Weekend Racing at Santa Anita’s Oak Tree Meeting : Short Sleeves Adds Glitter to Yellow Ribbon

Trainer Bobby Frankel was saying on Thursday that Sunday’s $400,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Santa Anita will be better than most of the Breeders’ Cup races next Saturday at Hollywood Park.

The Yellow Ribbon got even better Friday, when Short Sleeves, who was being prepared to run in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, was entered in Sunday’s race at the insistence of Noel Bloom, one of the owners of the 5-year-old mare. The plan is to run Short Sleeves in the Breeders’ Cup, as well, if she comes out of the Yellow Ribbon in good condition.

Bloom also exerted his control by replacing jockey Gary Stevens with Eddie Delahoussaye.

Stevens won two stakes with Short Sleeves and performed some incredible acrobatic riding in the Las Palmas Handicap three weeks ago, when the mare’s saddle slipped shortly after the start. Stevens kept Short Sleeves in contention until the stretch, and then she finished sixth.

Bloom, however, prefers Delahoussaye, who rode Short Sleeves to victory in the Ramona Handicap at Del Mar two months ago.

There are no clear-cut favorites for the Eclipse Award for the country’s best filly or mare on grass. That title will be determined by the Yellow Ribbon, the two Breeders’ Cup turf races and perhaps the Matriarch at Hollywood Park Dec. 6.

Although Frankel won a division of the Midwick Handicap with Aberuschka this week and is starting two 4-year-old fillies--Bonshamile and Galunpe--in the Yellow Ribbon, he has harsh words for Santa Anita’s turf course.

“It’s a terrible course,” he said. “There’s so much sand in it that it kicks back into the horses’ faces. Most of my horses who’ve run there have come out of the races with their eyes stinging from the sand.”

The Yellow Ribbon, at 1 miles, has drawn these 12 starters, listed in post-position order with jockey and weight:

Carotene, Jose Santos, 123 pounds; Nashmeel, Pat Eddery, 119; Khariyda, Yves Saint-Martin, 119; Micenas, Cash Asmussen, 123; Short Sleeves, Delahoussaye, 123; Galunpe, Chris McCarron, 123; Soft Copy, Ron Hansen, 119; Festivity, Laffit Pincay, 123; Libertine, Angel Cordero, 119; Auspiciante, Pat Valenzuela, 123; Ivor’s Image, Bill Shoemaker, 123; and Bonshamile, Corey Black, 123.

Frankel trains the English-bred Bonshamile for Daniel Wildenstein, the French art dealer who raced All Along, America’s Horse of the Year in 1983.

Frankel was in Europe this spring, looking for horses to buy, and was on the verge of purchasing Bonshamile when Wildenstein beat him to it. The filly ran poorly for her new owner in two of three starts in France, but was sent to Frankel in August and in her first American start, in the Golden Harvest Handicap at Louisiana Downs a month ago, came from far back to win by 1 1/2 lengths, with Autumn Glitter and Micenas running second and third. Autumn Glitter won the Las Palmas two weeks later and is skipping the Yellow Ribbon to run in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Galunpe lost by only a head in the Las Palmas. “The jockey (McCarron) moved too soon with her,” Frankel said. “The chart doesn’t show it, but she was about a length and a half in front at one point.”

A stakes winner in France, Galunpe was seventh in last year’s Yellow Ribbon in her first American start. She won two stakes in the spring here and then, after running a distant fourth as the favorite in the Gamely Handicap at Hollywood Park, underwent minor throat surgery, similar to what was done to Tank’s Prospect before he won the 1985 Preakness and to Alysheba before he won this year’s Kentucky Derby.

Galunpe’s throat was better, but her temperature wasn’t. Twice she developed a fever, once at Del Mar and also just before she was supposed to run in New York.

In her first race since the Gamely, Frankel ran Galunpe against males in the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar in August and she finished sixth.

Another runner returning from last year’s Yellow Ribbon is Carotene, a Canadian filly who took the wide way around and finished third, less than a length behind the winner, Bonne Ile.

Carotene has won only 3 of 11 races this year, but running third in the Yellow Ribbon has sometimes been a rosy harbinger. Queen To Conquer, Sangue and Estrapade all ran third one year, first the next.

Horse Racing Notes Contrary to Bobby Frankel’s opinion, Chris McCarron likes Santa Anita’s grass course. . . . Frankel is sending Iades to Tokyo to run in the Japan Cup on Nov. 29. Iades went off at 193-1--a Breeders’ Cup record--when he beat only one horse in the Classic in his American debut at Santa Anita last year. A stakes winner this year, Iades will be ridden by Fernando Toro in Tokyo. . . . Frankel has no starters in the Breeders’ Cup. He almost won last year’s Turf with Theatrical, who was second to Manila by a neck. After that, Theatrical’s minority owner, Bert Firestone, who still had management authority, took the horse away from Frankel and sent him to his stable trainer, Bill Mott.

Theatrical is favored to win the Turf next Saturday, but Frankel says the best bet on Breeders’ Cup day is Ferdinand. “He should go off at 4-5,” Frankel said. “He’s got the best chance of any horse running in the Breeders’ Cup.” . . . Oueen Bebe is running in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff instead of the Yellow Ribbon. . . . Purdue King, second in the Norfolk but ineligible for the Breeders’ Cup, carries top weight of 120 pounds today in the B.J. Ridder Stakes. . . . Santa Anita’s season will close Monday, with Tasso and possibly Circus Prince running in the $75,000 Henry P. Russell Handicap .

Trainer Happy Alter brought Blazing Bart to Hollywood Park from Calder, but right now the 3-year-old colt is only on the also-eligible list for the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Blazing Bart is undefeated in four starts on grass. Asked if the $200,000 Hollywood Derby, which will be run on grass a week from Sunday, is an option, Alter said: “I don’t even want to think about it.” . . . Al Mamoon, whose stallion career begins at Cardiff Stud next year, will stand for a $10,000 fee. He was second in the 1985 Breeders’ Cup Mile. . . . Steve Cauthen, winner this year of his third English riding title, will ride Bold Arrangement in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. . . . Roger Attfield, who trains Carotene, is fifth on the Daily Racing Form’s money list with $3 million in purses.