HOLLYWOOD PARK : Frankly Perfect Wins $500,000 Turf Cup

Only a few days after actor Sylvester Stallone bought 25% of three horses owned by King owner Bruce McNall, one of them, Frankly Perfect, won by 2 1/4 lengths in the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Cup before a crowd of 21,550 at Hollywood Park.

Frankly Perfect wasn’t favored Sunday, but Stallone talked in the winner’s circle as though he was working from a script. He acted totally unlike a man making his first visit to a race track.

“Nothing like starting in the penthouse,� Stallone said. “I can see where this sport could be very addictive.�

Stallone knows horses, but the kind he’s been exposed to have been polo ponies, which he rides and breeds. “The kind of horses I have, even I can catch them,� Stallone said.

When Chris McCarron, who was winning his third Turf Cup, and Frankly Perfect made their move from third place to the lead on the final turn, there was no catching the Perrault-Franca 4-year-old colt, who is also owned in part by the Kings’ Wayne Gretzky.

Yankee Affair, the favorite by 10 cents over Frankly Perfect, finished second for the sixth time this year, beating Pleasant Variety by three-quarters of a length. Live the Dream, the Hollywood Derby winner, ran fourth, another two lengths back.

Like Yankee Affair, Frankly Perfect had spent a lot of time running second. Before Sunday, the Charlie Whittingham trainee had won only two of eight starts this year and was the runner-up four times, three of them in major races. Paying $7.60 to win and running 1 1/2 miles in 2:26 3/5, Frankly Perfect won for the first time since the Golden Gate Handicap six months ago.

He had made only two starts since then, and was scratched the morning of the Arlington Million in September because he caught a virus in Chicago.

Whittingham, who trained Perrault, the national male grass champion in 1982, won the first Turf Cup, with Providential II, in 1981, but had two seconds and three thirds in the stake since then.

“I told Chris to lay close (Sunday), because there wasn’t a lot of speed in the race,� Whittingham said. “This horse has good foot, so he’s the kind you can place anywhere. He’s going to get better, and could be the kind of horse who might really be something next year.�

Caltech, who accounted for one of Yankee Affair’s many seconds when he won the Budweiser International at Laurel in October, set a dawdling early pace in the Turf Cup. Star Lift, the third-place finisher in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Gulfstream Park, was a close second down the backstretch. Frankly Perfect and Yankee Affair were slightly behind the leaders all the way.

On the race’s final turn, Star Lift dropped out of contention, eventually finishing ahead of only one runner in the l0-horse field, and Frankly Perfect took McCarron to the front.

McCarron had ridden Frankly Perfect for the first time on Nov. 13, when they finished second to Alwuhush in the Burke Handicap at Santa Anita.

“My horse was at the top of his game today,� McCarron said. “I heard Jose (Santos) chirp to his horse (Yankee Affair), but then I saw that his horse wasn’t responding enough to keep me outside.

“I was clearly on the best horse today. He’s been kicking down the barn the last two weeks, and he was bucking and squealing in the post parade. Normally, he’s a big, docile lumbering type. When he worked 1:37 and change (for a mile) the other day, you knew he was ready.�

Frankly Perfect earned $275,000, sending his career total over the $1-million mark. Yankee Affair went over $2 million by winning $100,000.

“Frankly Perfect was flying on the turn,� said Rene Douglas, who rode Caltech. “Chris just had too much horse.�

Gary Stevens, who rode Star Lift in the Breeders’ Cup, the English-bred’s American debut, saw a Jekyll-Hyde change in the 5-year-old on Sunday.

“In Florida, this horse was very kind,� Stevens said. “A 2-year-old could have ridden him. And he warmed up super today. But down the backstretch he tried to savage (bite) Caltech. It was like he was trying to put the other horse over the rail. My horse was unmanageable all the way.�

With the Kings winning in Quebec, Stallone was the only Frankly Perfect owner present. The 43-year-old actor became a racing partner of McNall’s after several conversations at hockey games.

“Our personalities meshed,� Stallone said. “I’ve never even visited the barn area and this is the first time I’ve ever been to a track, so it’s like coming right out of the convent.�

Stallone said that he didn’t bet on Frankly Perfect. “I’ve had boxers, and every time I’d bet on them, they never did anything,� he said. “So you can say that this is the start of a superstition about not betting on my horses.�

It was mentioned to Stallone that owning a racing stable isn’t cheap.

“That’s all right,� he said. “It’s got to be cheaper than getting married all the time.�

Notes

Chris McCarron’s other Hollywood Turf Cup wins were with John Henry in 1983 and Alphabatim in 1986. McCarron, meeting Sylvester Stallone for the first time, said that he’s a fan of the actor’s but doesn’t appreciate the Rambo movies. “Too much violence,� McCarron said. . . Frankly Perfect, whose career began in Europe, has a lifetime record of five wins in 19 starts. . . Pleasant Variety has won only two of 16 starts this year, but he’s earned more than $400,000 with four second-place finishes and five thirds.

Dominant Dancer hardly seems like a candidate for the $1-million Hollywood Futurity next Sunday, but she may be supplemented into the race for $50,000. Dominant Dancer, winner of five of eight starts, including the Oak Leaf at Santa Anita, was scratched from last week’s Hollywood Starlet when Donald Dooley, a track veterinarian, ruled on the morning of the race that the filly had a sore left shin. On Sunday, Dominant Dancer worked six furlongs in 112 2/5. “I wanted to work her fast to find out if she was all right,� trainer Don Harper said. “We sent X-rays of the shin to UC-Davis and they couldn’t find anything wrong. The vets at Davis felt that we were not risking injury by running her.�

Arthur Hancock, one of the owners of Sunday Silence, said that Goodbye Halo, another of his horses, will be sold at auction next month. Goodbye Halo was retired after finishing sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, having earned $1.7 million. “My partner and I considered breeding Goodbye Halo, but we’ve decided on selling her,� Hancock said. “She might bring $2-3-million. We could have bred her, but lots of things can go wrong doing that, and frankly, I need the money. I have six kids to support. Goodbye Halo would be like a diamond, perhaps improving in value, but right now I’m a man who can’t afford to own a diamond.�

Sunday was a tough day for jockeys at Hollywood Park. Kent Desormeaux was unseated in a post parade, and David Flores and Rene Douglas were dumped by their horses in consecutive races. Flores came back to win the next race, the one in which Douglas hit the ground, with Financial Wizard, a 57-1 shot. The only other win for Financial Wizard, a 2-year-old gelding, came at Santa Anita, where he went off at 44-1.