Columnist Ralph Siraco: Frankel has two shots to snap Derby skid

Ralph Siraco

Monday, April 14, 2003 | 9:32 a.m.

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

"Broadway Bobby" is living large and heading to Louisville with the option of having not one but two Kentucky Derby favorites for the first Saturday in May.

Trainer Bobby Frankel won the sport's top award -- The Eclipse -- for a third consecutive time last year while collecting his fourth career trophy. He finally took the Breeders' Cup monkey off his back with Squirtle Squirt's Sprint victory in 2001. Now Frankel is poised to win what every trainer in America wants to win at least once -- the Kentucky Derby.

Although the Brookyn native was 0-for-40 before his Breeders' Cup maiden-breaker, he comes into this year's Derby only 0-for-4 in Kentucky.

Frankel was in 24th year as a trainer before showing up at the Derby with a pair of starters in 1990.

Pendleton Ridge, which finished 13th, and Burnt Hills, which finished 14th, together beat just one horse in the 15-horse field. It would be a decade of Derbies before Frankel returned for America's most famous horse race.

In 2000, Frankel had Aptitude for owner Prince Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte Farms going against Derby favorite Fusaichi Pegasus. At 11-1 odds, Aptitude was a fast-closing second as a Derby favorite prevailed for the first time in 21 years.

Then last year, Frankel returned with Edmund Gann's Medaglia d'Oro. Although Medaglia d'Oro was the only horse making up ground through the home stretch to Derby winner War Emblem, he could do no better than fourth.

Now Frankel comes loaded with two contenders who tuned up for the main event in Louisville with solid victories over the weekend in final major Kentucky Derby prep races.

The Grade I Wood Memorial at New York's Aqueduct race course began the trilogy of Derby previews. Florida Derby winner Empire Maker represented Frankel. The son of 1990 Horse of the Year and Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled won the $750,000 Wood by a half-length under jockey Jerry Bailey.

Next was the Grade I Blue Grass Stakes that featured Edmund Gann's overachiever Peace Rules. Like stablemate Empire Maker in the Wood, Peace Rules went off as the race favorite at Keeneland. Jockey Edgar Prado employed his knowledge of the Lexington track-bias by sending the Frankel trainee right to the front in the $750,000 race. From there it was simply Peace Rules. The promising Brancusi chased the winner throughout while finishing second, some 3 1/2 lengths in arrears.

The third Derby prep was the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park. A dozen went to the post and after a pace meltdown supplied by Cat Genius and Eugene's Third Son, long shot Sir Cherokee picked up the pieces for his first career stakes victory, a $113.20 shocker.

So, Frankel returns to Churchill Downs with the Derby favorite and a son of Unbridled, the horse who beat the Hall of Fame trainer so badly in his first Derby appearance 13 years ago.