It May Be a Steal for Frankel

Racing on or close to the lead, River Keen was a California invader who shipped in to New York last year and swept the Woodward and the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.

Trainer Bobby Frankel is hoping his Skimming, another California horse with a front-running style, can duplicate the River Keen scenario today when he faces Lemon Drop Kid, the favorite for horse-of-the-year honors, in the 47th running of the Woodward.

Lemon Drop Kid has won all four of his starts this year at 1 1/8 miles, the Woodward distance, but Skimming could have the upper hand if he’s allowed an easy early lead. Only four other horses are entered in the $500,000 Woodward, and none appears to have the speed to stay with Skimming and jockey Garrett Gomez early.

No one challenged Skimming in the San Diego Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile race at Del Mar, and he ran off to win by eight lengths. Three weeks later, on Aug. 26, Skimming again coasted to the front and won the 1 1/4-mile Pacific Classic by two lengths.

“I hope it wasn’t just Del Mar that worked for this horse,” Frankel said. “I don’t think it was. He’s been jogging to give you the feeling that he’ll like this track too.”

Scotty Schulhofer, who trains Lemon Drop Kid, waited until the colt’s 19th start before he added blinkers, and since then the horse has been undefeated--winning the Brooklyn and Suburban Handicaps at Belmont and the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga. Lemon Drop Kid will go to stud after he runs in the Woodward, the Jockey Club Gold Cup on Oct. 14 and the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.

Schulhofer is aware of the threat from Skimming.

“He’s a horse with a lot of quick acceleration,” the trainer said. “He’s the kind of horse that you should be able to place him anywhere you want.”

Lemon Drop Kid, who has run on an average of a race a month this year, will be going into the Woodward off a six-week gap.

“The last three races didn’t tire him out,” Schulhofer said. “He came out of those races like he’d never even run. This should be the right spacing: a month before the Jockey Club, and then the Breeders’ Cup three weeks after that.”

After winning the Belmont Stakes--spoiling Charismatic’s bid for a Triple Crown sweep--and the Travers last year, Lemon Drop Kid could have slipped into horse-of-the-year contention at the end of 1999, but he was a disappointing sixth in the Breeders’ Cup.

Jeanne Vance and her husband, Laddie Dance, who bought Lemon Drop Kid as a yearling for $200,000, replaced jockey Jose Santos with Edgar Prado four races back. Prado will have the job of making sure that Skimming doesn’t steal the Woodward.

Besides Lemon Drop Kid and Skimming, the rest of the Woodward field consists of Ecton Park, who was third, 3 1/4 lengths behind Skimming, in the Pacific Classic; Behrens, a 6-year-old who has won only one of his last eight starts; and Gander, a longshot who was a well-beaten fifth in last year’s Woodward.

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Another prep for the Breeders’ Cup Classic is being run today at Turfway Park, where Golden Missile is a 2-1 favorite against five opponents in the $500,000 Kentucky Cup Handicap. Golden Missile, who may have had an excuse for his poor fifth-place showing against Lemon Drop Kid in the Whitney, beat Schulhofer’s colt in May in the Pimlico Special.

Joe Orsino, who trains Golden Missile for owner Frank Stronach, said that the colt ran with an abscessed foot in the Whitney.

Although it might look like he’s ducking Lemon Drop Kid today, Orsino said that the reason he has gone on the road is to give Golden Missile a two-turn race. The Woodward is run around one turn.

Others running in the Kentucky Cup are Cat Thief, Rize, Jadada and two California-based horses, Early Pioneer and Captain Steve.

Horse Racing Notes

Meetyouatthebrig, scratched from Wednesday’s tough Del Mar Futurity, won Friday’s $50,000 Beau Brummel Stakes by 11 lengths at Fairplex Park. That was the second win in three starts for trainer David La Croix’s colt, who was running for the first time in 3 1/2 months. Meetyouatthebrig was ridden by Martin Pedroza, who won three races for the second day in a row. . . . Jockey Laurie Files, who hadn’t won a race since 1994, won Friday’s ninth race at Fairplex in wire-to-wire fashion aboard 58-1 shot Rough Fun. It was the 19th career victory for Files.