SANTA ANITA : Quest For Fame Ends Long Quest for Stakes Win

Late last week, trainer Bobby Frankel called representatives of Juddmonte Farms, telling them that he wasn’t going to run Quest For Fame in the $271,000 San Luis Obispo Handicap at Santa Anita.

“They must think I’m wacky now,” Frankel said Monday, minutes after Quest For Fame won the 1 1/2-mile race by 1 3/4 lengths, the 5-year-old’s first stakes victory since the Epsom Derby in June of 1990.

The week-long rain had disrupted Frankel’s training schedule for Quest For Fame. He hadn’t even been able to gallop the horse. But on Sunday, as Santa Anita’s main track went from muddy to good, Frankel was able to get in a 50-second, four-furlong workout.

“That blowout was enough to have him ready,” Frankel said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have run him.”

One of the horses Quest For Fame beat was Miss Alleged, who had won the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs and the Hollywood Turf Cup. Quest For Fame had finished third in both of those races.

Quest For Fame, ridden by Gary Stevens, won an allowance race at Santa Anita on Jan. 24 even though he bled slightly from the lungs. Helping him improve Monday were three things--Lasix to curb the bleeding, an equal break in the weights with Miss Alleged, and a soft turf course, the kind he caught in the Epsom Derby.

Cool Gold Mood, who ran for claiming prices of $62,500 and higher last year, finished second, 1 1/4 lengths ahead of Miss Alleged, who along with Quest For Fame was the high weight in the race with 121 pounds. Quest For Fame had carried three pounds more than Miss Alleged in the Breeders’ Cup and at Hollywood Park.

First place was worth $158,500 for Juddmonte, the stable name for the horses owned by Prince Khalid Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Missionary Ridge, the horse Frankel trains for Peter Wall, finished fourth, earning $18,750.

Quest For Fame’s winning time on a surface called good was 2:28 3/5. He paid $7.40 to win as the second choice behind the 13-10 Miss Alleged.

A slow 1:15 2/5 for the first six furlongs and a No. 1 post position were Miss Alleged’s undoing, trainer Charlie Whittingham said. Miss Alleged was in sixth place early, then seemed in a spot to loop the field on the turn, but lacked a rally.

“The fractions killed her,” Whittingham said, “and she was in a spot down the backstretch where she couldn’t jump over horses.”

Chris McCarron didn’t feel Miss Alleged’s position was a factor. “It was a good race for her, but it just wasn’t good enough,” the jockey said. “She was in the clear throughout. The only trouble that was costly to me was when Gary (Stevens) started going out at the five-sixteenths. His horse changed leads and turned French Seventyfive sideways and right in front of me.”

Quest For Fame, never far back, was in fourth place with a quarter-mile left, inside of French Seventyfive and behind the leaders, Missionary Ridge and Military Shot. Quest For Fame shook off French Seventyfive, who faded to last, and went outside the pair up front to take the lead at the top of the stretch.

“My horse ran like it was a fast track,” Stevens said. “He was just skipping through it. I never got clear (the first time he rode him) in the Hollywood race and the last race really helped his confidence level. It was a case of me getting to know the horse. He was real powerful late today. The sky’s the limit the rest of the year.”

Horse Racing Notes

The victory pushed Quest For Fame’s career earnings to more than $1.2 million. The horse has run only 13 times, with four wins, four seconds and two thirds. . . . Quest For Fame is expected to run in the San Luis Rey Handicap March 29 and is likely to face Miss Alleged again. Charlie Whittingham plans to keep running Miss Alleged against males this winter. . . . Chris McCarron’s slump has reached three winners in his last 58 rides. . . . Trainer Gary Jones feels that his Best Pal and In Excess should be weighted equally in the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap on March 7. “In Excess has had only one bad race going back to last year, and that was on grass,” Jones said. “Then he came back after a layoff and ran well Saturday (finishing second to Ibero in the San Antonio Handicap.)” Jones thought In Excess got a break when Twilight Agenda was weighted three pounds above him in the San Antonio. As a result, trainer Wayne Lukas didn’t run Twilight Agenda Saturday. “If Twilight Agenda had run in the San Antonio and won, he probably would have been looking at 129 pounds in the Big ‘Cap,” Jones said. . . . Bertrando, unraced since his second-place finish, five lengths behind Arazi, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, worked six furlongs on a Santa Anita track listed as good Monday morning and was clocked in 1:13. His 3-year-old debut is scheduled to be the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe Stakes on March 15.