1992 Breeders Cup Preview Day NBC Broadcast

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More than 60 of the country's fastest horses took steps on the road to the Breeders' Cup yesterday at Belmont Park, but the longest steps were taken by Pleasant Tap, who outran Strike the Gold by four and a half lengths and won the $850,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup. • The 5-year-old son of Pleasant Colony, who won the Suburban Handicap at Belmont in July and ran second in the Woodward in September, flew the mile and a quarter in a rousing 1:584/5. He also flew to the head of the list of candidates for the Breeders' Cup Classic, the world's richest race and the final test for the sport's ultimate prize: the title Horse of the Year. • Pleasant Tap did all this when he withstood two dramatic finishing kicks: Strike the Gold made his customary cavalry charge while moving from sixth place to second. And A.P. Indy, the best of the 3-year-old colts testing his seniors, made a noble dash from last place after stumbling badly at the start and snatched third by half a length from the favorite Sultry Song. • But after all the plots and subplots, there was Pleasant Tap standing in the winners' circle, paying $8.80 for $2 to win and bringing home $510,000. He has won 10 times in 30 starts in his career. And there was his rider, Gary Stevens, summing up his horse's biggest victory in a few words: He handled like a Cadillac. • Pleasant Tap, who was bred in Virginia, is owned by Thomas Mellon Evans and trained by Chris Speckert, who said: Unbelievable. I didn't think he would win that easy. • Speckert's star spent a mile chasing Devil His Due and Missionary Ridge, and then made his move turning for home. Strike the Gold, racing for the 11th time this year, flew at his heels but couldn't catch him. A.P. Indy, running seventh and last for a mile, refused to quit and passed four horses racing to the wire. • This was the day of days for New York racing, seven stakes races for purses worth $2.5 million clustered on one fall afternoon before a crowd of 32,210 persons and booked as the Breeders' Cup Preview. They were run in bright sunshine on a drying track after a night of rain, exactly three weeks before the day of days for all racing: the Breeders' Cup series of seven races at Gulfstream Park in Florida. • http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/11/spo...

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