Norfolk Doesn’t Make the Grade

The Norfolk Stakes, struggling to regain recognition as a Grade I race, didn’t gain any ground at Santa Anita Saturday when undefeated Came Home, one of the best 2-year-olds in the country and the 2-5 morning-line favorite, was scratched because of an ankle injury.

Came Home’s absence left the $250,000 Norfolk with six horses, three of them maidens and none a stakes winner. One of the maidens, Ibn Al Haitham, even finished second, three lengths behind his entry mate, Essence Of Dubai, who was making only his third start.

Eoin Harty, the former assistant to Bob Baffert, saddled the first two finishers for Sheik Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing. Baffert’s Ecstatic, who went off the 19-10 favorite, took third money, moved up a notch after the stewards’ disqualification of Roman Dancer.

Essence Of Dubai, soundly beaten by Baffert’s Officer at Del Mar, will get another chance against the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile favorite Oct. 27 at Belmont Park.

Came Home missed the Norfolk because of swelling in his right front ankle. “The X-rays were negative,” said John Toffan, one of the colt’s owners, “but he’s too nice a colt to mess around with.”

Toffan and Trudy McCaffery, who bred Came Home, recently sold a 50% interest in the horse to Will Farish.

In the richest race on the card, Janet duplicated her upset of Tranquility Lake in the Ramona at Del Mar by winning the $500,000 Yellow Ribbon by a length. Tranquility Lake, the 11-10 favorite, saved second by two lengths over Al Desima but was foiled in trying to win the race for the second straight year.

Besides running a host of horses in the Breeders’ Cup, trainer Bobby Frankel may have November’s Japan Cup surrounded too.

Lido Palace, Frankel’s Woodward winner, would have to be supplemented for $800,000 to run in the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic, which makes it more prudent to run instead in the $2.3-million Japan Cup Dirt on Nov. 24. The next day is the Japan Cup, a $4.3-million grass race, which could be the right spot for Timboroa after his three-length upset of King Cugat, the 3-5 favorite, in the $750,000 Turf Classic at Belmont. Timboroa, 11th in the Japan Cup last year, has sparkled lately. Ridden by Edgar Prado, he was the 3-1 second choice Saturday off his win in the Del Mar Handicap, but also would have to be supplemented into the Breeders’ Cup.

Other winners at Belmont were Lailani, undefeated in seven starts this year after beating favored England’s Legend by three-quarters of a length in the $750,000 Flower Bowl; and Finder’s Fee in the $125,000 Gallant Bloom Handicap. Frankel’s Starine ran third in the Flower Bowl.... In England, Sheik Mohammed won the $487,500 Queen Elizabeth II at Ascot, but unexpectedly with the 33-1 Summoner, who was supposed to be the pace-setter for the stable’s Noverre. Summoner didn’t quit as he beat Noverre by 11/2 lengths. The winner goes home to Dubai, while Noverre will run in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.... Oscar Andrade, the leading quarter horse jockey who suffered a spinal-cord injury Thursday night at Los Alamitos, will have surgery later this week in an attempt to restore feeling to his lower body.