Cerin’s Super Frolic Wins

When it started raining about 90 minutes before Saturday’s $750,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup, trainer Vladimir Cerin thought that maybe he had picked the wrong spot to run his horse.

Super Frolic proved Cerin wrong. In sloppy going at the Cicero, Ill., track, Cerin’s 5-year-old trainee beat Lord Of The Game by a head to take the $450,000 winner’s share. Perfect Drift, winner of the race two years ago and second last year, finished fourth as the 4-5 favorite.

“I thought this horse might run big,” said Victor Espinoza, who was the 20th jockey to ride Super Frolic in his 31st start. “He ran huge against better horses in the Pacific Classic.”

In August, Super Frolic ran fifth -- the first time Cerin saddled him -- as Borrego and Perfect Drift ran 1-2 in Del Mar’s $1-million race.

Desert Bloom finished third in the Grade II stakes at Hawthorne, 2 1/2 lengths behind Lord Of The Game. Super Frolic, paying $10.60, ran 1 1/4 miles in 2:03 3/5 . This was his 11th win, but first in a graded race. Cerin would like to try him next in the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont Park on Oct. 29.

Super Frolic had run only twice on off tracks, finishing third both times. He was also eligible for the $500,000 Goodwood Handicap at Santa Anita and the $1-million Jockey Club Gold at Belmont, both next Saturday.

“We sent him to Chicago because we thought this was the least difficult spot of the three races,” Cerin said. “But then when it started raining, I was afraid he might not be able to handle the track. I told Victor to keep him off the rail, and keep him in third place until it was time to make a move, and that’s what he did.”

On the recommendation of Jerry Brown of Thoro-Graph, a New York handicapping service, Ro Parra of Millennium Farms bought Super Frolic after the horse had run third in Stanton, Del., on July 16. Cerin wouldn’t say what the sale price was, but said, “He’s paid for himself by winning this race.”

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Martin Pedroza might have been suspended for the last three days, but he made the most of the designated-race rule, riding a stakes winner Friday at Fairplex Park and returning Saturday to ride Dover Dere to a one-length victory in the $100,000 Pomona Derby. When the meet ends Monday, Pedroza will have won the riding title for the seventh consecutive year.

The hard-ridden Dover Dere, trained by Doug O’Neill, who has secured his fourth consecutive title, wore down Chummin in the stretch. Dover Dere, paying $7.40, ended a nine-race losing streak, winning for the first time since Dec. 18. Pedroza has won the stake three times, with Semi Lost last year and Set On Cruise in 1994.

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Running five furlongs on grass in 56 4/5 seconds, Exceeding won the $100,000 California Turf Sprint Championship Handicap at Bay Meadows.... Silverfoot won the $200,000 Kentucky Cup Turf Handicap at Kentucky Downs in Franklin.... Bright Abundance, undefeated in three starts on grass at Belmont, won the $150,000 Noble Damsel Handicap.

Starcraft and Dubawi, separated by three-quarters of a length as they ran 1-2 in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Newmarket, England, could both be headed for the Breeders’ Cup Mile.... Ouija Board is expected to try to repeat in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf after her 2 1/2 -length win in the Princess Royal at Newmarket.... Instead of running in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, Pico Central, suffering from a leg injury, has been retired. The 6-year-old Brazilian-bred won three Grade I races in the U.S.... Funny Cide, winner of the 2003 Kentucky Derby, and Commentator, winner of this year’s Whitney Handicap at Saratoga, are out for the year.... Magna Entertainment reportedly is trying to sell 80% of San Luis Rey Downs, the Bonsall, Calif., training facility that it bought for $6.3 million about six years ago.