Weekend Racing at Hollywood Park : Cutlass Reality Is Really a Marked Horse

Cutlass Reality, who would be heavily favored if he runs, is a doubtful starter in today’s $150,000 Bel Air Handicap because his owners and trainer are upset about state investigators maintaining a surveillance at their Hollywood Park barn this week.

“I talked with the owners, and they’re not happy,” said Craig Lewis, who trains Cutlass Reality. “We would want it nice and quiet around the horse going into the race, and it hasn’t been that way. We’ll all talk again Saturday morning and decide if we’ll run. There won’t be a decision before then. We’re all going to sleep on it.”

Cutlass Reality is owned by Howard Crash and Jim Hankoff, New York investment bankers who bought the 6-year-old chestnut last December for a reported $125,000. Winning the Californian and the Hollywood Gold Cup in his last two races, Cutlass Reality has earned $496,550 for his new owners this year.

The barns of Lewis and several other trainers are being observed this week by California Horse Racing Board investigators because, according to board member Rosemary Ferraro, “We want our investigators to be more visible.”

This is the second time this year that the racing board has reacted to backstretch rumors that California trainers have been using a form of morphine that is supposed to “wake up” sore horses. In January, dozens of horses’ post-race urine samples were sent from California to Michigan to be analyzed.

In cooperation with New Mexico racing authorities, the Michigan laboratory did the screening for the morphine drug earlier this year. Positive tests led to suspensions of more than 30 trainers in New Mexico.

“We have received no positives from the tests we’ve sent out of state,” said Ferraro, who is chairman of the racing board’s medication committee. “And there’s been no rash of positives from any of the testing we’ve done ourselves. But I understand that all of the samples we sent out of state haven’t come back yet.”

Ferraro said that the trainers being watched at Hollywood Park “were selected at random. Before the weekend is out, a different group of trainers will be under observation.”

A few of the trainers whose names have surfaced this week are the same conditioners linked to the rumors at Santa Anita early this year.

Lewis and another trainer, Roger Stein, have denied involvement in illegally drugging horses. Lewis has been the leading trainer in races won most of the season, and Stein is also among the leaders.

“If I was using anything, I’d be winning 100% of my races instead of 25%,” Stein said in a radio interview Friday. “And my horses would be winning by 10 lengths instead of just 1.”

Lewis is irked that only a small number of trainers have been subjected to surveillance.

“I’m pleased that the state is trying to take safeguards,” Lewis said. “But to zero in on such a small group of us is discriminatory. It’s even un-American.

“I welcome any investigation, because I wouldn’t want to lose a race to a horse who’s got an advantage. But in my case, I’ve never had a bad test, and there’s no probable cause.”

Lewis said that two investigators have been around his barn for the last few days.

“They’ve been a nuisance,” the trainer said. “You’re trying to do your work and you wind up worrying about them. My people have wound up watching them while they’re watching us. But I still wouldn’t mind it if they were also looking into a lot of others, not just a few of us.”

Trainers of the other entrants in the eight-horse Bel Air would welcome Cutlass Reality being scratched, because otherwise it looks as though they’re just running for second money. Cutlass Reality has been assigned 120 pounds, the most weight he would carry in a year and just 4 pounds more than what he carried in beating Alysheba (with 126 pounds) and Ferdinand (125) in the Gold Cup.

Masterful Advocate, who finished fourth in the Gold Cup, 16 lengths behind Cutlass Reality, runs in the Bel Air with 113, a drop of one pound. The next high-weight after Cutlass Reality today is Candi’s Gold at 117.

Candi’s Gold has made only two starts this year, hasn’t run since he finished second to Alysheba in the Strub Stakes at Santa Anita more than five months ago and hasn’t won since he took the Silver Screen Handicap at Hollywood Park a year ago.

Horse Racing Notes

Craig Lewis said that if Cutlass Reality doesn’t run today, a possible race is the $200,000, 1 1/8-mile Cornhusker Handicap at Ak-Sar-Ben next Saturday. . . . There’s a seven-horse field for the $200,000, 1 1/8-mile Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park Sunday. My Miss Brooks, with 115 pounds and Chris McCarron, breaks from the inside. Outside her are Annoconnor, 114 pounds, Corey Black; Pen Bal Lady, 119, Eddie Delahoussaye; Clabber Girl, 118, Laffit Pincay; Integra, 119, Gary Stevens; Invited Guest, 116, Aaron Gryder; and Abloom, 113, Bill Shoemaker. . . . Clabber Girl finished third in the Vanity last year. . . . Pincay, despite serving a five-day suspension that starts today, is still able to ride in the Vanity because it’s an exempt stake. . . . McCarron is at Belmont Park today, riding Precisionist in the Tom Fool.