IS SKIP AWAY WORN DOWN OR ON STRIDE?

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI Horse Racing

At Belmont Park, where Skip Away will face three other millionaires in the Woodward Stakes on Saturday, they wonder if the leading candidate for Horse of the Year is about to hit the wall.

One possible answer: If he is, I feel sorry for the wall.

Another: It's wishful thinking.

And another: Could be.

Skip Away's latest effort, his eighth straight victory, putting him within $800,000 of Cigar's career earnings record, gave his rivals in the Free House, Gentlemen and Coronado's Quest camps reason for optimism.

As a 1-20 favorite in the Iselin Handicap at Monmouth (N.J.) Park on Aug. 30, Skip Away lost the lead in mid-stretch and had to fight back to win by a nose over blown-up allowance winner Stormin Fever. After a long season that's taken him to six states, after four seasons of uninterrupted racing and training, is the 5-year-old vulnerable to a fresh horse like Free House, an old class horse like Gentlemen or an ambitious 3-year-old like Coronado's Quest?

Those three and the English import Running Stag are Skip Away's challengers in the $500,000, 1-1/8-mile Woodward.

``Believe me, I'd like to think he's taking a step back,'' said Gentlemen's trainer, Richard Mandella. ``But I think he was giving 18 pounds to that horse (Stormin Fever), and they did run two-fifths (of a second) off the track record.

``He still won the race. He looked beat at the eighth pole and he came back on like a real champion. So I'm going in more worried that he's not slipping.''

Skip Away trainer Sonny Hine said the gunmetal-gray horse is feeling good after a couple of ``hang-dog'' days in the New York humidity, but he thinks this looms as his toughest race.

The Woodward is the first major race of the season to pit a 3-year-old against elders. Coronado's Quest, to be ridden by Pat Day, replacing injured Mike Smith, carries 121 pounds under weight-for-age conditions; everybody else gets 126.

A win by Coronado's Quest could sew up the 3-year-old championship. A win by Free House could give him a late shot at Horse of the Year; he'd have to beat Skip Away again in the Oct. 10 Jockey Club Gold Cup or the Nov. 7 Breeders' Cup Classic. A win by Gentlemen would be a terrific last hurrah for the West Coast's leading handicap horse of 1996-97.

But a win by Skip Away would solidify his reputation as the toughest horse of the decade. If you're betting on the wall, don't take a short price.

What's that worth? Sonny Hine is amused by the requests he receives from Skip Away fans.

A letter writer from Holland asked for a clipping from the horse's mane. A visitor to the barn brought a plastic bag and wanted a piece of the horse's, you know, droppings.

``She said she has manure from a lot of great horses,'' Hine said. ``I bet she has some trophy room.''

At the fair: Three-year-olds are in the Fairplex Park spotlight, dim though it may be, as the middle weekend of Los Angeles County Fair racing begins.

In today's Derby Trial, English-bred Dog Watch, with Jose Valdivia Jr. riding, tries to give owner Gary Biszantz and trainer Mike Puype their second stakes win of the short Fairplex season, the pair having teamed up to win the E.B. Johnson on Sunday with Argentina-bred Fontal.

Saturday's CTBA Marian Stakes for California-bred 3-year-old fillies drew a field of eight.

Those 1 1/16-mile races, worth $50,000 apiece, are part of a Fairplex schedule that features at least one stakes every afternoon for 18 straight days.

They know the way: The top jockeys take vacations during the L.A. County Fair, or follow their big horses to major races back East, leaving young or second-rung riders to battle for the title in Pomona.

The past five Fairplex champions are in action this year: Corey Black, David Flores, Martin Pedroza, Valdivia and Victor Espinoza.

The five-eighths-mile track's tight turns demand a special kind of rider. Pedroza remembers when it was a half-mile track.

``They asked me when I started if I would have any trouble here,'' Pedroza said. ``I said, `I can ride any kind of track.' But when I saw this little track, I said, `Damn!'

``You have to know how to race-ride. Riders like myself, Flores, Espinoza and Fernando (Valenzuela) know how to make these turns. Sometimes you win races just on that.''

Foolish pride? Horseplayers, even the atheists among them, believe there's a God of Racing with the power to humble those who think they've got the game figured out. Handicapper and workouts analyst Bruno De Julio had better hope the God of Racing didn't read his remarks in Sunday's Daily Racing Form.

After beating a star-studded field in a season-long Del Mar handicapping contest presented by a Las Vegas hotel, De Julio was quoted by reporter John Kelly as saying, ``I've mastered the art of picking winners.''

De Julio also credited his success to a knack for money management and a steady personal life.

Fortunately for him, De Julio denies using the words ``mastered the art'' and says he was only responding to a question about whether his handicapping style was particularly suited to Del Mar.

Such repentance may be all that will save him from a plague of locusts and losing tickets.

A WEEK AT THE RACES

Fairplex Park standings: Jockeys (through Wednesday): J.C. Gonzalez, 13 winners; David Flores, 7; Victor Espinoza, Matt Garcia and Ignacio Puglisi, 4. Trainers: Paul Aguirre and Caesar Dominguez, 3; eight tied with 2.

Handicapper helper: Counter-intuitive stat of the week: At Fairplex, front-runners have held on to win more frequently in 1 1/16-mile races (64 percent) than shorter 6-furlong (38 percent), 6-1/2-furlong (44 percent) and 7-furlong (33 percent) races.

Upcoming stakes: At Fairplex: today, $50,000 Derby Trial, 3-year-olds, 1 1/16 miles; Saturday, $50,000 CTBA Marian Stakes, California-bred 3-year-old fillies, 1 1/16 miles; Sunday, $50,000 C.B. Afflerbaugh, 3-year-olds and up, 1 1/16 miles; Monday, $50,000 Bangles` & Beads, fillies and mares 3 and up, 6-1/2 furlongs; Tuesday, $50,000 Governor's Cup Handicap, 3-year-olds and up, 6-1/2 furlongs; Wednesday, $50,000 Black Swan, 2-year-old fillies, 1 1/16 miles; Thursday, $50,000 Gateway to Glory, 2-year-olds, 1 1/16 miles. At Belmont Park: Saturday, $500,000 Woodward, 3-year-olds and up, 1-1/8 miles, $250,000 Ruffian Handicap, fillies and mares 3 and up, 1 1/16 miles, and $150,000 Jerome Handicap, 3-year-olds, one mile; Sunday, $150,000 Futurity, 2-year-olds, one mile, and $150,000 Matron, 2-year-old fillies, one mile. At Bay Meadows: Saturday, $200,000 Bay Meadows Handicap, 3-year-olds and up, 1-1/8 miles on turf. At Woodbine: Sunday, $750,000 Woodbine Mile, 3-year-olds and up, one mile on turf.

Mileposts: Silver Charm is aiming to return in the Sept. 26 Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park. The 1997 Kentucky Derby winner hasn't raced since finishing last in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 15. Gary Stevens, out for four weeks after knee surgery, returns to action this weekend at Bay Meadows and is scheduled to ride Silver Charm. . . . Victory Gallop, the main rival to Coronado's Quest and sidelined Real Quiet for the 3-year-old championship, will miss the Sept. 27 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs after missing a workout this week because of a cough. The Belmont Stakes winner's final Breeders' Cup prep could be the Oct. 10 Jockey Club Gold Cup (Belmont) or Oct. 11 Fayette Stakes (Keeneland). . . . In the space of a week, Alex Hassinger, 35, announced he was retiring as a public trainer and then said he was resuming his career to train horses sent to Kentucky by Prince Ahmed Salman's Thoroughbred Corp. . . . Trainer Mike Harrington went to court to win a stay of his 30-day suspension after one of his horses tested positive for the bronchial dilator albuterol. He's appealing the suspension. . . . A daughter of Gone West sold for $1.45 million Tuesday, a record price for a filly at the Keeneland September yearling sale in Lexington, Ky. . . . Ben Walden Sr. died `at 67. He founded the Vinery breeding farm in Midway, Ky., and was the father of Elliott Walden, trainer of Victory Gallop. . . . Cavonnier, the 1996 Santa Anita Derby winner and unlucky Kentucky Derby runner-up, is being pointed for his first start in more than two years in the Oct. 31 California Cup Classic at Santa Anita. Cavonnier underwent an experimental tendon remedy. . . . Late bloomer: Dancin With Wolves, a 7-year-old making his third start, won for the first time Sunday at Fairplex.

- Kevin Modesti

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Box: A WEEK AT THE RACES (See Text)