Weekend Racing at Hollywood Park : Turkoman Tries to Live Up to Trainer’s Praise

Who’s the top 3-year-old colt in the country right now?

Trainer Joe Manzi says it’s Spend a Buck, who won the Kentucky Derby and then added a victory in the Jersey Derby, defeating Creme Fraiche, a horse who won the Belmont Stakes two weeks later.

Trainer Wayne Lukas, who won the Preakness with Tank’s Prospect, a colt who broke down in the Belmont and had to be retired, says the division doesn’t have a leader.

“It’s not Spend a Buck in my eyes, not right now,” Lukas said. “It’s up for grabs. We’ll have the rest of the summer and all fall to decide.”

Trainer Gary Jones says the best 3-year-old is Turkoman.

Turko-who?

“I’m dead serious,” said Jones, whose objectivity suffers since he trains the son of Alydar for the Saron Stable.

Is this the same Turkoman who has been in the money in all seven of his starts but has only two victories, none in a stake, and didn’t run in any of the Triple Crown races?

Finally, Jones backed off a little. “Well, let me say this,” the trainer said. “He could be as good as any 3-year-old in the country, if he would only get his head together.”

Turkoman, who didn’t have enough experience to be considered for the Kentucky Derby, will run today at Hollywood Park in the $100,000 Silver Screen Handicap.

Others in the mile race’s nine-horse field include Image of Greatness and Pancho Villa, two sons of Secretariat from Lukas’ barn, and Manzi’s Floating Reserve, second to Chief’s Crown in the Blue Grass Stakes and making his first start since an eighth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.

The comments in the Daily Racing Form on Turkoman’s races read like a description of a reveler coming home on New Year’s Eve: “Drifted . . . broke slowly . . . lugged in . . . fanned wide.”

Mainly, though, Turkoman’s problem is a refusal to change leads, which most horses readily do so that they’re not stepping forward with the same foot all the way around the track.

“Just like his daddy, he won’t change leads,” Jones said. “And he gets mad when you try to get him to change. But he loves Hollywood Park. That last race (an allowance on June 16), he didn’t change leads, was practically pulled up at the end, and he got the mile in 1:34 1/5.”

Turkoman’s only other appearance at Hollywood Park came last December, in the first start of his career, and he won by a half-length. He then had a second and two thirds at Santa Anita and two seconds at Golden Gate Fields, including a trailing 2 1/2 lengths to Hajji’s Treasure in the California Derby.

“If you could have stuck Fali Time’s brain in this horse’s head, you would have had the best 3-year-old ever,” Jones said. “But the last I heard, nobody’s come up with that kind of transplant yet.”

The death of Fali Time after a severe colic (stomach) attack on June 8 has tempered a solid year for Jones, whose horses have won more than $1.2 million in purses to rank him ninth nationally.

Fali Time won the Hollywood Futurity, was moved up to fourth after the disqualification of Gate Dancer in the 1984 Kentucky Derby and earned $1 million in his career.

“That colt was like part of my family,” Jones said. “He was like a pet to me.”

Jones was busy on the telephone in his barn office Friday morning, trying to land a jockey to ride Rose Cream, the 3-year-old filly who’ll run a week from today in the $200,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont Park.

Jones wanted Laffit Pincay, but the nation’s leading jockey apparently has a commitment in the Landaluce Stakes at Hollywood the same day.

Rose Cream, disqualified to fourth after finishing first in the California Oaks at Golden Gate Fields May 4, has won only one race this year. But Jones likes the 1 1/2-mile distance for Rose Cream against Mom’s Command, who has won the Acorn and the Mother Goose, the first two legs of the New York triple for fillies.

“I don’t think Mom’s Command can go a mile and a half,” Jones said. “She’s taking on the added distance in this race, and it’s around another turn.

“She’s had it all to herself in those first two races, and the other horses have gotten dizzy chasing her. But her time in the Mother Goose was the slowest in years, so it makes you wonder what’s been behind her.”

If Rose Cream doesn’t go East, the alternative would be running her July 7 in the Hollywood Oaks, which will draw Fran’s Valentine, the division standout on the West Coast.

Rose Cream couldn’t beat Fran’s Valentine in the Santa Sunsana Stakes at Santa Anita, and last Saturday, in the Princess at Hollywood Park, Jones challenged the filly with his ace sprinter, Reigning Countess, and finished second, beaten by three lengths.

“That was as good a mile as my filly could run, and she still couldn’t handle Fran’s Valentine,” Jones said.

Fran’s Valentine ran the Princess in 1:34 1/5, which puts her in Turkoman’s speed league. And that, according to Jones, isn’t such a bad league to be in.

Horse Racing Notes Gary Jones is hoping Adored doesn’t run in Sunday’s $100,000 Beverly Hills Handicap, which would mean he’d get the services of Laffit Pincay aboard Envie de Rire in the 1 1/8-mile turf race for fillies and mares. Five others were entered--Johnica, Bams Golden Eagle, L’Attrayante, High Spruce and the favored Estrapade, who is top-weighted at 125, one pound more than Adored. . . . Rose Cream is by Rich Cream, who also sired Belmont winner Creme Fraiche. . . . Jerry Ingordo, the agent for Pat Valenzuela, said that the jockey might resume riding when Del Mar opens July 24. Valenzuela has been sidelined since early June with what has been described as a “respiratory problem.” . . . There were 23 nominations for the $150,000 American Handicap Thursday. Heading the list are the Charlie Whittingham-trained Dahar and Prince True, plus Al Mamoon, Fatih and Tsunami Slew.