Frankel Has Edge in This ‘Oaks Race

Bobby Frankel, Dermot Weld and Jim Cassidy trained the winners of the first three American Oaks and each will have representatives when the Grade I stakes race with a $750,000 purse is run again Sunday at Hollywood Park.

Of them, Frankel seems most likely to become the first trainer to win the Oaks twice. The Hall of Famer, who won the inaugural event when Megahertz was moved up from second after Dublino was disqualified, will saddle unbeaten Melhor Ainda in the 1 1/4 -mile turf race.

A daughter of Pulpit owned by T N T Stud, Melhor Ainda has won four races in New York and Kentucky by a combined 17 3/4 lengths. The 2-1 favorite on Russ Hudak’s morning line, she won her first graded stakes when taking the Sands Point at Belmont Park on June 5. She will be ridden by John Velazquez, the nation’s leading jockey in money earned in 2005.

Melhor Ainda, who arrived at Hollywood Park on Wednesday after shipping from Belmont, won’t be the only starter for the stable. Frankel will also send out longshot Louvain, who is among only three in the field with a win on the Hollywood Park turf course. In her U.S. debut Nov. 26, Louvain won a division of the Miesque.

Weld, who won the Oaks with Dimitrova in 2003, is back with Sweet Firebird, a Sadler’s Wells filly who has won once in five starts. She will be ridden by Alex Solis and is 20-1.

Cassidy, who got the money a year ago with Ticker Tape, will try for an encore with 30-1 outsider Singhalese.

Dance In The Mood, the Japanese entry a year ago, could have won the Oaks with a better ride and her place this year has been taken by Cesario. The 5-2 second choice, she has lost only once in five races. Her biggest win came May 22 when she won the $1,708,000 Japanese Oaks by a neck.

The fourth choice at 8-1 is Silver Cup, who arrives from Italy with four consecutive wins. “She’s competitive and she likes to fight,” said Stefano Botti, who assists his father, trainer Alduino Botti. “She doesn’t get excited. She’s very calm both in her works and in her races. We’re pretty confident she’ll give a good account of herself.”

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Entries for the four other stakes races Sunday -- the $300,000 Vanity, the $250,000 American, the $350,000 Triple Bend and the $200,000 Royal Heroine -- were also taken Thursday. Andujar heads a field of nine older fillies and mares in the Vanity, King Of Happiness will aim for his second win of the meet in the American, 14 well-matched sprinters will go seven furlongs in the Triple Bend, and older fillies and mares will run a mile on turf in the Royal Heroine.

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Eddington, one of the nation’s top handicap horses, has been retired after suffering an injury to his right foreleg during a workout a week ago at Belmont Park.

Owned by Willmott Stables, Inc. and trained by Mark Hennig, Eddington, a 4-year-old Unbridled colt, finished his career with six wins in 17 starts and earnings of more than $1.2 million.