This Competition Is Easy to Handicap: Gentlemen Wins

While looking forward to a change of scenery and a shift to Del Mar on Wednesday, here’s a look at the bests of the Hollywood Park meeting, which concludes Monday:

Horse of the meeting, handicap horse: Gentlemen. He verified the confidence of jockey Gary Stevens and those who thought him compromised by his inside draw in the Santa Anita Handicap a few months earlier with an authoritative victory in the Hollywood Gold Cup. He’s the best handicap horse in the country, and Siphon, who finished second in the Gold Cup, is No. 2. Skip Away had a chance to come out to California and take on trainer Richard Mandella’s dynamic duo, but took the easy way out and stayed in New York to beat weaker competition in the Suburban.

Older filly/mare: Vanity winner. Listening won a total setup in the Milady when Exotic Wood and Chile Chatte set ridiculously fast fractions, but she’ll deserve the honor if she can knock off Twice The Vice and Jewel Princess in today’s Vanity.

3-year-old, 3-year-old male: Swaps winner. Deputy Commander was an impressive winner of the Affirmed last month, but he didn’t have to face Free House, who will be in the starting gate in the Swaps this afternoon. The Santa Anita Derby winner, after much vacillation from his connections, decided to run here rather than go to New Jersey for the Haskell and he is definitely the one to beat at a distance (1 1/8 miles) that is probably his best.

3-year-old filly: Sharp Cat. While we don’t agree with owner Prince Ahmed Salman’s assertion that she’s the best filly on the planet, she was the best we saw at this meeting. She ran her rivals into submission in the Hollywood Oaks, but we still have some strong reservations about her ability to handle top-class opposition at 1 1/8 miles. A final eighth in 14 seconds won’t get it done in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 8 at this track.

2-year-old, 2-year-old male: Juvenile winner. The top contenders are K.O. Punch and Majorbigtimesheet, who are both perfect in two starts. They will get together for the first time in today’s six-furlong Juvenile.

2-year-old filly: Career Collection. The nervous California-bred filly couldn’t get close to Bent Creek City in the Cinderella, but when the bigger money was down in the longer Landaluce, she ran right by the heavy favorite in the final furlong.

Grass horse: El Angelo or Rainbow Dancer. The former already has two stakes wins at the meeting, taking the Inglewood and American and seems as if he still has improvement in him. The latter also deserves serious consideration if he follows up his shocking win in the Hollywood Turf Handicap with another in today’s Sunset. Jenine Sahadi won’t be disappointed no matter how the vote turns out between those two because she trains them both.

Sprinter: Score Quick. He ran only once at the meeting but left a huge impression. Returning after a lengthy layoff, he scored a huge upset ($72.40) for trainer Mel Stute and owner Bill Thomas, beating the best sprint field assembled all season in the Triple Bend Handicap last month.

Claiming horse: Seigneurial. The 5-year-old, English-bred gelding definitely found a home sprinting on the Hollywood Park turf course. He won three races at 5 1/2 furlongs at the meeting, and with a little luck, would have had five victories.

Trainer: Sahadi. Although Mike Mitchell has passed her in the standings, she was leading for most of the meeting and still maintains a higher winning percentage than Mitchell. It has also been an excellent season for Wally Dollase, who leads everybody with seven stakes wins and has a chance to add to that total today.

Jockey: Alex Solis. It’s getting to the point where it is going to be shocking when he doesn’t lead a meeting. This will be the sixth consecutive meeting he has led.

Apprentice: J.G. Matos. Both he and Ryan Barber have won a slew of races this meeting, but Matos gets the edge because he has won more and his win percentage is higher.

Race: Gamely Handicap. Donna Viola, Real Connection and Different all finished on the wire together on June 1 with Donna Viola getting the victory by a nose over Real Connection with Different a neck back in third. Real Connection was involved in another thriller, the Wilshire Handicap on May 11, and she lost by a nose that day, as well, just failing to catch Blushing Heiress.

*

There are six stakes races on today’s card, topped by the $500,000 Swaps Stakes and the $400,000 Vanity Handicap. Post time is noon.

Free House will be heavily favored to win for the first time since the Santa Anita Derby in April in the Swaps, which will go as the fourth race on the card.

Three races later, Marlin will try to turn the tables on Rainbow Dancer in the $400,000 Sunset Handicap, then Jewel Princess and Twice The Vice will meet for the fifth time in the Vanity and unbeatens Majorbigtimesheet and K.O. Punch will get together in the $100,000 Hollywood Juvenile Championship.

The other two stakes on the program are the $80,000 Khaled Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on the turf and the $80,000 Answer Do Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Horse Racing Notes

Jockeys Chris McCarron, Brice Blanc and Alex Solis won twice Saturday. . . . Heavily favored Smoke Glacken held off Wise Dusty to win the $300,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel, Md. . . . Ajina followed her upset in last month’s Mother Goose Stakes with a 2 1/4-length victory over favored Tomisue’s Delight in the $250,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont Park in New York.