Frankel Will Be Trying to Double His Pleasure

Trainer Bobby Frankel, whose barn hardly needed a boost, will try to strike for the second time with recent arrivals this weekend.

Wild Spirit, a Chilean import who won in May in her U.S. debut, gives Frankel a good shot in the $750,000 Delaware Handicap on Sunday at Delaware Park. At Belmont Park today, Frankel will try to win the $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks with Spoken Fur, who was bought by John and Jerry Amerman of Palos Verdes Estates before her victory last month in the Mother Goose at Belmont. After purchasing the filly, they sent her to Frankel, who leads the nation in purses with $10.3 million, almost $4 million more than Steve Asmussen.

Wild Spirit, who beat Frankel’s more highly regarded filly, You, in the Shuvee Handicap at Belmont Park, is the 3-1 second choice in the Delaware Handicap at 1 1/4 miles. Favored at 2-1 is Summer Colony, who is trying to become the fifth horse to win the stake in successive years. The most recent was Nastique in 1988-89.

The 1 1/2-mile Coaching Club will be three-eighths of a mile longer than the Mother Goose for Spoken Fur, who had won three of seven previous starts but had never run in a stake.

Also entered to run in the Coaching Club is Yell, who ran second, beaten by more than five lengths, as the favorite in the Mother Goose.

Jerry Bailey, who leads nationally with $11.7 million in purses, will ride Spoken Fur and Wild Spirit.

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Frankel’s Belmont Stakes winner, Empire Ruler, was co-high weight at 123 pounds with Funny Cide for the $1-million Haskell Handicap on Aug. 3 at Monmouth Park, but Empire Ruler is expected to remain at Saratoga, where he will be stabled, to run in the $500,000 Jim Dandy the same day.

Frankel’s other top 3-year-old, Peace Rules, is likely to run in the Haskell with 121 pounds.

Funny Cide, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness and third in the Belmont, is a Haskell probable. He and Empire Ruler aren’t likely to meet again until the $1-million Travers on Aug. 23 at Saratoga. Empire Ruler, who was second in the Derby, holds a 2-1 edge over Funny Cide, having beaten him by half a length in the Wood Memorial.

Other weights for the Haskell are Sky Mesa and Wild And Wicked, 118 pounds apiece, and Excessivepleasure among a group of horses at 117 pounds.

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Aloma’s Ruler, winner of the 1982 Preakness, died June 21 at a farm in Illinois. He was 24. Aloma’s Ruler’s last race was a second-place finish behind Runaway Groom in the Travers.

Wando is the 3-5 morning-line favorite for Sunday’s $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie. Already the winner of the Queen’s Plate, Wando could sweep the Canadian Triple Crown with a victory Sunday and another victory Aug. 9 in the Breeders’ Stakes at Woodbine.

Nick Canani, a California trainer for 11 years, is moving to Bowie, Md., to train for Mike Gill, whose horses lead the country in wins and purses.