GOLDEN GLIMPSES #31
FRANKEL RANKS CIGAR WITH SECRETARIAT AND 'BID'
In the mid-1960s, Bobby Frankel began his career as a hot
walker in New York. In 1966, he became a trainer and
scratched out a living with claiming horses.
Bobby Frankel has come a long way, baby.
Thirty years later and he's in the Hall of Fame, an
Eclipse Award winner, and won more training titles than most
of his contemporaries combined.
He should know a good horse when he sees one, and take it
from Bobby Frankel, Cigar is a good horse.
"Since I've been around, he's one of the top five,
for sure," said Frankel, who was 55 on July 9.
Frankel had his doubts before last year's Hollywood Gold
Cup, in which his Tinners Way ran second to Cigar. The
Brooklyn native expressed reservations because Cigar had
drawn the No. 1 post, was shipping coast-to-coast, and had
his schedule altered to make the race.
But Cigar demolished his rivals with an Arazi-type move,
beating Tinners Way by 3 1/2 lengths.
Frankel trekked down the steps towards the track after
the race, rolled his eyes back in his head and summed it up
in just four words: "He's a great horse."
Cigar had another convert.
Frankel, who offers praise as readily as O.J. admits to
guilt, was still a believer a year later, even though Cigar
missed this year's Gold Cup.
"Among handicap horses, you've got Spectacular Bid,
Secretariat, Seattle Slew," Frankel said. "I've got
to rate Cigar right there with those horses."
GOLDEN PICKS
BRITISH BAUBLE -- Return in sprint after three-month
layoff was merely a tightener for this Kris S mare who found
a home in Southern California after arriving from Florida.
Primed now when properly placed at a mile or longer.
CRITICAL FACTOR -- Drop from maiden allowance to $50,000
maiden claimer should have been enough to land this green
2-year-old filly in winners' circle, but Corey Nakatani
dropped his whip in deep stretch and she got nailed in the
final jump in a race she had won. Obviously deserves another
chance.
THE HOMESTRETCH: Everyone I talk with in thoroughbred
racing, from track executives to trainers, jockeys and fans,
agrees there's too much racing. But those quarterbacking the
game have a short-sighted view. So what if racing as we know
it is over in five or 10 years. Got mine today, can't worry
about tomorrow. That's selfish thinking, of course. It would
be better to have less racing in 10 years as opposed to no
racing. The prevailing thinking today is that more is more,
when in actuality, more is less. If a bettor has $100 to
wager on a given day, that's all the player has, no matter if
there are three races are 30. Racing should stop wasting time
and money on do-nothing, seminars, symposiums and various
other assemblages of self-serving rhetoric. Here's a start in
the right direction: Let Hollywood Park and Santa Anita each
surrender a week's racing starting in 1997, and increase it
until, after five years, each has lopped five weeks from
their respective meets. That's 2 1/2 months off the calendar.
but it will save the game in the long term and decreases in
handle and revenue -- if there were any -- would be a small
price to pay for racing's salvation . . . Patrick
Valenzuela's victory on Sweeping Rain was his first in
Southern California since last Dec. 6 . . . Anyone who thinks
Laffit Pincay Jr. has lost the eye of the tiger didn't see
his winning ride on Lamah in the second race Friday night . .
. Four men -- Mike Mitchell, David Hofmans, Richard Mandella
and Jack Carava -- are battling for top trainer honors, but
Mitchell and Carava have the best chance of winning because
percentages rule. They have more claiming horses . . .
Mandella on Afternoon Deelites, who was retired to stud after
suffering a slight tear in his right front tendon: "He
was as fast as horses ever get. If he wouldn't have had any
brains, I couldn't have trained him to reserve his speed and
learn to rate. But he was a very intelligent horse and
responded well. I can't really worry over the
disappointments, because we had too many good things happen
to him. The one big disappointment was not getting the chance
to sharpen his speed and seeing how fast he could run in the
Breeders' Cup Sprint." On his overpowering victory in
the Hollywood Futurity, which he won by 6 1/2 lengths:
"It was a Secretariat-like race." . . . Bob
Baffert, he of the dark sense of humor, welcomed recovering
substance abuse user David Flores to the walking ring with
the greeting: "Hey, Rehab Man!." The jockey just
smiled, but dropped his whip, to which Baffert quipped:
"Put that thing on a rubber band." . . . Wayne
Lukas has signed on for another year of representation by The
Lawrence Company, a Newport Beach PR firm headed by Larry
Feldman.
No other trainer can make that statement.
***
Send e-mail to Ed Golden 
The Running Horse (http://www.isd1.com/alauck)