It’s Triple the Pleasure for Frankel

On dirt or on grass, trainer Bobby Frankel is playing a hot hand. Maybe he has even got something hidden in the barn that would be effective on ice.

Trainer Bruce Headley, who hasn’t saddled a winner locally since last October, had Kalookan Queen in the lead in the stretch Saturday, but Frankel’s Honest Lady ran her down to win the $221,400 Santa Monica Handicap by a length at Santa Anita. That was a dirt race, and four races earlier, in the $163,800 San Marcos Handicap on grass, Frankel saddled Public Purse as he beat Dark Moondancer by a head.

“Everything went perfect, but we didn’t win,” Headley said of the Santa Monica. “The great Frankel’s just too hot. When you’re hot, you’re hot, and when you’re not, you’re not.”

Frankel’s third win of the day, on grass again, came half an hour after the Santa Monica when Alex Solis, who rode Public Purse, clicked with The Seven Seas, a French import making her U.S. debut. Frankel’s hat trick gives him 12 victories for the meet and a tie with Bob Baffert for leading trainer through 21 days.

Corey Nakatani, who rode Honest Lady, has teamed with Frankel to win with eight of 18 starters at the meet.

Frankel purposely backed off with many of his horses at the Hollywood Park meet that preceded Santa Anita.

“I freshened them,” Frankel said. “I was just waiting for Santa Anita. It’s one of those rare things where you write down what you want to do, and then--at least so far--have it work.”

Honest Lady’s victory gave Frankel a tail wind as he headed to the paddock for the saddling of The Seven Seas. Frankel had groomed Honest Lady for last year’s Kentucky Derby, and the trainer was buried in criticism when the plan fell apart.

“I wanted to prove everybody wrong, because they all said she was washed up,” Frankel said.

After Public Purse’s front-running win, Honest Lady came from last place in the Santa Monica. She and Nakatani were ahead of only one horse--and 9 1/2 lengths behind Enjoy The Moment--after the first half-mile of the seven-furlong race. Before Saturday, Honest Lady’s style was to race close to the pace.

“When a horse is training well and still not winning, you try to find something that works,” Frankel said. “Nakatani’s the perfect rider to do this.”

Enjoy The Moment, who finished third, battled with Kalookan Queen through rapid opening splits of :44 1/5 and 1:08 2/5. Hookedonthefeelin, who had only lost once in six starts, was the 6-5 favorite, but she dropped back early and finished sixth.

Honest Lady, carrying 114 pounds, four less than the three high weights, paid $18.60. Her time was 1:21 2/5 as she earned $132,840 for her fourth win in eight starts.

Last year, Frankel thought that Honest Lady was good enough to tackle colts, but she was fifth in the San Rafael Stakes and cracked a knee while running next to last in the Santa Anita Derby. She returned to the races in September, and in her only stakes start since then had been a badly beaten third in the Monrovia Handicap.

Both Honest Lady, a daughter of Seattle Slew and Toussaud, and Public Purse are owned by Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms.

“Imagine what [Honest Lady] is worth now,” said Nakatani, who leads the meet with 24 victories. “The mare she comes out of is a monster, and now this filly is a Grade I winner too. [In the Monrovia], she actually out-broke the gate and hit it. Bobby told me he wanted to take the blinkers off to see if she could settle and make that one run, and I told him I thought it would work.”

Trainer Bill Spawr said that Enjoy The Moment, who won nine of 16 starts and earned $538,000, is being retired and will be bred to Coronado’s Quest.

“Can you imagine that foal?” Spawr said. “I think that one will be a rocket.”

Public Purse, carrying 119 pounds, one less than Dark Moondancer, was favored Saturday and paid $5 for $2. Public Purse’s time of 1:59 2/5 for 1 1/4 miles was the first sub-two-minute running of the race since Classic Fame’s stakes-record 1:58 in 1992.

Dark Moondancer, second by 2 1/2 lengths over The Fly, ran a much-improved race compared to his ninth-place finish in November in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, his U.S. debut.

“If only he didn’t have to lose all that ground turning for home,” trainer Ron McAnally said of Saturday’s race. “That made a difference. He is a true distance horse.”

The Kentucky-bred Public Purse’s career began in France. For Frankel, his other races before Saturday were a victory in the Burke Handicap at Santa Anita and a second to Lazy Lode in the Hollywood Turf Cup. Public Purse and Lazy Lode may hook up again in the San Luis Obispo on Feb. 21.

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Cash Run can become the first 1999 Breeders’ Cup winner to win a race this year if she beats five rivals today in the Santa Ynez Stakes. Winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at 32-1 in November, Cash Run was 4-5 when she ran second in her only subsequent start, the Golden Rod at Churchill Downs on Nov. 27. Jerry Bailey is in from Florida to ride Cash Run, who’s the 7-5 favorite on the morning line. Next at 2-1 is Classic Olympio, who had won three in a row before she finished last in a five-horse field in the Hollywood Starlet on Dec. 9.

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Jockey Chris Antley, who underwent knee surgery in December, will resume working horses Monday and his agent, Ron Anderson, said that he expects Antley to start accepting mounts by Feb. 1.