirt, $1-million purse); FILLY & MARE TURF (one mile, $1-million purse); JUVENILE (1 1/16 miles on dirt, $1-million purse); TURF (1 1/2 miles, $2-million purse); CLASSIC (1 1/4 miles on dirt, $4-million purse).