Eddie Read Handicap : Frankel Is Away; Al Mamoon Makes Hay

The boss couldn’t have done better himself.

While trainer Bobby Frankel was tending to his division of horses at Saratoga over the weekend, Humberto Ascanio, his longtime assistant, saddled the winners of both of Del Mar’s stakes, winning Saturday’s Palomar Handicap with Aberuschka and returning Sunday with Al Mamoon to take the $180,900 Eddie Read Handicap by three lengths over Zoffany before 28,358 fans.

At Saratoga, Frankel, who going into August ranked sixth in the country on the trainers’ money list with purses of $2.2 million, had less luck than Ascanio.

Truculent, Frankel’s entry in Sunday’s Bernard Baruch Handicap, finished far back and reportedly came back lame after the race.

Any excuses by trainers of the horses Al Mamoon beat in the talent-packed Eddie Read would have been lame. Probably the best grass runner in the country at distances of 1 1/8 miles and less, Al Mamoon covered the 1 1/8-mile Read in 1:46 3/5, breaking the track record of 1:46 4/5 that Tsunami Slew set when he beat Frankel’s horse by a half-length in the running of the same stake a year ago.

Three of Sunday’s Eddie Read starters--Al Mamoon, Zoffany and Palace Music--were among seven American horses invited to the Budweiser-Arlington Million in Chicago on Aug. 31. Palace Music finished fourth. Truce Maker, who led all the way until Al Mamoon rushed past him at the top of the stretch, wound up third, 4 3/4 lengths behind the winner.

Al Mamoon, who went off as the slight favorite over Zoffany, paid $5.60, $3.40 and $2.80. He earned $113,400 and increased his career total to $960,000, most of it for owners Edmund Gann and Bertram Firestone, who acquired the European-raced horse late in 1984.

Zoffany, running second but showing the late speed that will help him in the 1-mile Arlington Million, paid $3 and $2.80. Truce Maker returned $3.

Al Mamoon, a son of Believe It and the first foal out of Lady Winborne, a Secretariat mare, was ridden by Pat Valenzuela, who also was aboard Aberuschka on Saturday. Valenzuela rode one other winner Saturday and has 25 victories to lead the Del Mar season after 17 days.

Valenzuela said that although Al Mamoon frequently goes to the gate in a sweat, the 5-year-old chestnut is deceptively calm.

“He fools you,” Valenzuela said. “He used to jig-jog all the way to the gate, but he’s so much more relaxed now.”

Valenzuela had Al Mamoon in second place, from two to four lengths behind Truce Maker, most of the way around.

“I couldn’t believe how quickly he went by Truce Maker,” the jockey said.

Al Mamoon has won four out of five starts this year, including the American Handicap at Hollywood Park in his previous race. The Kentucky-bred’s loss, a third-place finish in the Mervyn LeRoy Handicap at Hollywood in April, was also his only dirt appearance.

Ascanio, who has worked for Frankel for 15 years, said he received a phone call from the head trainer Sunday morning.

“You’ll be going to the winner’s circle this afternoon,” Frankel said.

Besides coming into the Eddie Read off his win in the American, Al Mamoon had also worked spectacularly at Del Mar last Monday, running seven furlongs on the grass in 1:27 1/5. The Del Mar record for 7 1/2 furlongs on turf is 1:27 4/5.

“Bobby’s been in New York for two weeks, and he knew he didn’t have to be here for this horse to win,” Ascanio said of Al Mamoon. “He just told me to get a good work into him last week. This is a good, good horse.”

John Gosden, who trains Zoffany, had expected Al Mamoon to be tough Sunday. Early Sunday, Gosden scratched Clever Song, another horse he had entered in the Read.

Gosden felt that the distance of the race and the short stretch at Del Mar would work to Al Mamoon’s advantage.

It may be different at Arlington Park later this month, but then again it may not. Since coming to the United States, Al Mamoon has won stakes at four different tracks.

Al Mamoon ran sixth in last year’s Million. Maybe Frankel should stay in New York and let good-luck Ascanio try his magic hand again.

Horse Racing Notes

Take My Picture, a 2-5 favorite in Sunday’s secondary feature at Del Mar, the Rancho Bernardo Handicap, apparently injured herself in the gate moments before the start and finished last in the five-horse field. Bold N Special, ridden by Chris McCarron, won the race by three lengths over Rangoon Ruby and paid $17. Take My Picture, shooting for her fifth straight win and making her first start in more than three months, tried to flip in the gate and was favoring her right foreleg after the race. Trainer Gary Lewis said that precautionary X-rays would be taken, noting that Take My Picture seemed to be walking better about a half-hour after the race. Take My Picture raced just behind Bold N Special for a half-mile in the 6 1/2-furlong race, then dropped back. “She wasn’t traveling right,” said Gary Stevens, Take My Picture’s jockey. “She must have switched leads (changing her lead foot) six or seven times going down the backstretch.” Bold N Special was timed in 1:14 3/5, a fifth of a second off the track record. . . . Jack Robbins, John Henry’s veterinarian, began his inspection of the 11-year-old gelding Sunday, and there will be a more definitive report on the horse after X-rays are taken. John Henry, attempting a comeback after not having raced in almost two years, developed a small swelling in his left foreleg after a workout last Tuesday. On Sunday, trainer Ron McAnally said that the swelling had gone down slightly in the last few days. . . . Trainer Dick Mandella said that Phone Trick was exhausted after his upset loss in the Tom Fool Stakes at Belmont Park last month and also missed a workout because of heavy rain in New York. As a result, Phone Trick, who had won all nine of his career starts before the Tom Fool, won’t run in the Forego at Saratoga next Sunday and may make his next start in the six-furlong Boojum Handicap at Belmont on Sept. 14. . . . Precisionist left California by plane Sunday for New Jersey, where he’s scheduled to run next Saturday in the Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park. . . . Saturday’s winner of the $198,635 Pick Six reportedly was a retired gardener who bet only an $8 ticket. . . . Raipillan and Clever Song were scratched out of the Eddie Read.