ACCLAMATION CHASES BC HONOURS

Acclamation put himself in the Breeders' Cup frame with a fifth successive graded race win on Sunday at Santa Anita

Don Warren's charge took up the running turning into the stretch and kept on to win the ten furlong Grade Two Clement L. Hirsch Turf Championship by three parts of a length.

"It was kind of an important trial because if he hadn't won today I probably would have scratched the Breeders' Cup race," Johnston said.

Acclamation stayed true to his style of running on or near the lead.

"We had planned some strategy for either (Champ Pegasus) to go to the lead or (Make Music for Me), so we were actually prepared to lay second to somebody if they wanted to go," Warren said. "Otherwise, we would have put our horse on a two or three-length lead."

Jockey Patrick Valenzuela wasn't worried when Champ Pegasus made a run at him in the stretch.

"I had plenty of horse left," he said. "He's just a great, great horse who just gives it his all and lays it out on the racetrack."

With a month to go until the Breeders' Cup at Churchill Downs, Warren and majority owner and breeder Bud Johnston can now focus on whether to run Acclamation in the mile and a half Breeders' Cup Turf against European horses or the 10 furlong Classic on the dirt against North America's top older horses.

The weather in Louisville is likely to be the deciding factor.

"I don't want to run on the Churchill Downs (dirt) track unless it's wet," said Johnston, who will have to pay $100,000 to make his horse eligible for either race. "I'm not going to run on a deep racetrack."

If rain softens Churchill Downs' turf course, a condition that would favor the Europeans, Acclamation could run in the Classic.

"We think we would have a big shot on firm turf," Warren said. "We don't think the Europeans are all that great, unless it's soft turf. Then they have a big advantage when it's yielding or soft. I would prefer the Breeders' Cup Turf. We could go either way, depending on the weather."

Richard Mandella, trainer of second home Champ Pegasus, will give serious thought to running Champ Pegasus in the Breeders Cup Turf.

The winner was just too much, but my horse was trying hard," he said. "Maybe with another race in him, I'll rise to that level next time."

In the $250,000 Oak Leaf Stakes on the same card, Weemissfrankie rallied to win by a half-length over Candrea to earn an automatic berth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Coming off an impressive win in the Grade One Del Mar Debutante at seven furlongs on Sept. 3, Weemissfrankie sat in mid-pack into and around the club house turn and remained covered up mid-way down the backstretch.

Peter Eurton, who trains Weemissfrankie, said the chestnut filly almost certainly will be pointed toward the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. "The (Juvenile Fillies) Turf is something to think about," he added. "It's still a consideration, especially when you figure out who's going and who's not, but it's probably going to be dirt. You have options. That's the beauty part of it."

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