Frankel Makes Grade Again

Five years ago, Charles Kenis owned 40 horses and it hurt him to say only one of them could run.

“I was getting tired of that,” Kenis said Saturday at Hollywood Park, slapping the pocket of his trousers to get the point across.

Audrey Skirball Kenis, his wife and partner in the horse business, had been racing much longer than her husband, but after a lot of early success in the claiming business, some of it with trainer Bobby Frankel, her luck had also turned.

Kenis suggested to his wife that they change directions. “I said to her, ‘Let’s get some really good horses and see what happens.”’

What happened is their 3 + U Stable began to pile up stakes wins. Among them were See You Soon’s Grade I win in the 1998 Ramona Handicap at Del Mar and Super Quercus’ 1999 victory in the Hollywood Derby. Mazel Trick, probably the best of their horses, was moved from grass to dirt by Frankel and won four straight races before his career was ended abruptly by an ankle injury at Del Mar in 1999, only days before he would have been favored to win the $1-million Pacific Classic.

Charles Kenis briefly alluded to Mazel Trick on Saturday, but it was not the time to dwell on the good news-bad news aspects of the business. The 3 + U Stable--down to just the Kenises after their partners were bought out--had just won the $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup with Super Quercus, who was back in the winner’s circle for only the second time since that Hollywood Derby victory two years ago.

Riding in on the tide with the Good Ship Frankel is the only way for any owner to play the game these days. With Super Quercus’ win, Frankel swept the three Grade I grass races at the meet, a feat that matched another three-for-three season by another hall of famer, Charlie Whittingham, in 1989. Frankel’s totals for the year are also Whittingham-esque: 48 stakes wins, 35 of them graded and 17 of them Grade I’s.

Charles Kenis admitted that he thought his best chance Saturday was Super Quercus’ entry mate, Northern Quest. There was a question whether Super Quercus would have the stamina for the 11/2 miles, since he had never gone that far before, and the damp turf course--officially labeled good--was supposed to help Northern Quest.

But Northern Quest finished seventh as Super Quercus, under Alex Solis, came from the outside and last place to win by two lengths. The French-bred 5-year-old’s only other win in the last two years came in his previous start, in the Bay Meadows Handicap on Sept. 22.

Bonapartiste finished second, a half-length ahead of Blazing Fury, with Williams News fourth. The time was 2:294/5, slowest running for the stake since 1993.

Super Quercus, paying $4.40 to win, gave Solis his third win in the Turf Cup.