The announcement in May that Hollywood Park, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, would cease racing at the end of the year could not help but bring back memories of Swaps, perhaps the greatest Thoroughbred ever bred in California.
On July 1, 1958, Hollywood Park dedicated a bronze statue of the Hall of Fame champion just inside the entrance to its clubhouse. For 55 years, the statue has greeted millions of visitors from around the world, including those attending three Breeders’ Cups.
Midway through the fair circuit last summer, trainer Keith Nations noticed a difference in Control Seeker and predicted a big race for him. Control Seeker responded by winning the Joseph T. Grace Handicap on the turf at Santa Rosa and later won the Bulldog Handicap on the dirt at Fresno.
After entering the 7-year-old Control Seeker in Saturday’s 1 1/16-mile, $50,000 County of Alameda Handicap at the Alameda County Fair, Nations made a similar prediction.
“I think he’s sitting on a really big race,” Nations said.
Thirteen jockeys have won the Hollywood Gold Cup at least twice. Laffit Pincay won the stake nine times, starting when he was 23 and for the ninth time when he was 55. Bill Shoemaker won it eight times, and three riders − Shoemaker, George Woolf and Jerry Lambert − won it three straight years. But for some jockeys − the best in the business, even Hall of Famers − the Gold Cup was elusive. No better example than Chris McCarron, who tried unsuccessfully 19 times. For nine minutes one year, McCarron thought he finally had the Gold Cup won, until the stewards disqualified his horse.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Black Hornet will clash with the unbeaten Langstaff on Saturday in the $150,000 Achievement Stakes, a six-furlong dash for Ontario-breds that could determine the leading 3-year-old sprinter at Woodbine.
Black Hornet wintered in Ontario after a promising 2-year-old season, which included a runner-up placing in an allowance to Clearly Now. Trainer Pat Parente felt the gelding probably needed his comeback in the six-furlong Woodstock Stakes, in which he floundered to fifth after giving the eventual winner, Dan the Tin Man, an early tussle.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Dayatthespa, winner of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup last year, continues her comeback with a return to graded stakes on Saturday in the $100,000 Eatontown Handicap for fillies and mares on turf at Monmouth Park.
A 4-year-old chestnut trained by Chad Brown, Dayatthespa tops a field of nine going 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 3 event.
The solid lineup includes a trio of Grade 3 winners over the course last season: Ruthenia from the Violet, Laughing from the Matchmaker, and defending Eatontown champion Silver Screamer.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – From the first 25 races for 2-year-olds at the Churchill Downs spring meet, horses trained by Steve Asmussen and Wesley Ward combined to win 17 of them.
So it seems fitting that Asmussen and Ward will engage in a showdown of sorts as the meet winds toward its end Saturday night. Through Friday, Asmussen had rung up 9 wins in 2-year-old races to Ward’s 8, and both have major threats in the 112th running of the Grade 3, $100,000 Bashford Manor Stakes.
Before Jack Liebau, the president of Betfair Hollywood Park, turns out the lights on the historic track just before Christmas, he has some tidying up to do. After 75 years, stuff has a tendency to pile up. Liebau has been there only for the last eight years, but it’s always the guy at the finish who’s left with the broom.
ALTOONA, Iowa – Beat the Blues, the 9-5 morning line favorite for Friday’s $100,000 Saylorville Stakes at Prairie Meadows, was not on a Wednesday flight from Louisville to Des Moines and will miss the race, which kicks off the two-card Iowa Festival of Racing.
Beat the Blues, the 2011 Saylorville champ and winner of the Grade 3 Winning Colors at Churchill Downs on May 27t, was “too sore” to get on the van to the airport from trainer Bret Calhoun’s Churchill stable.
Short Round came from far back in the field of 3-year-old Indiana-breds to win the $85,000 The Snack, one of two stakes run at Indiana Downs on Wednesday evening.
Originally scheduled for a mile on the turf, The Snack was moved to a sloppy main track and contested at a mile and 70 yards.
After overcoming a bad start, Short Round was eighth early in the field of 11. Jockey Orlando Mojica went to work on Short Round in the stretch and he got up in time to win by three-quarters of a length.
