Best Pal Helps Pay His Way In : Cal Cup: His $137,500 victory will help cover cost of making him a supplemental entry in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Best Pal won the California Cup Classic at Santa Anita Saturday, and the $137,500 purse will be a down payment on the $360,000 that’s needed for him to run in the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 6.

“If he’s sound, there’s a pretty good chance that we’ll put up the money,” said John Mabee, who with his wife, Betty, bred and races Best Pal.

The Mabees supplemented Best Pal into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile for $120,000 at Belmont Park in 1990, and all they got in return was $10,000 for his sixth-place finish.

“He didn’t like the track back there,” Mabee said. “Those deep, cuppy tracks are not for him. I wouldn’t consider putting up the money if the race was being run anyplace but Santa Anita.”

Best Pal’s 3 1/2-length victory Saturday gives him a record of five victories, two seconds and one third in 10 starts at Santa Anita.

First place in the Breeders’ Cup Classic is worth $1.56 million. Only four horses have been $360,000 supplements in the nine-year history of the race, with Wild Again the only winner, at Hollywood Park in 1984.

“Mr. Mabee is a hell of a sportsman to do this,” said Gary Jones, who trains Best Pal. “If you told me that I had to put up $36,000, only 10% of what Mr. Mabee has to, it would make me nervous.”

Jones was nervous Saturday as Best Pal dropped into fifth place, about 12 lengths behind, as Bossanova and Goldigger’s Dream battled for the lead.

“I thought he might have been too far back, but then I realized that they were smoking up front,” Jones said. “I’m glad it’s over.”

Corey Black, emerging from a slow start at the Oak Tree meet, won three of the nine Cal Cup races, savoring his ride aboard Best Pal the most. Best Pal broke from the No. 1 post, but because he doesn’t thrive running inside of horses, Black quickly moved him to the center of the track. Best Pal began moving up on the far turn, coasted to the lead on the turn for home and won without Black going to the whip.

“He worked a mile and galloped out an eighth of a mile, basically,” Black said. “He just keeps grinding and eventually they come back to him.”

Carrying 126 pounds, the same he will carry in the weight-for-age Breeders’ Cup, Best Pal spotted his seven opponents between 10 and 19 pounds. Native Boundary finished second, 1 1/4 lengths ahead of Goldigger’s Dream.

Best Pal, running 1 1/8 miles in 1:48, paid $2.60 and increased his purse total to $4.7 million. He remains in fifth place on the money list, behind Alysheba, John Henry, Sunday Silence and Easy Goer. Alysheba heads the list with $6.6 million.

Mabee believes that Best Pal still has an outside chance at being voted horse of the year, but that isn’t why he will supplement the 5-year-old gelding to the Breeders’ Cup.

“I’m doing it mostly to please all of his fans,” Mabee said. “If he’d win the Breeders’ Cup, I’d think he’d have a shot at horse of the year, but some other things would have to happen in the meantime.”

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Black’s three Cal Cup winners came in successive races, the first one coming aboard Sensational Eyes, who won the Matron by 2 3/4 lengths. In the race before Best Pal won, Black rode Megan’s Interco to a 3 1/2-length victory in the Mile.

Sensational Eyes, another Gary Jones trainee, has now won three of four starts by a combined 14 3/4 lengths, and Black has been aboard for two of the victories.

Other jockeys had been riding Megan’s Interco, who has six victories and five seconds in 13starts.

“I had to muscle my way through, and my horse showed a lot of courage to get there,” Black said of the 4-year-old gelding.

In other Cal Cup races:

--Flying Sensation, winless in five tries, won the Juvenile by five lengths over Creston, with favored Individual Style running third. Owner-breeder Bud Johnston of Old English Rancho and trainer Don Warren indicated that the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile is next.

--Johnston and partners won the Sprint with Softshoe Sure Shot, who was 12-1. It was the 7-year-old gelding’s 14th victory in 40 starts.

--Miss L Attack, thwarting Bel’s Starlet in her bid for a third Cal Cup victory, won the Distaff by a half-length. Bel’s Starlet carried 123 pounds, 10 more than Miss L Attack.

--Private Persuasion, despite a troubled trip, beat Fuzzy Side Up by 3 1/2 lengths to win the Juvenile Fillies.

--Whisk Spree denied His Legacy a third straight victory in the Starter Handicap for male horses. Mountains Of Lune won the Distaff Starter Handicap.

Horse Racing Notes

Pat Valenzuela didn’t ride Saturday, calling to tell the stewards that he had flu. . . . Flying Paster, who died last year, sired Flying Sensation and Creston, the 1-2 finishers in the Juvenile, as well as Numberthirtyfive, who was second in the Distaff Starter Handicap. . . . Of the 16 Cal Cup races for males worth $100,000 or more, 13 have been won by geldings.

In a Bay Meadows race that was on the betting card at Santa Anita, Swazi’s Moment won the Palo Alto Handicap, which was taken off the grass because of heavy rain. Swazi’s Moment’s entire career--four wins in nine starts--has been on dirt.

The morning-line favorites in today’s Santa Anita stakes are Jolypha in the Goodwood Handicap, the entry of The Tender Track and Roi Des Champs in the Koester Handicap and Wild Harmony in the Ancient Title Breeders’ Cup Handicap. . . . Chris McCarron, winner of stakes at Belmont Park Saturday aboard Miner’s Mark, Dehere and Strolling Along, will be at Keeneland today, to ride Paseana, the 8-5 favorite in the Spinster Stakes. Also in the nine-horse field are Fowda and Wilderness Song, winners of the stake in the past two years. Six of the nine winners of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff have come out of the Spinster, including Paseana, who was second to Fowda at Keeneland last year.