Few trainers in history were as hot as Bobby Frankel this past summer, when he strung together an impressive list of stakes victories from coast to coast with nearly a dozen different horses.
His crowning moment came in the late afternoon of Aug. 19, when he saddled Aptitude to win the Grade 2, $300,000 Saratoga Breeders’ Cup, then minutes later watched on TV as his Skimming took the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar.
This weekend, the Brooklyn-born Hall of Famer, who now resides in the upscale L.A. suburb of Pacific Palisades, has an outside chance to top that achievement.
Tonight in New Jersey, he sends out Sumitas in the Grade 2, $500,000 Meadowlands Cup Handicap, and tomorrow at Belmont Park he runs a pair of aces on grass, Starine in the Grade 1, $750,000 Flower Bowl and Timboroa in the Grade 1, $750,000 Turf Classic.
All three races are preps for the Breeders’ Cup at Belmont on Oct. 27, when Frankel hopes to snap his 0-for-36 Breeders’ Cup duck.
Of the three horses, Sumitas faces the toughest task in the mile-and-an-eighth Meadowlands Cup tackling Broken Vow and Include, both major stakes winners this year.
A grass horse most of his career, Sumitas did win his only start on dirt, taking the Caesar Rodney Handicap at Delaware Park in July by two lengths. Last out, after showing early speed, the German-bred 5-year-old backed up to finish last of seven in the July 27 Bernard Baruch on the Saratoga turf, but he’s trained well since and gets in light.
Sumitas, Frankel said, had a “little thing” wrong in the Baruch, “but he’s fine now. He’s got to run as good as last time [on dirt at Delaware]” to have a chance. But the break in the weights – Sumitas, ridden by Edgar Prado, carries 116 pounds to Include’s 121 and Broken Vow’s 120 – and field of six horses are good reasons to run.
There will be a Meadowlands travel bag giveaway to all paid admissions tonight, and Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero Jr., winner of four Meadowlands Cups, will be signing autographs.
All proceeds from admissions and betting on the Meadowlands Cup will be donated to the New York Heroes Fund, to assist the families of victims of the World Trade Center attacks.
Starine will be the shortest price of Frankel’s trio, facing six other fillies and mares in the Flower Bowl at a mile and a quarter over the inner turf. The French import won two grass races at the Old Spa, concluding the meet with an explosive, 51/4-length romp in the Grade 2 Diana Handicap.
She’s never run this far, but her long-winded pedigree and off-the-pace running style suggest she’ll stay.
“She’s doing fine,” Frankel said. “That’s the reason I put her back in. I think there’s enough pace in the race that the distance won’t bother her.”
One of the pacesetters figures to be the favorite, England’s Legend, trained by Christophe Clement. Bred in France, the daughter of two-time Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Lure has won three straight, including the Grade 2 New York Handicap over this course at this distance in July and the Grade 1 Beverly D at Arlington in August, gate to wire by 73/4 lengths.
Timboroa, bred in England, was 10th in last year’s mile-and-a-half Turf Classic but he’s done well since and is coming off a score in the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap.
“He ran real good last time and this is not coming up the toughest field,” Frankel said.
King Cugat is the one to beat. Trained by Bill Mott and ridden by Jerry Bailey, he had a very rough trip last out in the Sword Dancer at Saratoga but finished fast to be second, beaten less than a length by With Anticipation, who came back to win Belmont’s Man O’War by daylight.