TRAINER SADDLED BY SKEPTIC PEERS LAKE COULD BE VINDICATED IN BREEDERS' CUP.

Byline: Kevin Modesti Staff Writer

ARCADIA - Scott Lake puts 130,000 miles a year on his odometer and reads the tricky traffic patterns between his home in Philadelphia and racetracks in New York, Delaware and Maryland as easily as a tote board.

Maybe, if he keeps driving, America's winningest thoroughbred trainer can escape the skepticism that stalks him at events such as the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita on Saturday.

``You don't feel accepted by these guys,'' Lake said this week, referring to the way trainers who seem to win too often on the smaller circuits are regarded by stars of the million-dollar events and snootier members of the press. ``When you get up a little higher, people still want to use the term 'claiming trainer.' That sort of thing goes right through me.''

``Claiming trainer'' - a guy grinding out a living swapping horseflesh in low-rent claiming races - is one of the nice things that his sport's many cynics have called Lake since the 38-year-old Pennsylvanian started winning a race a day four years ago.

He also has been called a cheater, and an example of horse racing's futility in cracking down on performance-enhancing medication, never mind that tests on his horses and official surveillance of his training activity haven't justified those labels.

Maybe nobody competing at this Breeders' Cup can raise his stature as much as Lake can if the 5-year-old gelding named Shake You Down wins the $1 million Sprint, the fourth race on the eight-race card.

``I think to really have arrived in this industry, you need to have won these races,'' said D. Wayne Lukas, the Hall of Fame trainer whom Lake calls his hero.

The question, perhaps unanswerable by anybody but Lake and his veterinarian, is whether he should have to vindicate himself.

He has, after all, led the nation in victories three of the past four seasons, which makes him somewhat more than a flash in the pan. After winning 337 races in 2000, winning at a phenomenal 32 percent clip, he improved to 407 victories in 2001, a total exceeded only by Jack Van Berg's 496 in 1976. Lake lost the wins title to Steve Asmussen in 2002. He's back on top this year, though, his 382 victories through Sunday leading Asmussen by 27.

``They always said the true test of guys accused of using stuff (drugs) is the test of time,'' Lake said, implying he has begun to meet that standard.

Tall and goateed, wearing a polo shirt, jeans and dusty sneakers on a warm California morning this week, Lake was cordial and intelligent in an interview. The only suggestion he might be a racing outlaw is the ring programmed into his cell phone. It's the theme from ``The Sting.''

His manner is persuasive, convincing some observers at the East Coast tracks that positive tests for clenbuterol - a bronchodilator whose use is restricted in U.S. racing - were caused simply by an inadvertent failure to cut off doses long enough before competition.

``We've been accused of everything under the sun,'' Lake said. ``I'd like to put some of those guys (doubters) in with me for a month and see if they can keep up. There's good horsemen at different tracks. I came from Penn National, so people look at (me) like (I'm) from nowhere.''

Lake insists his success begins with hard work, the emblem of which is those 130,000 driving miles as he monitors his barns in Philadelphia, Delaware, Maryland and New York.

He has become one of the books-on-tape people's better customers. Yes, he listened to ``Seabiscuit,'' but he said that has been the only racing story on the car stereo. Lately he has been engrossed in Dean Koontz's ``The Face.''

``My day starts at 4:30 or quarter-to-4 in the morning,'' said Lake, whose interest began at age 12 after his father, a Harrisburg, Pa., policeman, bought a racehorse after sharing a hospital room with a trainer. ``Even if I'm in Dubai, I'm doing the (training) charts at 5:30, watching all the races, because I'm that kind of guy - I want to know why they're winning. I sacrifice more time with my daughter and girlfriend and our new daughter than most people would be willing to do.''

His barns' nearly 170 runners are 90 percent claiming horses, a couple of which are making forays into polite society.

Thunderello finished second at 48-1 odds to Lukas' Orientate in the 2002 Sprint at Arlington Park. Shake You Down, ridden by Mike Luzzi, will try to go one better. With 13 victories in 33 starts since Lake and owner Robert Cole Jr. claimed him for $65,000 at Aqueduct in March, high-rated victories in New York and Florida, and speed to engage the pace, the gelding has a huge shot.

Is Lake a magician cleverly disguising his tricks by also working hard? Or is he on the rise because his brains and diligence attracts ever-more supportive owners? He'd love to show it's the latter.

``On a day like Breeders' Cup day, with the amount of media around and the (official scrutiny), if somebody wins, it's legitimate,'' a Southern California trainer said this week. ``Tell him that's his chance.''

Kevin Modesti, [phone]

kevin.modesti(at)dailynews.com

BREEDERS' CUP

When/Where: Saturday, Santa Anita Park.

Post time: First race 9:40 a.m., first of eight Breeders' Cup races 10:20 a.m.

TV: Ch. 4, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

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``You don't feel accepted by these guys. When you get up a little higher, people still want to use the term 'claiming trainer.' That sort of thing goes right through me.f=LB Helvetica Black'' - Scott Lake, thoroughbred trainer on earning respect from the horse racing elite

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BREEDERS' CUP (see text)