THOROUGHBRED RACING : Fraise Campaigning for Eclipse With Hollywood Turf Cup Run

Veteran Eclipse Awards voters are on bombast alert at this time of year. ‘Tis the season to be potentially sweet-talked into voting for this horse or that horseman as the ballots arrive for the election that will determine the 1992 champions.

The other night, at a farm near Versailles, Ky., a party was given for Sky Classic, the Canadian 5-year-old who is a leading contender for the Eclipse Award for best male horse on grass. The guest of honor was fed raw carrots, while the others had cocktails and a lavish buffet.

At first glance, this affair appeared to be an unabashed effort to rope in some votes for Sky Classic, who was a heavy favorite for the divisional title before he came up a nose short against Fraise in the $2-million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Gulfstream Park six weeks ago. But the guests at the party included only a few Eclipse voters. Most were breeders and potential breeders, people who will be interested in Sky Classic as a stallion when his new career begins in a few months.

If anything, it is the people who race Fraise--Madeleine Paulson and her husband, Allen, the breeder of the colt--who have hit the campaign trail. Recent full-page advertisements in racing’s trade publications have proclaimed Fraise as the “Titan of the Turf,” with the rest of the copy detailing the horse’s accomplishments.

And just to make sure the message misses no one, Pat Valenzuela can sometimes be seen working the jockeys’ room at Hollywood Park, encouraging visiting turf writers to consider his horse when they fill out their Eclipse ballots. Valenzuela, Allen Paulson’s contract rider, rode Fraise to victory in the Breeders’ Cup.

There’s nothing in the Eclipse Awards rules prohibiting electioneering. If there were, Louie Roussel would have been brought up on charges in 1988, when every time the postman rang, a reminder of Roussel’s horse, Risen Star, was being delivered.

Roussel wheeled out Risen Star T-shirts and wall-size prints of the horse by Richard Stone Reeves. The owner-trainer didn’t want voters forgetting that, just because injuries had forced Risen Star’s retirement by early summer, he had won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes and might have won the Kentucky Derby with better luck.

Risen Star’s record, not the T-shirts, resulted in his being voted champion 3-year-old colt. Roussel might have also been shooting for bigger game, but Reeves prints aside, the horse-of-the-year title had to go to Alysheba after his victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

In 1985, Peter Fuller looked up some old media friends when his 3-year-old filly, Mom’s Command, was a candidate for an Eclipse Award. Fuller, who won the Kentucky Derby with Dancer’s Image in 1968, then had the victory taken away on a drug disqualification, was generally a sympathetic figure as he unsuccessfully fought the reversal in the courts.

But it was not Fuller’s reputation, or his year-end blandishments, that won the title for Mom’s Command. She won seven of nine races and finished second in the two others.

In Oscar hunts, the contenders and their press agents are seldom bashful about campaigning, but the Eclipse electorate--racing secretaries from the tracks, turf writers and Daily Racing Form personnel--are a more sensitive lot and must be dealt with diplomatically. The backlash can be damaging. There’s a fine line between tasteful informational campaigns and what may be perceived as a tacky hard sell.

Several years ago, the management at Pimlico Race Course was especially eager to see a young jockey there win the Eclipse as outstanding apprentice. Judging by voter reaction, advertisements in the Racing Form backfired and the award went to another jockey.

The arrival of the Breeders’ Cup in 1984 has led to more titles being settled on the track, and less need for claptrap, which is as it ought to be. But divisions will always come along that are difficult to call, and the turf horse--with its Fraise-Sky Classic debate--is one of those.

Sky Classic was a marvelously consistent horse this year, but some of the big ones--the Arlington Million, the Breeders’ Cup Turf--got away. The Eclipse voters would have been better served if Sky Classic had gone to Tokyo and run in the Japan Cup a month after his narrow loss at Gulfstream, but a sore ankle prevented that trip and hastened his retirement.

As for the Paulsons, there’s no better campaign than to keep running your horse and winning extra races, which is one reason Fraise is competing Sunday in the Hollywood Turf Cup. The $500,000 purse is another.

The last two winners of the Turf Cup--Miss Alleged and Itsallgreektome--were also voted grass titles. And in 1990, Itsallgreektome didn’t even win his Breeders’ Cup race. He finished second, just as Sky Classic has.

Horse Racing Notes

Bob Strub, chief executive officer of Santa Anita, and Joe Hirsch, executive columnist of the Daily Racing Form, have been named winners of the 1992 Eclipse Award of Merit, for lengthy service to racing. . . . Only eight stakes races have been upgraded for 1993, one of them the $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar, which now has Grade I status. . . . Turfway Park announced that next year’s Jim Beam Stakes will be worth $600,000, making it the richest of the Kentucky Derby preps.

Avatar, winner of the Santa Anita Derby and Belmont Stakes in 1975, died last week in Ohio, where he was still active as a stallion. Avatar, 20, might have been the best horse in the Kentucky Derby, but was knocked off stride in the stretch by Diabolo, a horse he had beaten at Santa Anita. Foolish Pleasure won the Derby, with Avatar finishing second and Diabolo third. After running fifth in the Preakness, Avatar paid $28.40 to win while beating Foolish Pleasure and Master Derby, the Preakness winner, in the Belmont. Avatar gave jockey Bill Shoemaker the last of his five victories in the Belmont. An autopsy showed that Avatar suffered fractured vertebrae.

Machote, winner of one of 15 starts, won Thursday’s first race at Hollywood Park and paid $136.80. The ninth-race winner, Petably, beat maidens after being 0 for 9, resulting in a $143.80 payoff. . . . Pat Valenzuela rode three winners, including Indian Legend for trainer Mike Mitchell. The Mitchell barn has won with eight of 19 starters at the meeting. . . . Gray Slewpy and Cardmania, who both ran poorly in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, are among the six entered in Saturday’s Vernon O. Underwood Stakes at six furlongs. Other running are Light of Morn, Gundaghia, Kenbu and Individualist, who won the stake a year ago.