Byline: MATT GRAVES Staff writer
ELMONT -- Trainer Buddy Delp insists that Include is the best horse he's had since Spectacular Bid, which is rather high praise since Delp always said Bid was ``the best horse ever to look through a bridle.''
Delp will find out just how things look through Include's bridle today when the son of Broad Brush takes on 12 rivals in the $4 million Classic, the showcase event of the 18th Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at Belmont Park.
The Classic will be the last of eight championship races on the card that in many cases will decide the winners of 2001 Eclipse Awards.
Include will face a difficult task in the Classic against a field that includes defending champion Tiznow, 2-year-old champion Macho Uno, Belmont-loving Albert the Great, European turf stars Galileo and Sakhee, New York-bred Gander, and Aptitude, the hottest handicap horse in the country.
There was no Breeders' Cup when Spectacular Bid was a superstar from 1977-79, and the Maryland-based Delp had been curiously absent from the national spotlight until Include came along.
The years haven't dulled Delp's flair for controversy and color.
``He (Bid) would have won three of them (Cup races),'' Delp said. ``He'd have won the Juvenile and the Classic twice. He probably could have won the Sprint and the Classic in the same day.''
Include hasn't been quite as sound -- or as fast -- as Spectacular Bid, but he showed flashes of brilliance earlier this year in winning the New Orleans Handicap, The Massachusetts Handicap, and the Pimlico Special. He aggravated a splint injury in the Suburban Handicap on July 1, and also strained a suspensory ligament in the same race.
With time running out on the Breeders' Cup, Delp opted for a relatively new shock-wave treatment instead of conventional therapy at the advice of a veterinarian.
``I figured why not give it a try,'' said Delp, 69.
After four such treatments, Include was given ``a 100 percent bill of health.''
He returned Sept. 28 in the Meadowlands Cup, but suffered a narrow loss to Gander on the speed-favoring strip.
Include will be Delp's first Breeders' Cup runner since Western Echo finished sixth in the Juvenile in 1994. His only other Cup starter was Dispersal, who ran third in the 1989 Sprint but was 12th in the Classic the next year.
Delp likes his chances much more today.
``If I win the race, I've got champion older horse,'' Delp said. ``I don't know about Horse of the Year. I think Point Given's got that, and deservedly so. If we get a good pace, we've got a great shot.''
There figures to be plenty of pace in the 1 1/4 -mile race, with Albert The Great, Orientate, Gander and Tiznow expected to vie for the lead.
Tiznow is bidding to become the first horse to win back-to-back editions of the Classic.
Aptitude is the morning-line favorite at 2-1 off consecutive wins in the Saratoga Breeders' Cup Handicap and the Jockey Club Gold Cup, the latter a stunning 10-length victory on this track.
Aptitude is one of six starters on the card for trainer Bobby Frankel, who is winless with his previous 36 Cup runners.
Seventeen European runners are entered in the eight races, two of them in the $4 million Classic -- Arc de Triomphe winner Sakhee and once-beaten Galileo. Unbeaten Officer will be one of the most visible runners on the card as the favorite in the Juvenile for trainer Bob Baffert.
Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey has mounts in all eight races, seeking to break his tie with Pat Day for most Cup winners (11).
Note: Two horses trained by Michael Dickinson, along with unbeaten Mile candidate Numerous Times, have been scratched from today's races. Numerous Times, who had won all six of his grass starts, wrenched an ankle overnight on Thursday in his stall. Fleet Renee, a 3-year-old filly who won the Grade I Ashland and Mother Goose, was declared out of the Distaff after she reportedly suffered from cramping. Slew Valley will miss the Turf after returning to his stall coughing after an early-morning canter at Dickinson's training center.
