Weekend Racing at Hollywood Park : Lukas Horses Will Be Busy on Several Fronts

The Triple Crown campaign was discouraging and unprofitable for trainer Wayne Lukas, his horses’ best finish being seventh and his best Kentucky Derby shot, Talinum, going lame a week before the race.

Talinum continues to rest at a Kentucky farm, and another of Lukas’ 3-year-olds, Capote, has been turned out at Rancho Santa Fe, recovering from a flawed grand plan that led to a 16th-place finish in the Derby.

However, Lukas is lining up still more of his 3-year-old colts, and three of them will be busy this weekend.

Closest to the Lukas headquarters, On the Line, an afterthought who ran 10th in the Derby following a victory in the Derby Trial the week before, will try for the first grass win of his career when he runs Sunday in the $100,000 Cinema Handicap at Hollywood Park.

Lukas’ other 3-year-old colts running this weekend--Fast Forward and Jazzing Around--won races on Triple Crown days at Triple Crown tracks, but they weren’t in the main events.

Fast Forward, who won the Twin Spires Stakes, the race before the Derby at Churchill Downs, is at Arlington Park today, running in the Sheridan.

Jazzing Around, who won the Riva Ridge in New York on Belmont Stakes day, is being tested Sunday against accomplished older horses in a race at Belmont Park. Lukas is now saying that Jazzing Around could be his best 3-year-old by fall, when the division championship will be settled.

Another West Coast 3-year-old who fizzled in the Derby, Masterful Advocate, is also getting a rest. Trainer Joe Manzi, who probably has as many total horses in his barn as Lukas has 3-year-olds, said that the colt developed a 102-degree fever a few days after his 12th-place run at Churchill Downs. The second-place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby could make his comeback late in the Del Mar season.

Something Lucky, a colt who wasn’t nominated for the Triple Crown races, but who was third in the Santa Anita Derby and won the Will Rogers Handicap on grass May 23, is top-weighted at 119 pounds for the Cinema. Next at 118 are On the Line and Persevered, who hasn’t won a race this year.

The seven-horse field for the 1 1/8-mile stake starts with On the Line and jockey Pat Valenzuela on the rail. Outside them are Mountaincamellia, with Rafael Meza; Savona Tower, Fernando Toro; Persevered, Gary Stevens; The Medic, Chris McCarron; Something Lucky, Laffit Pincay; and Superbe King, Bill Shoemaker.

Lukas has a 3-year-old filly, Sacahuista, running in today’s $75,000 Princess Stakes at Hollywood.

Sacahuista, winner of the Oak Leaf at Santa Anita last October, was considered one of last year’s top 2-year-olds until she started running against fillies trained by Mel Stute.

Brave Raj beat Sacahuista by more than 10 lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, clinching the division title, and then Very Subtle bested Lukas’ horse twice, in the Hollywood Starlet in November and in the Railbird Stakes June 6.

Sacahuista, who made her first start in five months in the Railbird, won’t be able to dodge Very Subtle in the 1 1/16-mile stake today. Stute’s filly, who has never finished first while going farther than a mile, is still the odds-on favorite.

Horse Racing Notes The California Horse Racing Board on Friday approved Hollywood Park’s bid for twilight racing at a quarter horse meeting opening July 31. Hollywood will run nine-race cards starting at 4 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and have 10 races beginning at 1:30 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. The season ends on Sept. 16.

“Traffic and access to the track are the most important factors that affect racing at Hollywood Park,” said Don Robbins, the track’s general manager. “But we would like the opportunity to change these post times if this experiment is a catastrophe.” Last year, Hollywood’s quarter horse meeting was run at night.

Manila, last year’s male grass champion, is one of 17 horses nominated for the $500,000 Hollywood Gold Cup, which will be run at 1 miles on the dirt a week from Sunday. Manila’s handlers have expressed an interest in trying him on the dirt, but it seems unlikely that the New York-based horse will be shipped across country for the race. Other nominees: Broad Brush, Captain Vigors, Ferdinand, Fobby Forbes, Iron Eyes, Judge Angelucci, Late Request, On the Line, Prince Don B., Red Attack, Schiller, Skip Trial, Slyly Gifted, Stop the Fighting, Tasso and Thrill Show.