With more than $10 million banked this year, trainer Bobby Frankel is on a pace to smash the single-season record for purse earnings of $17,842,358 set by D. Wayne Lukas back in 1988.
Frankel’s 3-year-old filly Spoken Fur could take him a long way toward that goal when she goes off the favorite in a field of seven set for today’s Grade 1, $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont Park.
The CCA Oaks, the only race in America that asks 3-year-old fillies to negotiate an arduous mile-and-a-half, is the middle jewel of the Triple Tiara that began with the Mother Goose here June 28 and concludes with the Aug. 16 Alabama at Saratoga. A sweep of all three races nets the winner a $2 million bonus.
Spoken Fur is a third of the way there, coming off a 51/4-length romp making her stakes debut in the mile-and-an-eighth Mother Goose. That was her first start for Frankel after she was purchased privately following three straight victories in Kentucky.
Frankel, who said the bonus was not a factor in buying Spoken Fur, admits he is concerned about the distance. As a Florida-bred daughter of Notebook, her pedigree doesn’t shout stamina.
“Hopefully, she can go that far,” said Frankel, who won the mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes with Empire Maker. “But you really don’t know until they try it.”
Yell, who’s back to challenge Spoken Fur after a troubled-trip second as the 7-5 favorite in the Mother Goose, should certainly stay the route, being a daughter of Belmont winner A.P. Indy.
“We hope she’ll improve,” trainer Shug McGaughy said. “She got jammed up pretty good on the backside in the Mother Goose. I don’t think she’ll have a problem with the distance.”
Fircroft, another A.P. Indy filly, has shown flashes of brilliance in what, so far, has been an underachieving career. She was a close second last May in Pimlico’s Black-Eyed Susan, but hasn’t won a race since taking the Miss Grillo last October.
“She’s been an in-and-out filly,” said trainer Rusty Arnold. “She’ll never go a mile-and-a-half on dirt again, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her.”
