Turf Victory Eases Strain for Frankel : Hollywood Park: Quest For Fame nearly sets record after stablemate Exbourne has surgery.

Shortly after his stablemate, Exbourne, underwent surgery that could save his life but not his career, Quest For Fame won the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Handicap in near-record time Monday.

“He’s just coming out of the anesthesia,” trainer Bobby Frankel said minutes after the race. “We’re just trying to save him, he’ll never run again.” Then, reflecting on the race, Frankel added: “Exbourne could have handled this bunch pretty good.”

Later, Frankel phoned the equine hospital where Exbourne’s four-hour surgery was done.

“Everything went well,” Frankel said. “The prognosis is good (for a stud career). They’ll put a cast on and he’ll probably leave in about 10 days for the farm in Kentucky.”

A year ago, Exbourne beat a better field, winning the Turf Handicap by three-quarters of a length, but while preparing for Monday’s race last Thursday he suffered torn ligaments and tendons in his right front ankle.

Exbourne’s owner, Prince Khalid Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, still won the Turf Handicap with Quest For Fame, who beat Classic Fame by one length under Gary Stevens in 1:58 4/5 for 1 1/4 miles on grass. The stakes record of 1:58 3/5 was set by Political Ambition in 1988, the first year the race was run at its current distance.

River Traffic, a 21-1 shot, finished third, 1 1/4 lengths behind Classic Fame, before a crowd of 17,954. River Traffic was a head better than Irish Empire and in fifth place, another neck back, was Missionary Ridge, who is also trained by Frankel.

Quest For Fame, then trained by Roger Charlton, won the 1990 Epsom Derby, then didn’t winagain until 19 months later, a couple of months after Frankel began training him at Santa Anita.

Carrying high weight of 122 pounds, Quest For Fame earned $275,000 for his fifth victory in 15 starts. He has earned nearly $1.6 million.

“I thought we’d be laying closer than what we were,” Stevens said. “But that’s the thing about riding a smart horse. He was saying, ‘Hold on, jock, they’re going a little fast.’ ”

Forty Niner Days’ six-furlong pace of 1:09 1/5 was too fast, and he faded to seventh in thenine-horse field. Quest For Fame was seventh then, 11 lengths back. At the quarter pole, Stevens moved Quest For Fame off the rail and around the leaders and they took over with an eighth of a mile left.

“I had expected to be riding only four or five lengths off the pace,” Stevens said. “But then I decided to just let him settle. He ran real steady the last quarter of a mile. He’s got a big year ahead of him.”

Since Quest For Fame’s American debut, a third-place finish under Pat Eddery in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs last fall, Stevens has been the English-bred’s only jockey. When Exbourne was injured, Stevens could have gone to Belmont Park to ride another of his regular mounts, In Excess, in the Metropolitan Handicap, but Frankel suggested that he stay home for Quest For Fame.

“Bobby’s been great to me the last few years, and his success with turf horses has been tremendous,” Stevens said. “When he says, ‘Jump,’ I say, ‘How high?’ ”

Stevens rode Golden Pheasant to victory Sunday in the Inglewood Handicap. Ridden by Chris Antley, In Excess finished third in the Metropolitan.

Classic Fame, second in the weights at 120 pounds, also came from behind under Kent Desormeaux. “He took dead aim, he just couldn’t catch the winner,” Desormeaux said.

Classic Fame was squeezed at the start. “That was good for him,” trainer Gary Jones said. “You have to ride him that way, fight him a little. I didn’t expect them to go out that fast. We lost a lot of ground early and we were five-wide all the way, but I don’t have any excuses. (Desormeaux) moved on him at the right time and everybody had a dream trip.”

When the Turf Handicap had a different name, Frankel saddled Life Cycle to win the fifth running, in 1973.

That was one of the first major victories in California for Frankel, who had left New York the year before.

Frankel won the stake again in 1979, with Johnny’s Image, and now Exbourne and his stand-in, Quest For Fame, have made him a four-time winner of the race.

“It feels real good,” Frankel said. “I was disappointed about Exbourne. But this makes me feel better.”

Horse Racing Notes

Quest For Fame was jockey Gary Stevens’ third winner of the day. . . . Pat Valenzeula, who was planning a vacation this weekend anyway, will be given a five-day respite by the Hollywood Park stewards, who ruled that he was responsible for not getting a fourth-place finisher to run straight during a race on Sunday. Valenzuela’s suspension will begin Friday.

If she runs, Kostroma will carry high weight of 124 pounds in Sunday’s $150,000 Gamely Handicap. . . . Hollywood Park-based Southern Justice and Gray Slewpy ran 1-2 Monday in the $100,000 Oakland Handicap at Golden Gate Fields. It was the first stakes victory for Southern Justice, who is trained by John Sadler and was ridden by Ron Hansen for the first time.