OAK TREE : Turf Specialist Possibly Perfect Tears a Ligament and Is Retired

Possibly Perfect, one of the country’s best female turf runners and a leading candidate for an Eclipse Award, has been retired because of a torn ligament in her right foreleg.

Trainer Bobby Frankel, who scratched Possibly Perfect from Sunday’s $600,000 Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita because he wanted to save her for the $700,000 Matriarch at Hollywood Park on Nov. 26, said that the injury was discovered after X-rays were taken Sunday. Frankel had declared Possibly Perfect out of the Yellow Ribbon on Saturday.

“It’s something she’s had all along, more or less, but I was surprised to learn that it was torn,” Frankel said. “The ankle had been just a little puffy for about a week and a half. A lesser horse and we probably wouldn’t have even checked it. It’s the kind of injury that Go For Wand and Exbourne had. Much of a horse’s support comes from that part of the leg, and we’d take the chance of snapping the ankle if we ran her one more time.”

Go For Wand was destroyed after breaking down in the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Belmont Park, and Exbourne, one of Frankel’s best grass horses, won the Hollywood Turf Handicap and the Caesars International at Atlantic City before he was retired.

Possibly Perfect, a 5-year-old mare, raced for her breeders, Robert and Geri Witt of Encino, winning 11 of 18 races and earning $1.3 million. This year, she won five out of six, losing only when she gave Alpride nine pounds in the Beverly Hills Handicap at Hollywood Park. Possibly Perfect beat Alpride twice after that.

“Possibly Perfect’s one of the best fillies, on grass, that I’ve ever had,” Frankel said. “She ranks with Toussaud in that category. She was never the soundest horse, but she didn’t let that bother her in the afternoons. She fired every time she went out there.”

Frankel said he planned to run Angel In My Heart and Wandesta in the Matriarch. Angel In My Heart was second to Alpride, beaten by half a length, in the Yellow Ribbon, and Wandesta finished sixth. Angel In My Heart, a stakes winner in France, was sent to Frankel’s barn after Sunday’s race.

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Varadavour, a 6-year-old Irish-bred coming off a 71-day layoff, became the second $100,000 claim to win a stake at the Oak Tree meet, finishing first in Monday’s $157,850 Carleton F. Burke Handicap.

Trainer Mike Puype claimed Varadavour from trainer Terry Knight on May 7, out of a race in which Varadavour beat only one horse at Hollywood Park.

Onceinabluemamoon, claimed by trainer Jack Van Berg from Brent Sumja at Del Mar for $100,000, won the Las Palmas Handicap at Santa Anita on Oct. 15.

Varadavour, winner of two of four starts under Puype before Monday, was next to last, but within striking distance, after a mile, and out-finished a pair of Frankel trainees, Hidden Source and Raintrap, after they had set the pace for the first 1 1/4 miles. Patio De Naranjos also closed to finish second, beaten by two lengths, and Raintrap held on for third.

Varadavour, ridden by Alex Solis, carried 115 pounds, two fewer than the high-weighted Patio De Naranjos. Owned by Frank Gogliano, who said he and Puype made a mutual decision to claim him, Varadavour paid $8.60 to win and completed a distance of about 1 1/2 miles in 2:30 1/5.

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Horse Racing Notes

Corey Nakatani, who missed Monday’s Oak Tree finale because of a pulled muscle, won the jockey title for the 32-day meet. Nakatani, who led Oak Tree a year ago with 30 victories, registered 35, six more than Alex Solis. . . . Ron Ellis, who began the day in a three-way tie for second place among trainers, saddled two winners, his 10th and 11th, and shared the title with Mike Mitchell.

According to Autotote, Nakatani and Mitchell are the respective favorites for leading jockey and trainer at the 30-day Hollywood Park meet that opens Wednesday. Nakatani will be at a disadvantage, however, because he received a five-day careless-riding suspension from the Oak Tree stewards Monday. His days start Thursday and run through Nov. 22. Nakatani’s mount, Hundred Dollarkiss, was disqualified and dropped from second to third place in a race on Sunday. . . .

Off-track gains and on-track setbacks, trends not unlike racing nationally, were reflected in the Oak Tree meeting’s bottom line. On-track attendance slipped almost 12%, to 12,320 a day, and off-track attendance was down another 4.3%, compared to last year’s figures. The on-track handle dropped 9.1%, to $2.5 million, but overall the handle was $10.1 million, up 14% and buoyed by the addition of New York’s off-track betting network.