HORSE RACING: SUPER FROLIC IS A HANDSOME ALTERNATIVE TRAINER COMPARES HIS GOLD CUP ENTRANT TO CERTAIN SOCCER STAR.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI Staff Writer

INGLEWOOD -- If anyone can deny Lava Man a historic victory in the Hollywood Gold Cup today, it might be a horse with sharp dribbling technique, a confident ease at the penalty spot and a persuasive way with the referees.

That's the 6-year-old horse Super Frolic, who's compared to Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo by his trainer, the soccer-mad one-time UCLA midfielder Vladimir Cerin.

``He's so flashy, he's so athletic, and he's good-looking,'' Cerin said Friday, describing Super Frolic's Ronaldo-like qualities. ``He's a very good-looking horse.''

For the past month, Cerin's world has revolved around the World Cup in Germany. He said he has missed only one or two games, TiVoing the many that were on during training hours.

``I even watched Tunisia-Saudi Arabia, that's how sick I am,'' said Cerin, 51, a native of Yugoslavia who played for UCLA in 1974-75 after two seasons at San Jose State.

For a couple of minutes this afternoon at Hollywood Park, though, Cerin will think of the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup as the world's biggest sporting event.

Six years after he trained 24-1 longshot Early Pioneer to an upset of General Challenge in a Gold Cup, Cerin hopes Super Frolic (Jon Court riding) can surprise Lava Man (Corey Nakatani) in the 67th edition of the Inglewood track's marquee event.

``I think my horse is going to run a really big race,'' Cerin said Friday. ``Of course, he'll have to run his best to beat Lava Man and Magnum (Patrick Valenzuela). Lava Man is probably the best horse in training, up to a classic distance, on any surface. But I'm not conceding the race.''

Super Frolic, a son of Pine Bluff who was purchased by Ro Parra and sent to Cerin weeks before a fifth-place finish in the 2005 Pacific Classic, won the Hawthorne Gold Cup in September and recovered from a terrible start to finish a promising fourth to Saint Liam in the Breeders' Cup Classic. In retrospect, Cerin says Super Frolic wasn't quite over a Breeders' Cup foot injury when he ran eighth and ninth in this winter's Donn Handicap and Dubai World Cup.

A good second to Dixie Meister in the June 17 Californian, Super Frolic's first start in 84 days, encouraged Cerin. The Bradbury resident puts Super Frolic and other horses in a hyperbaric chamber in his backyard to aid recovery from injury and travel.

Super Frolic is assigned 116 pounds and is 4-1 on the morning line, third to Lava Man (124, 4-5) and Magnum (118, 2-1). Also in the small but seasoned field: Stephen Foster Handicap upsetter Seek Gold (117, 8-1), with jockey Calvin Borel, and Ace Blue (113, 20-1), with Victor Espinoza.

Of these horses, only Magnum has come close to beating Lava Man.

Magnum finished second by three-quarters of a length in the Santa Anita Handicap.

The 5-year-old Argentina-bred then ran second to Buzzards Bay in the Oaklawn Handicap and won the Lone Star Park Handicap.

Although Magnum has come from behind in his best races, trainer Darrell Vienna said he isn't worried that Lava Man will get an easy lead.

``We've got the ability to stay close, and hopefully we'll see what Lava Man's made of,'' Vienna said, adding with a rueful laugh: ``I have a pretty good idea he's made of hickory.''

Lava Man, a 5-year-old, California-bred gelding who came to trainer Doug O'Neill and owners STD Stable and Jason Wood in a $50,000 claim in 2004, can be the Gold Cup's second repeat winner (joining Native Diver, 1965-66-67); be the first horse to win the Big 'Cap and Gold Cup in the same year since Affirmed (1979); be the first horse to win the Whittingham Memorial on turf and the Gold Cup on dirt in consecutive starts since Exceller (1978); and raise his earnings for these owners to $2,806,103 (breaking Budroyale's post-claim record).

A complication: Lava Man must spend the 24 hours before the race under surveillance in Hollywood Park's detention barn, as must all of O'Neill's runners for a month under the penalty for a horse's high carbon-dioxide reading in May.

From June 14, when the surveillance began, through Tuesday, O'Neill won with seven of 59 starters (11.9percent) at Hollywood Park. Before that, he'd won with 19 of 110 (17.3) at the meet.

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