Spanish Fern Beats Favored Fiji

One of the paradoxes in the Breeders’ Cup record book is that horses trained by Bobby Frankel have earned almost $3 million--putting him 10th on the money list--without winning a race.

From 30 Breeders’ Cup starters, Frankel has had four seconds, five thirds and four fourths, but the closest he has come to winning one of the races was when Manila beat his Theatrical by a neck in the Turf Stakes at Santa Anita in 1986.

“It’s a big deal until I win one,” Frankel said Saturday. “Then it won’t be a big deal anymore. I don’t think about it, but you guys [reporters] keep reminding me.”

The Breeders’ Cup added a race this year, to be run with the seven others at Gulfstream Park on Nov. 6, and the $1-million Filly and Mare Turf Stakes may be Frankel’s way out. He’ll have one of the favorites in Spanish Fern, who beat last year’s Eclipse Award winner, Fiji, and five other grass distaffers Saturday to win the $500,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes before 37,292 at Santa Anita.

Frankel had considered shipping Spanish Fern to New York, for today’s Flower Bowl Handicap at Belmont Park. The 4-year-old filly would have been given weight by other horses there, instead of sharing high weight with four others in the Yellow Ribbon, but Scotty McClellan, jockey Chris McCarron’s agent, persuaded Frankel to keep his horse at Santa Anita.

“Scotty thought it was a tough race, but he thought the favorite [Fiji, who hadn’t run in almost a year] was vulnerable,” said Frankel, who then ticked off the negatives of some of the others: Tuzla, virtually untested at the Yellow Ribbon distance of 1 1/4 miles, Tranquility Lake, apparently headed the wrong way after earlier wins.

“The public knew,” Frankel said. “They made my horse the second choice.”

The speed in the 23rd Yellow Ribbon couldn’t hold on as Spanish Fern, still fifth with a quarter of a mile left, closed in the center of the track for a 1 1/4-length win over Caffe Latte, who also was rallying from far back. Shabby Chic finished third, beaten by 2 1/2 lengths, and Fiji, the 2-1 favorite, was sixth, about four lengths behind Spanish Fern.

Spanish Fern, paying $7.40, was timed in 1:59 2/5. The Kentucky-bred daughter of El Gran Senor and Chain Fern, a Blushing Groom mare, began her career in England before arriving at Frankel’s barn in the fall of 1998. Saturday’s win, worth $300,000 to Prince Khalid Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, was her fifth in 10 tries and gave her three wins and two thirds in five races with Frankel.

McCarron, winning his third Yellow Ribbon, had never ridden Spanish Fern in a race, but her previous riders were unavailable: Kent Desormeaux, out because of a broken wrist, and Alex Solis, who was in Louisiana winning the Super Derby with Ecton Park.

“I got on her for the first time the other day in the morning, and she worked awesome,” McCarron said. “She breezed [six furlongs] in 1:12. The way she breezed, I was confident that she had recovered from her last race at Del Mar [a close third in the Ramona Handicap], when she got bounced around a little bit.”

Trainer Neil Drysdale hasn’t given up on Fiji for the Breeders’ Cup. He will give his mare another chance in the $500,000 Vinery First Lady Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 15.

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Elliott Walden has been saying there’s little difference in the ability of his top 3-year-olds, and Ecton Park proved that in the $500,000 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs, winning the 1 1/4-mile race by two lengths while his more heavily bet stablemate, Menifee, finished second. Alex Solis came from California to ride Ecton Park, who went off at 3-1 and reached the wire in 2:00 2/5, missing the track record by one-fifth of a second. Menifee, winner of the Blue Grass and the Haskell this year, went off at 3-5. . . . The stewards at Bay Meadows declared the fourth race “no contest” after a two-horse spill on the far turn. The horses and the jockeys were not seriously injured. Santa Anita-based Big Jag, now undefeated in three starts at Bay Meadows, carried high weight of 123 pounds to victory in the California Sprint Championship Handicap. . . . At Longchamp in Paris, the stewards handed out 20-day suspensions to jockeys Thierry Jarnet and Andrasch Starke when they pulled up their horses at the wrong finish line in the Group 2 Prix du Royallieu Stakes. Jarnet appeared to have had the race won with Daring Miss, but after the mistake they finished second to Fairy Queen, beaten by three-quarters of a length. Starke’s error cost his horse, Evil Empire, third place.

Two sons of Bertrando ran 1-2 in the California Sires Stakes at Santa Anita as Hugh Hefner, ridden by Gary Stevens, beat Stormy Jack by 5 1/2 lengths. The winner was bred by owner Eddie Nahem, who raced Bertrando, winner of the 1993 Pacific Classic and Woodward, in a partnership with Marshall Naify. Stormy Jack, the 1-2 favorite, had been undefeated in two starts. . . . In his second ride back since breaking his shoulder in a spill at Del Mar on July 30, Eddie Delahoussaye rode the Irish-bred Santovito, a 41-1 shot, to his first win in the United States. . . . Laffit Pincay’s eighth-race winner aboard Golden Tassel was No. 8,793, leaving him 40 short of Bill Shoemaker’s record. . . . The sore-footed Bonapartiste, who has won his only start this year, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in today’s $300,000 Oak Tree Turf Championship. Military beat Bonapartiste by a nose in last year’s running of the stake.