Weekend Racing at Hollywood Park : Full Starting Gate Is Set for Derby Sunday

The first major stakes race of Hollywood Park’s fall meeting was assured of a full starting gate Friday when entries were drawn for Sunday’s $200,000 Hollywood Derby.

A field of 14 will go to the post for the 1 1/8 miles on the turf in the 48th running of the Derby, won in the past by such stars as Swaps, Round Table and Affirmed.

Because the race attracted a surplus of runners in recent seasons, it was divided into two divisions each year since 1981. Hollywood Park has the right not to split the race, however, and this year the track exercised that option.

“There are a lot of reasons,” Eual G. Wyatt Jr., the track’s racing secretary, said Friday. “The fact that it is a Grade I race is probably the main one. To run a 9-horse field in a Grade I when you can have 14 is not the best option, in my opinion. It is the only Grade I that’s been split in recent seasons.”

Had Hollywood Park devalued the race by dividing it for the eighth straight time, the possibility existed that the North American Grading Committee might have seen fit to downgrade the Derby in status.

“There was a feeling on the grading committee that a Grade I should not be divided,” Wyatt said.

Seventeen horses--3 more than the starting gate can hold--entered the race Friday morning, causing Wyatt to impose another of the race conditions he had written. Preference was given to the 14 horses with the highest total earnings in 1988.

That left a trio of horses--Ship’s Log, Polar Gap and Preston--on the “also eligible” list. They will be able to run, in the order listed above, only if others are scratched.

Of the three, Preston would be the most notable absentee. The Silver Star Stables colt was flown in from France and turned over to trainer Richard Mandella for his first U.S. start.

The full field, in post-position order and including jockey, consists of Blade Of The Ball, Aaron Gryder; Prove Splendid, Rafael Meza; Perceive Arrogance, Alex Solis; Triteamtri, Angel Cordero; Gran Judgement, Russell Baze; Galoway Plains, Fernando Toro; Roberto’s Dancer, Eddie Delahoussaye.

Also, Dr. Death, Ray Sibille; Silver Circus, Gary Stevens; Fourstardave, Chris McCarron; Happyasalark, Pat Day; Slewbop, Bill Shoemaker; Raykour, Pat Valenzuela, and Truly Met, Corey Black.

In the event any of the “also eligibles” do run, Ship’s Log will be ridden by Antonio Castanon, Polar Gap by McCarron, provided Fourstardave is scratched, and Preston by Laffit Pincay.

Each of the 14 runners will carry 122 pounds. The winner’s share of the purse is $110,000.

Horse Racing Notes

The California Horse Racing Board has turned down trainer Roger Stein’s appeal for a stay of his 6-month suspension and $2,000 fine. Stewards imposed the penalty on Stein and put him on probation until Dec. 31, 1989, because one of his horses, Emperor’s Turn, tested positive for cocaine after a race at Santa Anita Oct. 23.

Attorney Arthur Lewis, representing Stein, Friday afternoon termed the board’s action “a rush to judgment,” and said a suit seeking a stay of the ruling would be filed Monday with the Superior Court in Los Angeles. Stein’s stable of 41 horses has been taken over by his longtime associate, harness racing driver Rick Kuebler. Kuebler, 34, used to drive for Stein when he was training harness horses.

Precisionist, who finished first in his last start at Hollywood Park--unfortunately only after leaving jockey Chris McCarron at the starting gate--is being pointed toward the $100,000 Citation Handicap Nov. 20 by trainer John Russell. Fred W. Hooper’s Eclipse Award winner will be running on the turf for only the fourth time in a 44-race career. . . . Jockey Russell Baze is 8 victories shy of 3,000. . . . Cutlass Reality’s owners, Howard Crash and Jim Hankoff, will try to recoup some of the $360,000 they lost in supplementing him into the Breeders’ Cup Classic by running him in the $100,000 Native Diver Handicap Dec. 10 at Hollywood Park.

Today’s $75,000-added Hollywood Prevue Stakes features the return of unbeaten King Glorious, winner of the Hollywood Juvenile in his last start July 23. Ridden by McCarron, King Glorious shares high weight of 122 pounds with Endow, who has Gary Stevens aboard. The Grade III Prevue has attracted a field of 10 2-year-olds.

Comical Cat, with McCarron aboard, set a track record by winning Friday’s 6-furlong eighth race in 1:08 1/5. Trained by John Hofmans and owned by John Mabee’s Golden Eagle Farm, the bay filly clipped one-fifth of a second off the record set by Bedside Promise in June, 1987.