Columnist Ralph Siraco: Frankel’s magic carpet weaves through Del Mar

Ralph Siraco

Monday, Aug. 28, 2000 | 9:35 a.m.

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

This time last week, trainer Bobby Frankel had just won his first Arlington Million after what seemed a lifetime of attempts. Though it was his initial victory in that race, Frankel carries a saddlebag filled with championship trophies earned during more than four decades of competition.

Well, Frankel's magic carpet ride shows no signs of slowing down.

Unlike the Arlington Million, where he captured the trophy with Chester House last week, the Pacific Classic at Del Mar has everything but Frankel's name in the title.

And after Saturday, when Frankel trainee Skimming won the Pacific Classic, they may as well name the darned thing the "Bobby Frankel Invitational." That way other trainers could compete, as long as they know it's for second place.

The 10th running of Del Mar's marquee race featured not one but two Frankel-trained steeds in the field of seven -- with neither the morning-line favorite. Given that "Brooklyn Bobby" had won four of the previous nine seaside Classics, that may have been an oversight.

The favorite in this year's 1 1/4-mile confab was defending champion General Challenge. He was one of two horses entered by the meet's leading trainer, Bob Baffert. So it was a pretty safe bet that a Bobby was going to win this year's edition of the Classic.

Adding to the drama on a record day of racing "where the surf meets the turf" was a nasty spill just two races before the main event. Jockey Corey Nakatani, scheduled to ride General Challenge in the Classic, was thrown to the turf hard when his mount, the highly regarded Candance In Paris, clipped heels with another horse and fell. Nakatani lay on the track twisting and turning in pain. Tests later revealed a broken collarbone.

The promising young filly was not so lucky. She was humanely euthanized after the fall. Baffert turned to the world's winningest jockey, Laffit Pincay, Jr., to sub for the injured Nakatani in the Classic.

Frankel saddled Skimming, the San Diego Handicap winner, and Euchre, the Bel Air Handicap winner. Baffert tightened the girth on the favorite and multiple Grade I-winner River Keen in the $1 million Classic.

Skimming employed the same front-running tactics he displayed while outdueling his San Diego competition, while General Challenge hung back, waiting to try to mount a come-from-behind rally.

Skimming broke sharp from the gate and was in charge by the time the field made its way past a packed grandstand and into the first of two turns. Tiznow, a full brother to Breeders' Cup Classic runner-up Budroyale, was the closest pursuer, with Forty One Carrots providing the first challenge to the leader down the backstretch. General Challenge had made his way to contention much sooner than expected, leading many to think the race was his to take.

But when they hit the top of the homestretch, Skimming scooted away again. Tiznow was cutting slowly into the lead and General Challenge broke into one of his "not today" moods -- and it was just a matter of how big the margin of victory would be.

It was two lengths at the wire with jockey Garrett Gomez high in the saddle pumping his arm in celebration. Tiznow was a game runner-up while Ecton Park nipped General Challenge for third.

Frankel's fifth Pacific Classic victory was the third for owner Prince Khalid Abdullah. They also teamed to win the race twice before with Tinner's Way in 1994 and '95. The trainer's principal owner saw his Juddmonte Farm colors in the winner's circle in the Arlington Million last week with Chester House. Frankel's other two Pacific Classic victories came with Missionary Ridge in 1992 and Bertrando in 1993.

Many racing experts were hard-pressed to recall whether any other trainer in history managed to win half of the first 10 editions of any Grade I stakes race. Certainly none did it in a race with a $1 million purse.

Saturday's Classic is just the latest chapter in a classic and vintage year for Frankel.

The 59-year-old conditioner has won 23 stakes races since January 22. Seventeen of those victories were in graded stakes events with purses ranging from $100,000 to a cool $2 million (in the Arlington Million, which now carries an outdated name). Those 23 added-money races totaled $5,878,000, and combined with other earnings, Frankel pushed past Baffert as the nation's winningest trainer with almost $7.2 million on the year.

And Breeders' Cup day is still ahead for Frankel, a hot Hall of Famer who has never won a Breeders' Cup event.

Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus is just resuming training for a Breeders' Cup assault and Preakness winner Red Bullet is out for the year. That left Commendable, one of nine horses in the 131st running of the Travers.

As it turned out, Commendable could muster only a third-place finish as Unshaded, a son of 1990 Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled, garnered the $1 million Saratoga centerpiece.

Unshaded outdueled Albert The Great down the homestretch, prevailing by a head in the 1 1/4-mile event. The record crowd of more than 55,000 saw a stirring renewal marked by what should be the representative group of sophomore survivors at this year's Breeders' Cup.

The favored Dixie Union threw a shoe during the Travers and checked in fourth.

Unshaded will now be pointed toward the Breeders' Cup Classic in hopes of duplicating his father's 1990 victory. There, he will have to deal with Lemon Drop Kid and possibly Fusaichi Pegasus as well.