Mash One a Nice Surprise for Frankel

Pulling winners from both sleeves, trainer Bobby Frankel swept the major stakes at Santa Anita over the weekend when Mash One, who hadn’t won in nearly two years, found room on the rail to win Sunday’s $300,000 Oak Tree Turf Championship.

Mash One’s unexpected win, as the longest price in the field, came 24 hours after Frankel saddled Spanish Fern, the second choice, to win the $500,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes. Spanish Fern earned herself a trip to the Breeders’ Cup at Gulfstream Park on Nov. 6, to run in the $1-million Filly and Mare Turf Stakes, but Frankel will have to make other plans for Mash One, a Chilean-bred who wasn’t nominated for the $2-million Breeders’ Cup Turf. The 5-year-old’s supplementary fee would be at least $240,000.

Mash One, earning $180,000 for his owners, John and Jerome Amerman of Palos Verdes Estates and Roberto Ossa from Chile, paid $25.80 after running 1 1/4 miles in 1:59. His last win came Dec. 27, 1997, in Chile.

Lazy Lode finished second, beaten by two lengths, and he was 2 1/4 lengths better than Bonapartiste, the favorite who ran third.

Before Sunday, Mash One had earned $189,583 overall and had run only twice for Frankel, who had been unable to race the horse more because of cracked hooves on both the front and rear feet. In his first outing for Frankel, Mash One ran second to Brave Act in the San Gabriel Handicap at Santa Anita last December. His next race, more than eight months later, resulted in a sixth-place finish in the Man o’ War Stakes at Belmont Park on Sept. 11.

“He had one bad race on soft turf,” Frankel said. “I got my head beat in going to New York, but at least I got him fit for this race.”

Mash One was sent to Frankel by Ossa because he had trained his sire, Mashkour, who won the San Juan Capistrano at Santa Anita in 1991. Mash One, Frankel said, was the first foal from Mashkour’s first and only crop. Frankel said that Mashkour died before he could spend a second year at stud.

David Flores rode Mash One for the first time. They were third, behind Lazy Lode and Docksider, for most of the opening mile.

“I had plenty of room to go through [on the rail], and that made it easier,” Flores said. “I could see by the top of the stretch that I would have plenty of time and room to go up in there, and I knew I had enough horse.”

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Before Sunday’s Arc de Triomphe, trainer John Hammond was lamenting that France’s biggest race was going to be run in a bog.

At the top of the stretch, Hammond had a more serious concern: His Montjeu, the race favorite, was trapped behind horses. “I didn’t think we would win,” Hammond said. “I thought that once the Japanese horse [El Condor Pasa] went clear on this ground, my horse would run on and be a good second.”

But Mick Kinane, Montjeu’s rider, was able to maneuver his 3-year-old colt to the outside, and they made up more than three lengths in the stretch to win the 1 1/2-mile race by a half-length.

Montjeu, who went off at 6-4 odds, races for Michael Tabor, who won the Kentucky Derby with Thunder Gulch in 1995. Tabor joins the late John Galbreath and Paul Mellon in a select group of owners who have won classic races on both sides of the Atlantic.

Croco Rouge finished third, six lengths behind El Condor Pasa. Daylami, the second choice, was delayed in getting to Paris because of technical problems with his plane from England, and finished ninth in a 14-horse field. Sheik Mohammed didn’t decide to run Daylami until two hours before the Arc.

“He’s never encountered ground like this,” said Daylami’s jockey, Frankie Dettori, referring to the heavy going at Longchamp. “At the five-furlong marker, he was a beaten horse.”

Horse Racing Notes

In another race at Longchamp, Agnes World won the Prix de l’Abbaye Stakes and may be headed for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Gulfstream Park on Nov. 6. . . . The filly division of the California Sires Stakes was won by Cover Gal, the 3-10 favorite, who beat Fire Sale Queen by four lengths. Undefeated Cover Gal has won her three races by a combined total of 19 lengths. She was ridden by Gary Stevens for trainer Lance Stokes, who’ll run her next in the California Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Oct. 30.