Weekend Racing at Hollywood Park : Lukas Sends Out Wonders Delight to Face 10 Rivals in Juvenile Stakes

The conventional thinking regarding 2-year-olds who appear this time of year is that there are sure to be better ones to come out later in the summer and fall. --Recent New York news item

The thinking is just as conventional about 2-year-olds in California as it is in New York, where Mr. Sea Sanders, a 46-1 longshot, won the Tremont, the country’s first important stake for juveniles, this week.

Mr. Sea Sanders had run for a $45,000 claiming price in his outing before the Tremont.

Of course, there could always be a winner out of today’s $100,000 Hollywood Juvenile Championship that might nourish the thought that the future is now.

The 6-furlong Juvenile, which has been run 53 times counting the five years it had to be split into two divisions, has occasionally produced early bloomers who didn’t wither on the vine.

Tomy Lee won the stake one year, for his fifth straight career victory, then won the Kentucky Derby the next year, which was 1959. Affirmed, who had never run in California before, went off at 2-5 in the 1977 Juvenile and won by 7 lengths. A year later, he was the king of racing, becoming the 11th and last horse to sweep the Triple Crown.

Other Juvenile winners vanished by the time of their next birthday. Dimaggio, winning the 1974 Juvenile in what is still the stakes record, 1:08 3/5, missed his entire 3-year-old campaign because of injury, although he did return to become a stakes winner in 1976.

Saratoga Six, a convincing winner of the 1984 Juvenile, was undefeated in all four of his starts by that fall, but he broke down during a workout at Santa Anita and never raced again.

Some of the Juvenile winners are forgotten because they only came close as 3-year-olds. Desert Wine was one of the best horses of his generation, but he finished second in both the 1983 Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Althea, who in 1983 became only the fourth filly to win the Juvenile, won the Arkansas Derby the next year, but had nothing left for Churchill Downs and was washed up after finishing 19th in the Kentucky Derby.

Althea’s trainer, Wayne Lukas, also won the Juvenile with another filly, Terlingua, in 1978, when Lukas was fresh out of the quarter-horse world.

Lukas is trying to repeat that feat today, running Wonders Delight against 10 opponents.

Wonders Delight, facing maiden fillies on July 10, won at the Juvenile distance by 9 lengths, hitting the wire in 1:09 4/5. Wonders Delight’s awesome performance had Lukas wondering whether he should have run her the day before, against fillies in the Landaluce Stakes.

King Glorious, one of the colts Wonders Delight has to beat, also has speed. In the first race of his life, King Glorious ran the fastest 4 1/2 furlongs in the history of Golden Gate Fields, stopping the clock at :45.

What made King Glorious’ race more extraordinary was that he ran it on a sore foot. All through the stretch, the colt was lugging out, and later it was discovered that he had a cracked right front hoof.

With the hoof patched, King Glorious has run one more time, on June 19 in the Kindergarten at Golden Gate, and he won by 10 lengths, covering 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:02 3/5 and breaking the stakes record. The record of 1:03 was held by Hilco Scamper, who won the Hollywood Juvenile in 1985.

King Glorious is a California-bred who comes from an interesting family. His dam’s late sire, Reflected Glory, stood for a $2,000 stud fee and begot Snow Chief, the champion 3-year-old colt in 1986.

King Glorious’ sire, Naevus, won only two races and ran just eight times in his life, but he was still memorable. One could have lined up 100 people outside Naevus’ stall, asked them what they saw in the birthmark on his left rump, and at least 99 would have given the same answer: A witch, riding her broom.

Horse Racing Notes

Only three days are left in Hollywood Park’s 50th season. The $200,000 Swaps Stakes for 3-year-olds has drawn nine horses on Sunday, and Monday’s windup includes the $250,000 Sunset Handicap, which may draw eight grass runners going 1 1/2 miles. . . . The lineup for the 1-mile Swaps, in order of post position, has Prospectors Gamble, with Alex Solis riding, at 120 pounds; Stalwars, Chris McCarron, 120; Iz a Saros, Aaron Gryder, 123; Blade of the Ball, Corey Black, 114; Lively One, Bill Shoemaker, 120; Bel Air Dancer, Gary Stevens, 120; Hollywood Halo, Laffit Pincay, 114; Field of View, Ray Sibille, 114, and White Mischief, Eddie Delahoussaye, 114. . . . Top-weighted starters in the Sunset will probably be Political Ambition and Rivlia, each carrying 120 pounds. . . . The Massachusetts State Racing Commission’s overturning of Chris McCarron’s seven-day stewards’ suspension made it academic, but the jockey would have been able to ride the final weekend at Hollywood Park anyway. The suspension would not have started until Monday, and McCarron probably would have been able to ride Rivlia in the Sunset. The Sunset is one of few races in which a suspended jockey is allowed to ride. By getting a 2-1 decision from the commissioners, however, McCarron will be able to ride the opening week at Del Mar, where the season opens Wednesday.