Hollywood Juvenile Championship : It’s Another Runaway for Hilco Scamper

A horse actually broke in front of Hilco Scamper at Hollywood Park Saturday, but the result a minute or so later was the same as in the 2-year-old gelding’s three other races. He won convincingly over his eight rivals.

At the end of the six-furlong $109,400 Hollywood Juvenile Championship, Hilco Scamper was 7 1/2 lengths ahead of Little Red Cloud. That was virtually a rerun of the Desert Wine Stakes three weeks ago, when Hilco Scamper made his California debut by beating Little Red Cloud by 4 1/2.

The undefeated Hilco Scamper, who ran his first two races at Longacres and Golden Gate Fields, has won four times by 33 lengths. The Juvenile Championship, which he ran in 1:09 4/5 without feeling jockey Gary Stevens’ whip, was worth $64,400 to his three owners--John Roche, George Cross and Larry Wright of Yakima, Wash.

Hilco Scamper, who was 1-9 in early wagering, went off at 2-5 and paid $2.80, $2.40 and $2.10. Little Red Cloud paid $3.20 and $2.60, and Exuberant’s Image, who finished 1 3/4 lengths behind Little Red Cloud, returned $2.60.

Whip Up the Tempo, the brash colt who led Hilco Scamper until the top of the stretch, wore out after running the first half-mile in :44 4/5 and finished sixth. Arewehavingfunyet, the only other stakes winner in the field besides Hilco Scamper and trying to give trainer Wayne Lukas his third filly winner in the Juvenile, was never close and finished last.

Roche, an apple grower who with his wife, Mary, bred Hilco Scamper in Washington and sold one-third shares to Cross and Wright just before the horse’s first start, has only two regrets. The horse was gelded and hasn’t been nominated to the Breeders’ Cup, which offers a $1-million race for 2-year olds at Aqueduct Nov. 2.

“The way it’s turned out, I guess we shouldn’t have gelded him,” said Mike Chambers, Hilco Scamper’s trainer. “But we geld most of our horses, because they don’t appear to be very good stud prospects.”

Hilco Scamper is a son of Knights Choice, a $16,000 yearling purchase, out of the mare Lucky Sport, a claimer whose career ended early because of a bowed tendon.

Knights Choice, after winning a 2-year old stake at Longacres, ran respectably behind Flying Paster in a couple of California races and was retired with earnings of about $150,000.

None of the Hilco Scamper people was worried when Little Red Cloud took the lead going down the backstretch.

“My horse is easy to rate,” Chambers said. “He’s not speed-crazy. And I have the utmost confidence in Gary (Stevens).”

Actually, Rick Dominguez, aboard Whip Up the Tempo, had no designs on being ahead of Hilco Scamper. “I didn’t think I’d be in front,” Dominguez said. “I wanted to take my horse back. But he was trying to get out all the way, so I just had to let him go. He didn’t have much left after running so fast in the first part.”

Stevens’ concern going down the backstretch was getting Hilco Scamper to the rail, inside of Whip Up the Tempo.

“That other horse was getting out real bad,” Stevens said. “I wanted to anchor my horse early, and even though he was getting dirt in his face for the first time, it wasn’t bothering him. He had his ears pricked at the quarter pole and knew what he had to do. He hit another gear, and that was enough.”

Before the race, Chambers felt confident that Hilco Scamper can develop into more than just a sprinter. “He relaxes in the mornings, and you can train him in any direction you want to,” the trainer said. “It’s possible he’ll be able to handle two turns, and I hope to take the blinkers off him.”

Stevens doesn’t believe Hilco Scamper will ever need much punishment from the whip. “He doesn’t seem to be the type of horse who’ll take much abuse,” the jockey said. “He’s the kind that will give you everything he’s got without hitting him too much.”

The Juvenile was Hilco Scamper’s longest distance, and his next start may also be at six furlongs. His owners and Chambers are considering shipping him to New Jersey for the $200,000 Sapling Stakes at Monmouth Park on Aug. 10.

Once Hilco Scamper is in the East, the Breeders’ Cup is not out of the question, even though it would cost his owners $120,000 to supplement him into the race.

“It’s a ways off, but we’d consider putting up the money,” John Roche said. “Based on what this horse has done so far, you’d have to consider it.”

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Charlie Whittingham has entered four horses--Greinton, Dahar, Val Danseur and Craelius--and has three others to beat in the $200,000 Sunset Handicap at Hollywood Park Monday, which is the closing day of the meeting. If Greinton wins, his owners will collect a $1-million bonus that Hollywood offered to any horse sweeping the Californian, the Gold Cup and the Sunset. Whittingham won the Sunset six straight years before John Henry beat his Load the Cannons by a length last year.

“I’ll probably start three of the four I entered,” Whittingham said. “The only reason I entered four was to protect myself, just in case something happened to Greinton.” . . . Others in the Sunset are Kings Island, Sharannpour and Semillero. Sharannpour, an Irish-bred, has returned to California after winning two stakes in New York. . . . Allen Paulson of Encino was the leading buyer on the first day of the Fasig-Tipton yearling sale in Kentucky, spending more than $2 million for two colts and five fillies. On Saturday, Paulson’s Savannah Dancer got $25,550 of that back, winning the The Very One Stakes under Bill Shoemaker. . . . Dolly Green, the Beverly Hills socialite who has spent several million dollars at the Keeneland yearling sales in recent years, will not attend this year’s sale on Monday and Tuesday, according to her trainer, Laz Barrera. Barrera says Green has a pinched nerve in her hip and plans to be active at the September sales. . . . With two days to go, Laffit Pincay has ridden 83 winners and holds a seven-win lead over Chris McCarron, whose streak of nine straight Hollywood riding titles appears to be over. . . . Rafael Meza rode both ends of Saturday’s daily double.