Columnist Ralph Siraco: The ‘Kid’ and the ‘General’ win summer classics

Ralph Siraco

Monday, Aug. 30, 1999 | 9:20 a.m.

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday, and his Southern California selections run Tuesday through Friday. Write to him c/o Las Vegas Sun, 800 S. Valley View Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89107.

The changing of the guard has occurred. The passing of the torch to the next generation has been completed. The young upstarts have taken over. The boy has turned into a man.

Each year in the waning days of summer a metamorphosis takes place in horse racing when the 3-year-olds take on their elders. This is a time to replenish, replace and replete competition on the track. It's a time to renew the lifeblood of a sport that has often needed the merging of the generations, especially in these days of early retirements by the sport's established stars.

At Saratoga, the East's racing spa in upstate New York, the final Grade I race exclusively for sophomores was held as a graduation party for those who made it through the rigors of the road to the Triple Crown. That traditional cap-and-gown event, the Travers Stakes, was held for the 130th time on Saturday.

The very next day, on the Left Coast where the surf meets the turf at Del Mar, graduation was over and the boys joined the men to battle in another Grade I event for a million bucks as the track presented its Pacific Classic for the ninth time.

Each race had MIAs.

The Travers, known as the Mid-Summer Derby, is the highlight of each Saratoga meeting, and this year's edition was no exception. The surviving sophomores included Belmont Stakes winner Lemon Drop Kid and runner-up Vision and Verse along with Bluegrass Stakes and Haskell Invitational winner Menifee and Swaps victor Cat Thief. Ecton Park hoped to parlay the Travers prep victory in the Jim Dandy into a victory in the main event.

Missing in action for this Travers renewal was the long-gone Charismatic, who had won the early battles of the Triple Crown, with Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes trophies, before exiting to the breeding shed well before his time.

Nevertheless, the Travers was to settle who would be the banner-bearer for this crop of '96 as they embarked on to the handicap division.

If you liked the result of this year's Belmont Stakes, then you loved the Travers outcome.

The 1 1/4-mile Travers was a rerun of this year's third jewel of the Triple Crown -- just a quarter-mile shorter -- as Lemon Drop Kid outraced Vision and Verse to another 1-2 finish. Although Vision and Verse took the early initiative in this heat, Lemon Drop Kid did what he does best -- laid off the pace and charged with one run. It was once again the winning formula.

Menifee stalked and loomed up for a chance at victory, but could do no better than a non-threatening third, which was much better than his eighth-place finish to the pair in the Belmont. Cat Thief couldn't muster the muster that sparked his victory over General Challenge in the Swaps, and Ecton Park couldn't get enough rain to splash his way to another sloppy victory.

Lemon Drop Kid may move to the top of the class on the Eastern seaboard, but he will not be the first to beat his elders.

Sunday, the Pacific Classic at Del Mar was won by a sophomore who beat what was left of a decimated West Coast handicap division. And, for that matter, any coast's handicap division. With the recent defections of Victory Gallop, Real Quiet and Mazel Trick (injuries), preceded by the earlier retirements of Sliver Charm, Free House and Event of the Year, the final leg of the inaugural NTRA Champions on FOX series became known as the "Pacific Carnage."

General Challenge, the California-bred gelding that was the Golden State's Kentucky Derby hope, gave Del Mar Chairman of the Board John Mabee his second victory in the track's marquee race. The Santa Anita Derby winner polished off a useful but lackluster field of older performers to match Mabee's Golden Eagle Farm color-bearer Best Pal, who won the first Pacific Classic also as a 3-year-old in 1991. Best Pal was the only other sophomore to garner the seaside handicap headliner.

General Challenge, however, can be considered a real West Coaster, as his two excursions outside of his home state resulted in the worst performances of his career. A non-threatening fifth-place finish in the Louisiana Derby was followed by a disastrous 11th-place nightmare trip in the Kentucky Derby. So, although the strapping son of General Meeting fills the silhouette of a champion, he will have to prove it out of state as this year's Breeders' Cup Classic is in Florida at Gulfstream Park.

Of course the leader of the handicap division, Behrens, was nestled safely in his stall while the generation merger was taking place. He will tune up for the Breeders' Cup Classic at Belmont Park in that track's fall championship races on the East Coast in preparation for his bid to capture Horse of the Year honors.

Although Behrens has survived the attrition of his peers, he will have to contend with the next generation of competitors with designs on Horse of the Year as well.