Rain Forces Hollywood Park Horses Off the Grass for a Few Days

The emphasis is on grass racing at Hollywood Park this season, but because of recent heavy rain the turf runners will have to wait as the Inglewood track opens its 30-day fall meeting at 1:30 p.m. today.

Highlighting the opening-day nine-race program is the $60,000 Hollywood Turf Sprint Championship, which was scheduled to be the first six-furlong grass race in the track’s 48-year history and the first race to be run on Hollywood’s new mile-plus turf course.

Because of damp conditions, however, the stake has been taken off the grass and will be run on the main track, which makes the Turf Sprint Championship a misnomer.

Hollywood’s turf course, with its demanding, 1,308-foot stretch run, probably will be put to use this weekend for the $100,000 Citation Handicap Saturday and the $250,000 Hollywood Derby Sunday.

The Hollywood Derby is one of five major races scheduled for the meeting, three of them on grass. The other important turf stakes are the Matriarch Nov. 24 and the $500,000 Hollywood Turf Cup Dec. 8. The top dirt races include the $500,000 Hollywood Starlet Dec. 1 and the $1-million Hollywood Futurity Dec. 15.

It’s probable that the $250,000 Hollywood Derby will be run in two divisions for the fifth straight year because of an overflow of entries. Expected to start is Turkoman, a trouble-prone colt who had additional excuses in running third behind Proud Truth and Gate Dancer in the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Aqueduct Nov. 2.

Turkoman will have a new jockey in Chris McCarron, who was the leading rider at Hollywood for nine straight meetings until Laffit Pincay finished ahead of him this past summer.

The Hollywood season will run through Dec. 24, with first post at 1:30 on weekdays and 1:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and Thanksgiving day.