Evening Attire Doesn’t Wear Out

Outrunning Lido Palace in the stretch after favored Repent dropped out of contention on the turn for home, Evening Attire ran himself into a Breeders’ Cup berth Saturday with a 2 3/4-length win in the $1-million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.

Sixteen of Evening Attire’s 17 races have been over New York tracks, where he’s notched all seven of his wins, but his trainer, Pat Kelly, said that the 4-year-old gelding’s next start will be in the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Arlington Park on Oct. 26. Evening Attire’s sire, Black Tie Affair, was an Arlington-based horse--he won six races there--who also won the 1991 Classic at Churchill Downs and was later voted horse of the year.

Lido Palace, who probably will miss the Classic because it would require paying an $800,000 supplementary fee to make him eligible, finished three-quarters of a length ahead of Harlan’s Holiday. The rest of the order of finish, in a 1 1/4-mile race over a drying-out track listed as good, was Nothing Flat, Abreeze, Milwaukee Brew, Repent and Puzzlement. Evening Attire, ridden by Shaun Bridgmohan, was timed in 1:59 2/5 and paid $21 for $2.

Evening Attire races for a partnership that includes Tommy Kelly, a Hall of Fame trainer and son of the horse’s trainer.

As for Repent, “He had no punch and flattened out on the middle of the turn,” said Ken McPeek, his trainer. “Perhaps he has a lung infection or he might have bled. We’ll have to check him out. It’s hard to believe, because he was doing super.”

Also at Belmont, the German-bred Kazzia, ridden by Jorge Chavez for Sheik Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing, beat Turtle Bow by a neck to win the $750,000 Flower Bowl Invitational. Mot Juste was third and Starine ran fourth in a race reduced to seven starters by two scratches, including Banks Hill, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner. Banks Hill, who has won only one of four starts since the Breeders’ Cup, will hope for firmer ground Saturday in the Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita.

Kazzia, who paid $8.10, is considered the best 3-year-old filly in Europe and won for the fifth time in six starts.

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Asong For Billy, claimed off Roberta Grissom by trainer Paul Aguirre for $40,000 out of a maiden race at Hollywood Park on July 4, overtook Splendid Times in the stretch to win the $100,000 Pomona Derby on the next-to-last day of the Los Angeles County Fair meet at Fairplex Park.

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Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Delahoussaye, who had been expected to return Wednesday when the Oak Tree meet opens at Santa Anita, instead will miss the rest of the year because of injuries suffered in a spill at Del Mar on Aug. 30. Delahoussaye has been bothered by headaches.... Arlington Park’s stakes for 2-year-olds were both won by longshots, Moonlight Sonata taking the $100,000 Arlington-Washington Lassie and Most Feared bagging the $150,000 Arlington-Washington Futurity. Moonlight Sonata paid $122.60, biggest upset in Lassie history, and Most Feared returned $13.60.

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Valiantly, a 45-1 shot, won the $345,500 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Assn. Breeders Futurity at Los Alamitos, in a race that was marred when favored Special Queen Sa crashed into the inner rail shortly after the start.

Ridden by Eddie Garcia, who also won last year’s race, Valiantly paid $95.40, $35.60 and $19.20 across the board. The 2-year-old filly, owned by Florencia Garcia and trained by Felix Gonzalez, won one of the Futurity trials, but against a field that wasn’t considered especially strong.

Deefirst was second and Just Think ran third. The time for 350 yards was 17.58 seconds. Neither Special Queen Sa nor her rider, Alex Bautista, appeared to be seriously injured.