ROUNDUP: BUDROYALE PULLS UPSET IN GOODWOOD HANDICAP.

Byline: Kevin Modesti Staff Writer

Budroyale, the feel-good story of the thoroughbred summer, must not be aware the seasons have changed.

It's autumn now, the time of year for Breeders' Cup preps, races designed for hugely talented horses like General Challenge, the Bob Baffert-trained 3-year-old gelding who was heavily favored in Saturday's Goodwood Handicap at Santa Anita.

But Budroyale, the 6-year-old gelding plucked from a $50,000 claiming race in 1998, refuses to get out of the way.

When General Challenge, with jockey David Flores, ranged up on the outside in the stretch, he appeared to have the $500,000 Goodwood in the bag, and his fans looked ahead to the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic and a Horse of the Year coronation.

Budroyale and Garrett Gomez wouldn't let General Challenge go past, though, holding on to win the 1-1/8-mile race by a neck at 9-1 odds. Old Trieste was a solidly beaten third in a field of six.

``I don't know what to say anymore,'' said Jeffrey Sengara, the owner who has watched the overachieving Budroyale dominate the Mervyn LeRoy Handicap, run second in the Californian and the Hollywood Gold Cup, and win the Longacres Mile this year, going over $1 million in career earnings.

The 17th victory in 43 starts was the biggest upset yet for the son of Cee's Tizzy. And, barring injury, it sends him on to the Nov. 6 Breeders' Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park near Miami, where he'll challenge the best horses in the world.

``The fact he can look these (Goodwood) horses in the eye and gun them down means we'll have to consider (the Classic),'' trainer Ted West Jr. said.

Baffert, who will run contenders in five of the eight Breeders' Cup races, had to be disappointed by General Challenge's loss to the seemingly outclassed Budroyale in the slowest Goodwood (1:48.31) in seven years. The Santa Anita Derby winner had looked like a champion when he won Del Mar's Pacific Classic the last time he ran.

But Baffert offered an excuse: Flores let General Challenge drop back to fourth on the backstretch, seven lengths off the pace set by Hollycombe and Old Trieste, leaving too much ground to make up on the Santa Anita oval.

``Hopefully, he'll come out (healthy) and that'll set him up for the Breeders' Cup,'' Baffert said.

Budroyale's victory was one of several upsets on a day of major Breeders' Cup preps around the country.

Artax ($5.70), a rare winning favorite, broke Groovy's Belmont Park 6-furlong record, clocking 1:07.66 to win the Forest Hills Handicap by 6-1/2 lengths under Jorge Chavez.

Julio Canani-trained Silic ($6.40) and Corey Nakatani won the Oak Tree Mile over Bouccaneer and favored Brave Act at Santa Anita to earn a trip to the Breeders' Cup Mile on turf.

Bobby Frankel-trained Kentucky Oaks winner Keeper Hill ($11.40) snapped a 10-race losing streak by knocking off Banshee Breeze in the Three Chimneys Spinster Stakes, Keeneland's prep for the Breeders' Cup Distaff.

Kent Desormeaux, who rode Keeper Hill, came back an hour later to send Richter Scale ($24.80) to a gate-to-wire victory over Bet on Sunshine and Vicar in the Phoenix Breeders' Cup Stakes, a Breeders' Cup Sprint prep.

``I missed the earthquake in California, but I think we created one at Keeneland,'' Desormeaux said, noting the winner's fitting name.

Notes: Laffit Pincay sent Testimony between horses on the far turn in Saturday's sixth race and went on to victory No. 8,800. That put him within 33 of Bill Shoemaker's career record. The Daily Racing Form announced Friday it has added two overlooked wins - from Panama and Sweden - to Pincay's total. . . . Pat Valenzuela, 1 for 48 in his comeback when Saturday began, won aboard Amber's Cup and Suzie Snoop.