THOROUGHBRED RACING : Frankel Takes Aim at Four Stakes

Wayne Lukas has done it more than once, and one time on Breeders’ Cup day. The late Laz Barrera did it in one day.

These are trainers who have won three important stakes on the same weekend, and Bobby Frankel will try to join or surpass the small group today and Sunday when he runs well-placed horses in races in New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and California.

Today, Frankel’s barn will be represented by Marquetry in the $500,000 New England Classic at Rockingham Park. Sunday, the Santa Anita-based Frankel operation has horses at Atlantic City Race Course, where Exbourne runs in the $500,000 Caesars International Handicap; at Belmont Park, where Mr. P. and Max tries the $100,000 Lexington Stakes, and at Hollywood Park, where Mashkour is entered in the $250,000 Sunset Handicap.

Just winning one of these races would give further impetus to a year in which Frankel has not lacked for momentum. Statistics through last Sunday list Frankel’s barn at $2.7 million in purses, good for a No. 3 ranking in the country. Ahead of him are Lukas, the perennial leader, with $6.7 million, and Ron McAnally, a third Californian, with $3.8 million.

Frankel has been winning races 23% of the time, with 35 winners from 151 starters. That’s the highest winning percentage of any trainer on the top-10 money list.

“I haven’t been winning races at a rate like this since I first came to California (from New York) in 1972,” Frankel said. “In 1972 and 1973, I was claiming horses right and left and winning a lot. The purses of the races I’m winning now are a lot bigger. It feels a lot better.”

With Marquetry, the Hollywood Gold Cup winner, facing McAnally’s heavily favored Festin at Rockingham, and Mashkour trying to win the Sunset off only one start since he won the San Juan Capistrano at Santa Anita in late April, Frankel’s best chance is at Atlantic City. Exbourne, winner of the Hollywood Turf Handicap, and Double Booked, undefeated in five starts at shorter distances this year, are the co-high weights at 122 pounds in the 1 3/16-mile grass stake. The track linemaker has made Exbourne the 8-5 favorite.

Six other horses are entered, including Opening Verse and Forty Niner Days, who also have West Coast ties. Forty Niner Days won the Golden Gate Handicap in mid-June when Mashkour, the favorite, finished fifth. Rounding out the field are Three Coins Up, Chenin Blanc, Goofalik and Runaway Raja.

Sunny Serve, a sprinter who has won two of eight starts this year, is the only starter in a five-horse field that may challenge Marquetry’s early speed at Rockingham. Marquetry and jockey David Flores led all the way in the Hollywood Gold Cup, which at 1 1/4 miles was 220 yards longer than today’s race.

“I’m going to tell Flores to ride his own race and not pay any attention to the others,” Frankel said.

It was reported earlier in the week that Mashkour had swelling in a hind leg and was a doubtful starter for the Sunset, but he was among seven horses entered Friday for the 1 1/2-mile grass stake. Trainers of the high weights, Itsallgreektome at 123 pounds and Prized at 122, have passed the race.

Here’s the field in post-position order, with jockeys and weights: El Zorzal, Julio Garcia, 109 pounds; Pleasant Variety, Laffit Pincay, 116; Black Monday, Corey Nakatani, 112; Aksar, Gary Stevens, 115; Mashkour, Alex Solis, 115; Super May, Pat Valenzuela, 117; and Razeen, Eddie Delahoussaye, 115.

An 8-year-old son of Irish River, Mashkour could become the second-oldest horse to win the Sunset, which was first run in 1938 when Ligaroti, Bing Crosby’s horse, finished first and earned $4,200. John Henry, a 9-year-old, used the 1984 Sunset for his final victory in California.

Mashkour, third behind Shahrastani and Dancing Brave in the 1986 English Derby, could have been claimed for $80,000 at Santa Anita late last year. His victory over a subpar field in the San Juan Capistrano was his first in a North American stake and lifted his earnings over the $800,000 mark.

Horse Racing Notes

Pay the Butler, who gave Bobby Frankel his biggest racing thrill when he won the Japan Cup in 1988, recently was destroyed after rupturing a ligament in a fall at the farm in Japan where he was standing at stud. . . . Twelve of the tracks that are taking betting on the telecast of the Sunset will donate their proceeds to the Bill Shoemaker Foundation, which was established through the leadership of Hollywood Park President R.D. Hubbard to provide financial help for needy horsemen. The foundation is holding a $250-a-plate dinner dance and auction at the track tonight, and there will be an auction that includes breeding rights to several prominent stallions, including Nureyev and Strawberry Road. . . . Bill Shoemaker, paralyzed from the neck down from injuries suffered in an automobile accident in April, is being treated at a hospital in Englewood, Colo., and may be released at the end of September.

The winning jockey in the Caesars International will receive a trophy named after Shoemaker, who won the stake when it was known as the United Nations Handicap, with Round Table, Clem and Round Table again in 1957-59. Round Table carried 136 pounds in 1959. . . . Chris McCarron will ride Exbourne in the Caesars. . . . David Flores rides Mr. P. and Max in the Lexington. . . . After the Caesars, the Atlantic City track will stage a 12-round junior-middleweight bout between John David Jackson and Tyrone Tryice in a ring near the winner’s circle.

The Hollywood Park season ends Monday, with the running of the $100,000 Hollywood Juvenile, and the 43-day Del Mar meeting opens Wednesday. . . . Laffit Pincay, who is in Maryland today to ride Robyn Dancer in the Francis J. De Francis Memorial Dash, has a chance to win the Hollywood riding title for the 13th time. Pincay has won 13 Santa Anita titles and five at Del Mar. When he retired in 1990, Shoemaker had won 42 of those titles--18 at Hollywood, 17 at Santa Anita and seven at Del Mar.