Saratoga Racing Report (Cont.)

SQUIRTING AWAY

Bobby Frankel continued his remarkable summer at Saratoga by winning the King's Bishop (gr. I) with Squirtle Squirt on Aug. 25. It was Frankel's fifth stakes victory of the meet. Prior to this summer, he had won two stakes at the track.

Squirtle Squirt, a 3-year-old son of Marquetry owned by David Lanzman, burst to the lead out of the gate and ran the first two quarters in :22.03 and :44.32. City Zip presented a challenge with a move in the turn, but could not sustain his run. Squirtle Squirt completed the seven furlongs in 1:21.97, finishing 3 1/4 lengths in front of a rallying Illusioned.

"He was just the better horse. He was faster than them," Frankel said. "He ran two great races in California when he got beat. I thought if he could handle this track, which he has in the mornings, he'd be tough to beat."

Carrying a career-high 124 pounds, City Zip finished third. It was his first loss at Saratoga.

JERKENS STRIKES AGAIN

Shine Again's upset victory in the $250,000 Ballerina Handicap (gr. I) on Aug. 26 brought Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens back to the winner's circle after a major race. As usual, the emotional Jerkens' eyes were red and wet.

Jerkens, 72, was hospitalized for three months in Florida during the winter after a life-threatening pancreatitis attack. The Ballerina was his first grade I win of the year.

"It's a long time between drinks but it's nice," he said.

In her first graded stakes win, Bohemia Stable's Shine Again defeated Dream Supreme, who was three-for-three at Saratoga; Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I) winner Spain, returning from a layoff; and Ogden Phipps' talented and consistent 5-year-old mare Country Hideway. Shine Again was the longest shot in the field at 21-1.

Jerkens decided to enter the seven-furlong Ballerina after the Wild Again filly turned in a bullet five-furlong work five days before the race and because she was getting nine pounds from Spain and Dream Supreme.

Jockey Jean-Luc Samyn kept kept Shine Again back off the early fractions of :22.11 and :44.59 set by Imadeed. Coming out of the turn, Samyn took the 4-year-old Wild Again filly up the rail to the lead. She opened up a 1 1/2-length advantage at the top of the stretch and had enough left to hold off Country Hideaway by a half-length in 1:22.33.

"At the wire she was holding on as hard as she could," Jerkens said. "The other filly was coming pretty quick. You have to take a chance if it's only a small field because if they have a poor day that's your chance, especially with the weight advantage, too. That's the only time you ever have a chance with one that's a longshot. She was doing extra special good. That was the main reason we ran. She went in :58 and change the other morning and she did it easily, too."

SNOW IN AUGUST

John Oxley's Snow Dance extended her unbeaten streak on the turf to three races with a gate-to-wire romp in the Lake Placid Handicap (gr. IIT) on Aug. 20. Just as she had in her two previous grass races, Snow Dance quickly move to the front and dictated the tempo in the nine-
furlong Lake Placid. The 3-year-old Forest Wildcat filly set fractions of :24.25, :48.41, and 1:12.12 under Migliore without any pressure. When the challengers did appear in the stretch, she ran off to a 1 1/4-length win in 1:47.42.

Trainer John Ward skipped the Lake George Stakes (gr. IIIT) on July 30 and ran Snow Dance in an allowance race that day to give her more experience. He was apprehensive entering the Lake Placid because the filly wasn't training quite as sharply.

Migliore, who likened himself to a passenger on Snow Dance, said if felt to him that the filly was moving along at a very consistent pace.

"I was glad I didn't have to change anything until we turned for home and then I let her quicken up," he said. "I got a little bit excited the last sixteenth because I heard someone's whip popping. It sounded closer than it probably actually was. So I rode her a little hard the last sixteenth and probably I didn't need to.

"The hardest part of the whole thing was when she nearly bucked me off in the post parade. Other than that it was all right."