Columnist Ralph Siraco: Horse racing has stakes on Thanksgiving weekend

Ralph Siraco

Monday, Dec. 2, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday-Sunday.

With the calendar pushing into the last month of the year, the four-day Thanksgiving holiday of racing was the last big weekend of stakes competition around the country. While horse racing takes brief respites throughout a wall-to-wall schedule, the final month each year is usually focused on individual benchmarks.

The Turf Festival at Hollywood Park, the closing weekend of stakes races at Churchill Downs and the final Grade I event of the year on the New York racing calendar highlighted those who are still running for the record book. Another milestone by a journeyman rider and a record-breaking apprentice also marked a thanksgiving for the season season.

Trainer Bobby Frankel, who finally got the Breeders' Cup monkey off his back last year, heads into the 12th month of the year looking for the Twelve Days of Christmas to break trainer D. Wayne Lukas' all-time earnings record of $17,842,358 set in 1998.

Frankel sent out runners in stakes races from coast to coast over the long weekend and is now within $600,000 or so of toppling the Lukas record.

Broadway Bobby was represented in 10 stakes races from Aqueduct in New York, Churchill Downs in Kentucky and Hollywood Park in Southern California and collected checks in seven added-money events.

He won the $400,000 Clark Handicap with Lido Palace at Churchill Downs on Friday, moments after his Sightseek won the $150,000 Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct.

On Saturday, Frankel added a victory by Peace Rules in the $200,000 Generous Stakes on the Hollywood Park lawn. He also added to the earnings roll on Saturday with Aldebaran's runner-up effort in the Grade I $350,000 Cigar Mile and a third-place finish by Empire Maker in the $200,000 Remsen Stakes, both at Aqueduct.

Another third-place finish was registered by his Royal Gem in the $500,000 Hollywood Derby on Sunday, behind winner Johar, and a fourth-place check came via Decharchy in the $500,000 Citation Handicap on Saturday at Hollywood Park.

Possibly the biggest disappointment over the weekend for the Hall of Fame trainer was the off-the-board performance by last year's Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf winner Banks Hill in Sunday's $500,000 Matriarch Stakes on the Hollywood Park turf.

European star Dress To Thrill, who finished eighth in the Breeders' Cup Mile at Arlington Park, ran down Golden Apples in the final strides to capture the Grade I event.

Trainer Bob Baffert, who won three straight annual titles before being dethroned last year by Frankel, took a pair of stakes over the weekend as well. The silver-haired conditioner won the $200,000 Miesque Stakes with Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Atlantic Ocean while his Congaree demolished a distinguished field in the Cigar Mile with a sterling performance under jockey Jerry Bailey.

Bailey is also in pursuit of a record. Although he failed to win many stakes races over the weekend, Bailey's scores with Sightseek and Congaree put him at 64 stakes victories on the year, just three added-money victories away from the record of 67 that jockey Mike Smith established in 1994.

Jockey Russell Baze extended a remarkable and unparalleled record that may never be equaled. On Thursday, in the first race at Golden Gate, he recorded his 400th victory this year. Baze has won at least 400 races in 10 of the past 11 years.

Apprentice jockey John McKee finished the recent Churchill Downs meeting with four winners on Saturday's closing day card. The 21-year-old bug boy broke Hall of Fame rider Steve Cauthen's record for victories by an apprentice at the Louisville track's fall meeting.

With the finale four-bagger, the second generation jockey from Hamersville, Ohio, recorded the new mark of 27 wins -- three more than the 16-year-old Cauthen had in 1976.

Other notable victories this weekend included Texas Glitter's final stateside appearance as he won the $200,000 Hollywood Turf Express on Friday.