THOROUGHBRED BEAT
DECEMBER 14, 2005
by James Scully
Futurity –– Hollywood Park’s maligned Autumn Meet, which has featured
no turf racing, small fields and favorites winning at a near 50 percent clip,
will finally end Monday, but Saturday’s Hollywood Futurity (G1) and Sunday’s
Hollywood Starlet (G1) both offer something to look forward to. The 1 1/16-mile
Futurity, which has produced a Kentucky Derby (G1) winner (Giacomo [Holy Bull])
and runner-up (Lion Heart) the past two years, has a short but strong field
lining up for it, highlighted by A.P. WARRIOR (A.P. Indy), BOB AND JOHN (Seeking
the Gold), BROTHER DEREK (Benchmark) and YOUR TENT OR MINE (Forest Camp). The
Starlet, also at 8 1/2 furlongs, will feature a less proven but still promising
cast, including Sharp Cat S. winner BALANCE (Thunder Gulch), Moccasin S. queen
PRIVATE WORLD (Thunder Gulch) and impressive maiden scorer SABATINI (Five Star
Day).
Chilean pride — TROTAMONDO (Chi) (Hussonet) earned a big victory in
Saturday’s nine-furlong Native Diver H. (G3), closing through traffic in the
stretch to be up in the final strides for a half-length decision. The Laura de
Seroux-trained four-year-old didn’t face the best company, but he notched his
first U.S. win and established himself as a top contender for the major handicap
races at Santa Anita this winter. Named Horse of the Year after capturing
Chile’s Triple Crown last season, the four-year-old colt returned from a
11-month layoff in a 1 1/16-mile allowance at Hollywood on November 9, finishing
well to be second after lagging far back in the early stages. He continued to
show more on Saturday while stretching out in distance, and Trotamondo is
eligible to keep improving as he becomes more acclimated to the Northern
Hemisphere. The chestnut colt has displayed an excellent late kick in both
starts so far, and the February 5 San Antonio H. (G2) is his next target before
the $1 million Santa Anita H. (G1) on March 4.
Malibu — Unraced since a 12th in the Preakness (G1), 2004 Breeders’
Cup Juvenile (G1) winner WILKO (Awesome Again) returned to the races with a good
third in Saturday’s six-furlong Larkspur S., rallying from last to miss by only
a neck off a moderate pace. His effort served as a perfect tune-up for December
26 Malibu S. (G1), Santa Anita’s opening-day feature. The last two winners of
the seven-furlong test, Rock Hard Ten and Southern Image, went on to capture the
Santa Anita Handicap, and a dynamite field of three-year-olds is possible for
this year’s race with Wilko, Illinois Derby (G2) winner GREELEY’S GALAXY (Mr.
Greeley), Swaps Breeders’ Cup (G2) conqueror SURF CAT (Sir Cat) and Santa Anita
Derby (G1) victor BUZZARDS BAY (Marco Bay) among the candidates.
Northern California King — Jerry Hollendorfer has won more races than
anybody in Northern California, amassing nearly 50 training titles, and the
56-year-old conditioner continues to dominate, as expected, at the present
Golden Gate Fields meet with a 52-33 edge over Art Sherman in the standings.
He’s won seven of the 11 stakes races so far, most of the time with the heavy
favorite, but Hollendorfer slipped one over in Saturday’s Larkspur with LOYALTON
(Wild Gold), who scored at 12-1 in near wire-to-wire fashion with Russell Baze
up. A maiden winner last December at Golden Gate in his final juvenile
appearance, Loyalton had raced only once previously this season, finishing sixth
in a November 27 allowance/optional claiming event. He improved significantly
for one of the best in the business on Saturday.
NYRA changes — The New York Racing Association shook things up a
little last week, announcing that the Woodward S. (G1) will be run one week
earlier in 2006 at Saratoga, and the move has already been criticized for
potentially lessening the importance of the prestigious nine-furlong race. The
Woodward has produced the last two winners of the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1),
but the last couple of runnings have also featured small, unattractive betting
fields with Saint Liam and Ghostzapper both towering over their rivals
beforehand. Granted, Saint Liam did surprise most observers by turning the 2004
edition into a thrilling race with Ghostzapper, but the Woodward has had a hard
time attracting competitive fields in recent years, with two five-horse races
(2003 and 2005) and only seven runners in 2004. We’ll see how it plays out next
year, but the Woodward will make the final weekend at Saratoga more exciting and
will draw a much bigger crowd in upstate New York than it would at Belmont.
Inner track Shug — Shug McGaughey winters in Florida and isn’t known
for running horses over the inner track at Aqueduct, but he’s sent out three
winners over the past five days of racing, including Queens County H. (G3)
winner PHILANTHROPIST (Kris S.), who made his stakes bow a winning one by gamely
re-rallying in the stretch for a neck score. From a tremendous female family,
the four-year-old has now won three straight and six of 14 overall, and
McGaughey is looking for big things next year from the improving colt. HAPPY
HUNTING (Seeking the Gold), the first foal out of the impeccably bred Grade 1
winner Furlough (Easy Goer), was another good-looking winner last Thursday at
the Big A, recording his third consecutive victory with a 1 1/4-length score
over allowance/optional claiming rivals. The late-starting four-year-old, who
didn’t made his career debut in June and earned his first win at Saratoga in
late August, has compiled a 4-1-2 mark from eight starts and is headed to stakes
competition.
Good news — Trainer Ron Ellis reports that last year’s two-year-old
champion, DECLAN’S MOON (Malibu Moon), will soon resume training. The unbeaten
Maryland-bred gelding made only one start this year, recording an easy
two-length win in March’s Santa Catalina S. (G2), before undergoing surgery to
remove a knee chip. Declan’s Moon returned to the worktab in August and was
training for a return to the races this fall before being sidelined by a nuclear
scan that revealed a weakening of the cannon bone in the same leg as the knee surgery.
However, recent tests show that his leg has healed and Declan’s Moon should be
back jogging in about a week, according to Ellis.
Brilliant — OUIJA BOARD (GB) (Cape Cross [Ire]) showed her class with
an authoritative 2 3/4-length score in Sunday’s 1 1/2-mile Hong Kong Vase
(HK-G1), earning her first stakes victory over males and denying Asian-based horses a
sweep in the Hong Kong International Races. The four-year-old filly earned Horse
of the Year honors in Europe following her outstanding 2004 campaign, winning
both the English (Eng-G1) and Irish Oaks (G1) and recording a good third in the
Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Fr-G1) before easily taking the Breeders’ Cup Filly &
Mare Turf (G1), but things didn’t go smoothly for her this year. Ouija Board
still managed to post a Group 3 score and a runner-up finish in the Filly & Mare
Turf at Belmont, but she was dogged by some physical issues and raced sparingly
prior to the Breeders’ Cup. Trainer Ed Dunlop somehow managed to send her to
America in October, Japan in November (a close fifth in the Japan Cup [Jpn-G1])
and Hong Kong in December, and Ouija Board saved her best performance for last,
overpowering her rivals through the stretch Sunday to win
going away.