Lady’s Secret Is Retired, Will Be Sold Nov. 14

Not unexpectedly, Lady’s Secret, the Horse of the Year in 1986 who was unable to recapture her magic this year, has been retired and, as previously announced, will be sold at auction in Lexington, Ky., Nov. 14.

Wayne Lukas, who trained Lady’s Secret after arranging the breeding between Secretariat and Great Lady M. that resulted in the 5-year-old gray, said Friday that she could possibly break the record for a broodmare sold publicly. Miss Oceana holds the record, having been sold for $7 million in 1985 to a partnership headed by Peter Brant and Carl Icahn.

Lukas said that Gene Klein, who owns Lady’s Secret, had a private offer of about $7 million for the horse late last year, after she had won the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Distaff Stakes at Santa Anita and before she had won a controversial vote over Manila, the national grass champion, to become Horse of the Year.

“This mare is one of a kind,” Lukas said. “Her pedigree is outstanding and she’s done things on the track that nobody else has. She was phenomenal.”

Lady’s Secret was seldom out of training, running 45 times and accounting for 25 wins, 9 seconds and 3 thirds. Her earnings of $3,021,425 are a record for a filly or mare and she ranks sixth on the overall money list.

The Breeders’ Cup win was Lady’s Secret’s last victory in a stake. This year, her first race was against males, and a next-to-last finish in the Donn Handicap in March at Gulfstream Park was a portent for the season.

Lady’s Secret’s only two wins in five starts this year were in allowance company, the first a virtual setup against mediocre opposition at Monmouth Park June 13. She won the $25,000 race by more than three lengths, giving her enough purse money to edge ahead of the retired All Along, who had been the No. 1 female horse on the earnings list.

Lady’s Secret’s final race, at Saratoga Aug. 10, was a disaster. Bet down to 3-10, she bolted in the first turn and had to be pulled up by Chris McCarron near the outside fence.

The stewards at Saratoga said that they wouldn’t permit Lady’s Secret to run again in New York until she showed in morning workouts that she would run straight.

Lukas said after the Saratoga race that Belmont Park’s three major fall stakes for older fillies and mares--the Maskette, the Ruffian Handicap and the Beldame--plus the Breeders’ Cup Distaff next month at Hollywood Park, were still possible for Lady’s Secret, who had swept the Belmont triple an unprecedented two years in a row.

“We weren’t going to run her in those races unless we thought she could win,” Lukas said Friday. “Any other horse, you’d still take a shot, but we didn’t want to start her unless she had a 95% chance of winning.”

There were reports early in the year that Lady’s Secret had suffered a mouth injury. Lukas insisted that there was nothing physically wrong with her.

“She’s retiring perfectly sound,” Lukas said Friday. “All of her problems were mental.”

David Whiteley, another trainer, told Lukas that when he had Icecapade, Lady’s Secret’s grandsire, he behaved similarly.

“Icecapade couldn’t be handled when he ran at Belmont, then he went to Monmouth Park and won, just like Lady’s Secret did this year,” Lukas said. “Then when he went back to Belmont, Icecapade started pulling himself up again.”

On Friday, Lady’s Secret arrived from New York at Lukas’ farm in Norman, Okla., where she was foaled. She will be shipped to Lexington shortly before the sale, which will include 23 other Klein-Lukas horses, many of them major stakes winners and several of them horses that may run in the Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park a week later.

Horse Racing Notes Santa Anita’s Oak Tree meeting will run a major race, the $150,000 Burke Handicap, Sunday, sandwiched by today’s $60,000 Anoakia Stakes for 2-year-old fillies and Monday’s $100,000 Yankee Valor Handicap. The Burke, at 1 miles on the grass, is for older horses, as is the Yankee Valor, which is 1 1/16 miles on the main track. . . . Wayne Lukas, who lists more than two dozen horses as possibilities for the Breeders’ Cup, has two fillies--Blue Jean Baby and Dream Team--running in the Anoakia. Blue Jean Baby will be making her first start since a 10 1/2-length win in the Sapling at Monmouth Park Aug. 8. She came back lame after that race but missed only 10 days of training because of a small crack in a shin bone.

A field of 12 has entered the Burke, including three--Louis Le Grand, Rivlia and Forlitano--from trainer Charlie Whittingham’s barn. Whittingham won the first two runnings of the Burke with Fiddle Isle in 1969-70, has won the stake seven more times, and Louis Le Grand will try to become the first horse since Fiddle Isle to repeat. The lineup: Forlitano, Gary Baze riding, 121 pounds; Tasso, Eddie Delahoussaye, 118; Iades, Chris McCarron, 117; Apeldoorn, Pat Valenzuela, 113; Circus Prince, Antonio Castanon, 114; Captain Vigors, Gary Stevens, 116; Individualist, Corey Black, 112; Millero Y Medio, Martin Pedroza, 107; Rivlia, Laffit Pincay, 121; Louis Le Grand, Bill Shoemaker, 118; Schiller, Luis Ortega, 116, and Gallant Archer, Fernando Toro, 115. Louis Le Grand and Gallant Archer, both owned by Allen Paulson, will be coupled in the betting, as will Millero Y Medio and Schiller, because Vivian Pulliam trains both horses and is part-owner of Schiller.