Weekend Racing at Hollywood Park : Whittingham May Have Memorable Holiday Weekend

The Charlie Whittingham-Bill Shoemaker old-folks connection, which won the Kentucky Derby and finished second in the Preakness Stakes with Ferdinand, may strike again over the holiday weekend at Hollywood Park. And again. And again.

The 73-year-old Whittingham will saddle four horses in Hollywood’s three stakes races. Three will be ridden by the 54-year-old Shoemaker, and all four have excellent chances to win.

First, Whittingham starts the Irish-bred Mazaad in today’s $75,000 Will Rogers Handicap. Sunday, Whittingham’s hope is Estrapade in the $100,000 Wilshire Handicap, and Monday, the veteran trainer will run both Dahar and Strawberry Road II in the $300,000 Hollywood Invitational.

Strawberry Road, with Gary Stevens up, is the only Whittingham horse that Shoemaker won’t ride. Shoemaker obtained the mount on Dahar, winner of the San Luis Rey Stakes and the San Juan Capistrano at Santa Anita in his last two starts, because Alex Solis is committed to ride Snow Chief in Monday’s $1-million Jersey Derby at Garden State Park.

Whittingham has won the Hollywood Invitational six times, most recently with Erins Isle in 1983. Both Ends Burning, who won the stake last year, will also be part of this year’s small field. He is expected to be joined by New York import Flying Pidgeon, plus Talakeno and Fabbiani.

The Invitational is 1 1/2 miles on grass. Whittingham’s barn is so well-stocked with grass runners this year that he has 16 horses eligible for the Budweiser-Arlington Million at Arlington Park on Aug. 31.

“The trouble is, I might have a problem getting all of them invited,” said Whittingham, as though he expected all 16 to have a chance to win the Million.

Two of Whittingham’s candidates for the Million are Palace Music and Greinton, who can run on dirt or grass. The day after Ferdinand’s win in the Derby, Palace Music won the John Henry Stakes at Hollywood, one of three stakes winners for Whittingham at the meeting. Whittingham’s other two stakes starters this season came in third.

Estrapade, second to Mountain Bear in the Santa Barbara Handicap at Santa Anita this year, drew only five opponents in the Wilshire: La Koumia, Treizieme, Cenyak’s Star, Royal Regatta and Outstandingly, who won the A Gleam Handicap at Hollywood on May 10.

While Whittingham tends to his West Coast horses, Ferdinand is under the care of assistant trainer Peter Lyons in New York, waiting to run in the Belmont Stakes on June 7.

Whittingham will fly back to New York one or two times to supervise Ferdinand’s final works before the Belmont.

Ferdinand is stabled in the barn of Dick Lundy at Belmont Park. Lundy, a former assistant of Whittingham’s, went to New York on his own a couple of years ago and now trains for Virginia Kraft Payson’s stable. Lundy saddled stakes winners on successive weekends at Pimlico this month.

While Ferdinand was running in the Derby and the Preakness, Whittingham stayed in the East. “The trouble with that is that you’ve got to try to stay on top of things back home on the phone,” Whittingham said. “But at least I had only Ferdinand and the horses back home to worry about. When a guy like (trainer Wayne) Lukas goes on the road, he’s got four divisions elsewhere to worry about.”