Halo Dolly much the best in Wilshire

Halo Dolly exuded class as a Grade 2 winner in a Grade 3 race (Benoit Photos) The Jerry Hollendorfer-trained and co-owned Halo Dolly stalked and pounced to a good-looking, 1 1/2-length victory in Sunday’s Grade 3, $100,500 Wilshire Handicap at Hollywood Park. Well handled by Rafael Bejarano, the 3-1 chance drew off to complete the firm-turf mile in 1:34, and notched her eighth career stakes tally. Halo Dolly, whose signature score had come in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon (formerly the Palomar) at Del Mar last summer, was one of only two previous graded/group winners in the field. The other was her stablemate from the Hollendorfer barn, English Group 3 victress Esentepe, who ended up fourth in a blanket finish for the minor awards. The 3-2 favorite, Moone’s My Name, was slow to move when the gate opened and found herself at the rear of the field. The rail-drawn Purim’s Dancer flashed speed passing the stands for the first time, but deferred to Little Emily, the 28-1 longest shot on the board, entering the clubhouse turn. As Little Emily posted fractions of :23 3/5, :47 and 1:10 3/5, Halo’s Dolly was perfectly poised in an outside stalking spot, and Purim’s Dancer tracked along the inside. On the far turn, it was clear that Halo Dolly had a lot more up her sleeve than Purim’s Dancer, and she did not mislead.

Halo Dolly produced the decisive turn of foot in a matter of strides. Putting
the race away by the time she reached the seven-furlong split in 1:22 2/5, the
dark bay veteran was unchallenged in deep stretch and returned $8, $4.60 and
$3.20.

“I had a good position from the beginning,” Bejarano said. “All I had to do
is follow the speed. This was my first time riding her and I was comfortable the
whole race. When I came to the stretch I just let her go. I didn’t really have
to ask her too much, just a couple of taps on the shoulder.”

“(Bejarano) always gives them a good trip,” assistant trainer Dan Ward said.
“If you have the horse, you’re going to win.”

Long Face prevailed in the scrum for the placings, holding off the belated
surge of Moone’s My Name by a half-length. Moone’s My Name in turn nipped
Esentepe by a nose, and next came Purim’s Dancer, Nobilis and Little Emily.
Byrony was scratched.

“(Long Face) ran very well today,” trainer Patrick Biancone said. “She can be
difficult because she has one kick and you have to time it perfectly. Julien (Leparoux)
rode her perfectly. If you ask her too soon, she becomes rank sometimes.”

Joe Talamo recounted his troubled passage aboard Moone’s My Name.

“She walked out of the gate and she just got so far back,” Talamo said.” She
tried to flip right before the start. She was never really standing well. Then
at the quarter-pole she got hit pretty good by (eventual sixth-place finisher
Nobilis).”

Campaigned by Hollendorfer in partnership with Hoefflin, Hoefflin, O’Farrell,
Robin, Todaro, Schneider et al., Halo Dolly improved her line to 29-15-4-3,
$752,786. The California-bred has also won the past two runnings of the Solana
Beach Handicap at Del Mar, as well as the 2012 Fran’s Valentine at Hollywood,
Alameda County Fillies and Mares Stakes at Pleasanton and Miss America Stakes at
Golden Gate Fields. Her first career stakes score came in the 2011 Diamond
Jubilee at Santa Rosa, and her trio of stakes placings includes the April 7
Golden Poppy last out at Golden Gate.

“The main thing today was a firm turf,” Ward said. “The only times she’s run
poorly is when the turf has been soft. She’s run terrific here twice.

“She might go in the Gamely Stakes (Grade 1 on May 27). We’ll see. That would
be logical because she’s already a Grade 2 winner.”

Halo Dolly was bred by Rod and Lorraine Rodriguez. A five-year-old daughter
of the Saint Ballado stallion Popular, she is out of the unraced Comic Strip
mare Spanish Halo. Halo Dolly’s fourth dam is Canadian champion La Lorgnette,
who defeated males in the 1985 Queen’s Plate. La Lorgnette went on to produce
multiple English/Irish highweight Hawk Wing, Group 3 winner Race for the Stars
and stakes scorer Alexandrina, the latter the dam of 1999 Canadian Horse of the
Year, Thornfield.

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