Bailey, Frankel Stay on Track

Jockey Jerry Bailey and trainer Bobby Frankel moved closer to records in New York and Kentucky on Friday.

After the two hall-of-famers had combined to win the $150,000 Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct with favored Sightseek, Frankel and jockey Jorge Chavez won a thrilling $457,200 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs with 2-1 choice Lido Palace.

Bailey, the nation’s top jockey almost annually, earned his 63rd stakes win of 2002, four behind Mike Smith’s record of 67 set in 1994, and the $91,710 he earned in purse money pushed him closer to his own record for earnings in a year. His mounts have won $22,286,899 this year, $310,821 less than in 2001.

Frankel, en route to his third consecutive Eclipse Award as the nation’s top trainer, earned $377,464 Friday with his two graded stakes victories and his stable has now earned $16,999,228 this year. The record of $17,842,358 was set by Wayne Lukas in 1988.

Owned by Amerman Racing Stables, Lido Palace, a 5-year-old Chilean bred son of Rich Man’s Gold, won for the 11th time in 23 starts, but the victory did not come easy.

He was all out to beat a stubborn Crafty Shaw, the second-longest shot in the field at 42-1, by a head in 1:49 for the 1 1/8miles. Hero’s Tribute, a 6-1 shot, was a length back in third.

Sightseek, a 3-year-old Distant View filly owned and bred by Juddmonte Farms, won for the fourth time in five starts and stayed unbeaten on the main track with a 1 3/4-length victory over 32-1 shot Zonk in the Top Flight.

Sightseek, the 7-5 choice, won even after being struck in the face by the whip of Charles Lopez, the jockey on the runner-up, in the final furlong. She completed the mile in 1:35 2/5.

A winner at four tracks in New York and Kentucky, Sightseek is likely to make her California debut in the $200,000 La Brea Stakes on Dec. 28 at Santa Anita.

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The third time in the $200,000 Hollywood Turf Express was the charm for Texas Glitter.

Second in the Grade III in 2000 and fourth last year, the 6-year-old Glitterman horse got the money, running past pacesetter Rocky Bar in the final sixteenth of a mile to win the turf race by three-quarters of a length.

Texas Glitter, ridden by John Velazquez, completed the 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:01 2/5.

Earlier on the first day of Hollywood Park’s weekend Turf Festival, Atlantic Ocean -- purchased for $1.9 million earlier this year by the Thoroughbred Corp. -- kicked away in the final quarter of a mile to win the $200,000 Miesque Stakes.

Atlantic Ocean completed the mile in 1:34 3/5 under jockey David Flores.