Weekend Racing at Hollywood Park : 27 Enter Derby, Forcing Field to Be Split

Not only is the Hollywood Derby going to be run in two divisions for the fifth straight year, but it also has drawn 27 3-year-olds, which means crowded fields in both halves of the stake.

After entries had been taken Friday for the grass race at Hollywood Park, Sunday’s Derby was split, 14 horses running in the first half and 13 in the second. When the race was split the four preceding years, the largest entry list was 1981’s, which included 21 horses.

If trainers were hoping to draw into a division that didn’t include Turkoman or Slew the Dragon, nobody succeeded. Turkoman is running in the first division, which is the sixth race, and Slew the Dragon has a spot in the second half, the eighth race on the card.

For a horse who has yet to win a stake in 12 career starts, Turkoman has drawn a lot of attention and won a lot of money. His third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Aqueduct on Nov. 2 was worth $324,000 to his owners, Corbin and Wilhelmina Robertson of Houston, and increased his career winnings to $564,710.

Although Turkoman finished more than four lengths behind Proud Truth, winner of the Classic, trainer Gary Jones still thinks he had the best horse. Turkoman seemed to be peaking for the Breeders’ Cup. He left California in late August and ran two good races in New York, where he finished second to Chief’s Crown in the Travers Stakes and then won an allowance race at Belmont Park by an eye-popping 10 lengths just two weeks before the Breeders’ Cup.

“I was very high on my horse before the Breeders’ Cup, and I don’t get that way unless I really believe it,” Jones said. “I can’t put the entire blame on the jockey (Jacinto Vasquez), but he just didn’t ride him right.

“This is a one-run horse, a blaster, and Vasquez had already used him by the time they hit the three-eighths pole. Then in the stretch, he found himself behind a wall of horses. If it hadn’t been for the ride and the troublesome trip, I still think he would have won.”

Turkoman will be ridden Sunday by Chris McCarron for the first time. Turkoman, who is by Alydar, and Slew the Dragon, a California-bred son of Seattle Slew, represent two of the most successful sires currently at stud.

Slew the Dragon--whose syndicated ownership includes Mickey and Karen Taylor, and Jim and Sally Hill, who raced Seattle Slew--didn’t run in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Stakes, lacking the credentials to crash an overflow field. The next day at Aqueduct, however, Slew the Dragon won a division of the Lashkari Stakes in 1:47, which broke the course record for 1 1/8 miles, the same distance as the Hollywood Derby.

The first two times Slew the Dragon ran, he lost on dirt by combined margins of 33 1/2 lengths. Then he reeled off four straight turf wins before losing a stretch battle with Danger’s Hour in the Rutgers Handicap, another grass race, at the Meadowlands.

Each division of the Hollywood Derby is worth more than $200,000. The field for the first division, in post-position order, consists of Willingness, Celestial Bounty, Folk Art, Capricorn Son, Grey Gauntlet, Private Jungle, Herat, Don’t Say Halo, Turkoman, Schiller, Mr. Happy, Charming Duke, Perfec Travel and La Koumia.

In the second division, it will be Varick, Justoneoftheboys, Last Motel, Slew the Dragon, Publicity, Catane, Protect Yourself, Lucky N Green, Kingsbury, Floating Reserve, Cracksman, Relaunch a Tune and Savannah Dancer.

Except for the three fillies--Folk Art, La Koumia and Savannah Dancer--all horses will carry 122 pounds. The fillies will carry 119, the same weight Royal Heroine shouldered when she won a division of the race in ’83. Fillies and the Hollywood Derby go way back. When the stake was a dirt race, Busher won it in ‘45, en route to her horse-of-the-year title.

Horse Racing Notes Interest in the Washington, D.C., International, which had waned because the race was squeezed by the Breeders’ Cup and other fall turf stakes in recent years, has been renewed. Today’s running at Laurel includes Win and Yashgan, both contenders for the male turf championship. Others in the 13-horse field are Vanlandingham, Strawberry Road and Creme Fraiche. Vanlandingham, a major stakes winner on the dirt, has never run on the grass, Belmont Stakes winner Creme Fraiche has never won on grass and Strawberry Road is returning from a second-place finish behind Pebbles in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Stakes. . . . Strawberry Road will probably come to California to race after today’s start. . . . Today’s Citation Handicap at Hollywood Park has drawn a competitive field of 11 runners, including top-weighted Lord at War, who won the race last year and won the Goodwood Handicap at Santa Anita in his last start. . . . The list of invitees to the $200,000 Matriarch Nov. 24 includes Estrapade, La Koumia and Fact Finder, who finished 1-3-4 in the Yellow Ribbon Stakes.