Racing at Hollywood Park : Short Fields Over a Long Weekend

The main course on Hollywood Park’s weekend menu is Monday’s $300,000 Hollywood Invitational, but the aperitifs , so to speak, are worthy of note, too.

They consist of a pair of $75,000-added stakes: today’s Hawthorne Handicap for fillies and mares 3 years old and up, and Sunday’s Will Rogers Handicap for 3-year-olds. Both are Grade II races, with the Hawthorne run at a mile on the main track and the Will Rogers at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

Entries for the Grade I Hollywood Invitational will not be taken until this morning. The fields for the other two features, meanwhile, provide a study in opposites.

The Hawthorne has attracted what track publicists like to call “a short but select field,” meaning it would have been nice to have had more entrants, but one does what one can.

In this case, four fillies and one mare will be going to the post with Integra, winner of the Santa Lucia and A Gleam handicaps in her previous two starts, likely to be the odds-on favorite.

Integra’s trainer, Henry Moreno, is not a fan of small fields, believing they cause as many problems as they prevent. Last Saturday, when Moreno’s Sheesham went off as the favorite in a field of four in the Senorita Stakes, the filly ran wide on the clubhouse turn and ended up third.

“It seems like when I get shorter fields I get in more trouble,” Moreno said earlier this week. “Sheesham blew that turn in the short field because she went too fast going into the turn. I’ve had more horses get in more trouble in short fields than in big fields.”

If Integra, who will be ridden by Gary Stevens and carry high-weight of 120 pounds, can avoid making such a mistake, she could record her sixth victory in eight career starts.

Her main challenge is likely to come from Behind the Scenes, who comes into the race off four consecutive second-place finishes and who has been in the money in 9 of her last 10 starts.

“She always runs good, but not quite good enough,” said trainer Mel Stute, who sends the filly out under Laffit Pincay and carrying four pounds less than Integra.

The other three Hawthorne entrants are the Irish-bred Invited Guest, who won a division of the Dahlia Handicap on Christmas Eve under today’s jockey, Bill Shoemaker; Barbarina, the only mare in the race, and Gayane.

Sunday’s 48th running of the Will Rogers Handicap has doubled the field of the Hawthorne, with 10 3-year-olds entered. Going on percentages alone, the race could come down to a battle between Shoemaker on Charlie Whittingham’s Lively One and Pincay on Wayne Lukas’ White Mischief. Shoemaker has won the race eight times, Pincay five times.

More likely to be seen in the winner’s circle, though, is Bel Air Dancer, who will carry top-weight of 120 pounds, including jockey Aaron Gryder. Winner of a division of the Spotlight Handicap on May 7, the Craig Lewis-trained gelding could earn a trip to the Belmont Stakes in New York with an impressive performance Sunday.