Hollywood Park : Al Mamoon Doesn’t Let American Victory Get Away This Time

Trainer Bobby Frankel’s objective with Al Mamoon in 1986 is quite clear: To win the races that got away from the 5-year-old chestnut in 1985.

So far, Frankel is batting .500. Al Mamoon didn’t have much luck in the Mervyn LeRoy Handicap, finishing third on April 27 in the same stake that brought a fourth-place finish a year ago.

But Saturday, Al Mamoon squared the account in the American Handicap at Hollywood Park, winning the $176,750 race by a half-length over Truce Maker, after having run second to Tsunami Slew last year.

After the American, Frankel has plotted a second-half campaign that drips with revenge. First, the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar on Aug. 10. That’s the race last summer in which the now-retired Tsunami Slew again got in Al Mamoon’s way, beating Frankel’s horse by a half-length.

Later, perhaps two races later, according to the Frankel plan, he hopes to run Al Mamoon again in the Breeders’ Cup, which this year will be held at Santa Anita on Nov. 1. In last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile Stakes at Aqueduct, Al Mamoon led from the start until inside the eighth pole but wound up finishing third.

In Saturday’s American, Frankel and jockey Patrick Valenzuela gave the crowd of 29,298 a new-look Al Mamoon. Instead of being rushed to the lead, as in his recent races, Al Mamoon was kept just off the pace set by Truce Maker, an 8-year-old making only his 18th career start.

Palace Music, who went off as the 7-10 favorite with stablemate Will Dancer, was last in the six-horse field, about 10 lengths back of Truce Maker going down the backstretch of the 1 1/16-mile turf race. Palace Music never did mesh gears and was still last at the finish, Al Mamoon beating him by six lengths.

Al Mamoon, never more than a couple of lengths back, caught Truce Maker at the furlong pole. After the winner passed, Truce Maker made an attempt to come on again, but Valenzuela, knowing that Al Mamoon doesn’t relish being hit by the whip, needed only two right-handed cracks to preserve the lead at the wire.

Al Mamoon was timed in 1:39 1/5 and earned $107,000 for his owners, Bert Firestone of Waterford, Va., and Edmund Gann of San Diego. The third choice in the betting behind the Charlie Whittingham-trained entry and Clever Song, Al Mamoon paid $9, $6.60 and $2.10. Truce Maker, who finished 2 1/2 lengths in front of Will Dancer, paid $10 and $2.10.

Valenzuela has ridden Al Mamoon in his last four races and won three of them. “He rated nice (relaxed) for me today,” Valenzuela said. “Bobby has been working him with that in mind in the mornings. I got on him in the morning the other day, and he was really feeling good. He worked (six furlongs) in 1:11 1/5, and I think the next fastest time was by a horse who went in about 1:13.”

The son of Believe It and Lady Winborne, a Secretariat mare whose entire career consisted of two races, was raced in Europe until he made his debut for Frankel by running second to Lord at War in the San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita in February 1985. Saturday’s win was Al Mamoon’s eighth in 24 starts and increased his earnings to more than $845,000.

Al Mamoon hadn’t run in more than two months, having suffered from an ulcerated throat after his third-place finish in the LeRoy. It was the second time he had won coming off of a rest; his first win this year, at Santa Anita in March, followed a three-month breather.

“This was one of his better races,” Frankel said. “It was good for the jock (Valenzuela) to learn that he could wait on him. Now, the races should always set up good for him. He can either lay off the pace or take it himself.”

Bill Shoemaker, who rode Palace Music, didn’t think that Truce Maker’s slow early pace was a factor in his horse’s poor showing.

“They picked up the pace in the second quarter-mile,” Shoemaker said, “but my horse just didn’t want to run. He didn’t run his best race. When they picked up the pace a bit, we just fell farther back.”

Whittingham and Shoemaker had won the American six times together, but the trainer quickly knew that Palace Music wasn’t going to give them No. 7.

“There was no way we were going to make up 10 lengths,” Whittingham said.

The other Whittingham starter, Will Dancer, was much closer to Truce Maker and Al Mamoon, but he had nothing left for the stretch run.

It was the second time this year that Al Mamoon had beaten Palace Music. He won the Hill Rise Handicap in April at Santa Anita as Palace Music finished third. In last year’s Breeders’ Cup, Palace Music nosed out Al Mamoon for second, but he clobbered a couple of other horses getting there and was disqualified to ninth place.

The two rivals are likely to run into each other again, in the Breeders’ Cup if not sooner. Al Mamoon might be as good, but it would be hard to imagine Palace Music being any duller than he was Saturday.

Horse Racing Notes Al Mamoon is not named after a person. His name means,”the Guarded One” in Arabic. He was bred by Peter and Diane Perkins, who raced Lord at War, winner of last year’s Santa Anita Handicap. . . . Trainer Bobby Frankel said that Delicate Vine, who won the Landaluce Stakes July 4, would probably run next in the Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park Aug. 2. . . . John Henry, working a half-mile for the first time since his comeback attempt began in May, was clocked in :50 Saturday morning. The 11-year-old gelding will try to improve on that next Thursday or Friday, and trainer Ron McAnally said his first race might be some time in August. . . . Alex Solis rode three winners Saturday, including Morse Code II, who had been 0 for 26 the last two years. . . . Martin Pedroza was hit with a five-day suspension by the stewards for causing interference that resulted in the disqualification of Water Jacket, who finished first in Friday’s first race. . . . Ends Well won Saturday’s Michigan Mile Handicap at Detroit Race Course, with Gate Dancer being scratched because of an infected heel. Gate Dancer has earned $2.5 million and ranks ninth on the all-time money list, although he hasn’t won a race in almost a year. . . . Manila, who won the Cinema Handicap at Hollywood in his last start, took Saturday’s Lexington Stakes by a nose over Glow, with Dance Card Filled running third. . . . Poly Test, who was scratched from the American, was entered in Saturday night’s Orange County Handicap at Los Alamitos.