Horse Racing : Questionable Decision, Bad Luck Scramble Hollypark’s Holiday Hopes

One questionable decision and one bit of bad luck.

That’s all it took Wednesday to put a dent in Hollywood Park’s hopes for a memorable holiday weekend.

The Inglewood track had scheduled $100,000-added stakes races on 4 consecutive days and was looking forward to ending the first half of its fall meeting on an upbeat note.

Instead, the rain that swept the track Wednesday afternoon and is expected to continue today will put a damper on this afternoon’s On Trust Handicap and Friday’s Hoist the Flag Stakes, has fallen victim to a curious decision by management.

Thirty-two 2-year-olds were nominated to run in the Grade II Hoist the Flag, and 21 of them Wednesday were entered in the 1-mile turf race. Hollywood Park could have imposed the earnings rule, as it did in the Hollywood Derby, thereby limiting the field to the best horses.

That course was not chosen, however, and the Hoist the Flag was split into two divisions for the third straight year, this time as the fifth and eighth races on Friday’s card.

Luck of the draw placed Music Merci, winner of 4 of his 7 starts, including the Del Mar Futurity, in the first division, where the Craig Lewis-trained gelding’s only serious opponent appears to be Double Quick.

Trained by Mel Stute, Double Quick has been out of the top three only once in 5 races, that when he finished fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, just behind Music Merci.

The second division is much more competitive, with Hawkster, Past Ages, Shipping Time and Bold Bryn all carrying good credentials.

Hawkster, trained by Ron McAnally, was a convincing winner of the $200,000 Norfolk Stakes Oct. 15 at Santa Anita his last time out. Trainer David Hofmans’ Past Ages and Stute’s Shipping Time finished second and third, respectively, behind unbeaten King Glorious in the Hollywood Prevue Nov. 12.

Trainer Charlie Whittingham’s Bold Bryn was second behind Hawkster in the Norfolk and third behind first-division entrant Endow in the B.J. Ridder Stakes at Santa Anita.

Before being split, the Hoist the Flag promised to be the best stake of the weekend. Now, it’s just another race, or races, as it turns out.

Trainer Thad Ackel, who saddled Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Great Communicator, hopes to turn California Jade into a distance horse, even though the colt has shown potential in shorter races.

With that in mind, Ackel has entered the 3-year-old in Saturday’s eighth running of the Grade III Affirmed Handicap. It will be the first time California Jade has run a mile in competition.

“I’m very encouraged by what the horse’s potential might be,” Ackel said, then offered a word of caution. “I’m still not convinced that he can handle the added distance.

“Depending on what the pace is, how Ray (Sibille) can position him, how he rates and so on, I would think he will run a credible race, even if he can’t handle the distance. He’s not the kind of horse that I feel is just going to chuck it up, not the way he’s training now.”

In California Jade’s favor, he has been assigned only 112 pounds, 9 fewer than high-weight Lively One, who won the Swaps Stakes for trainer Charlie Whittingham last July.

Although Ackel is cautious about his colt’s chances, fellow trainer Craig Lewis is equally unprepared to predict how another Affirmed nominee, Bel Air Dancer, might run.

“He’s a nice horse, but he’s kind of a wild horse,” Lewis said. “He’s a junkyard dog with a lot of ability, and he’s tough about everything.”

Everything except winning, apparently. Bel Air Dancer is 0 for 9 since winning a division of the Spotlight Handicap in May.

Twenty-three fillies and mares were nominated for Sunday’s seventh running of the Grade III Dahlia Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile turf race, among them Charlie Whittingham’s Goodbye Halo.

The chestnut filly has won 8 of 13 starts, including 5 of 9 this year, and has amassed earnings of $1,190,302. This will be her first race since finishing a close third in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, just behind unbeaten Personal Ensign and Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors.

Today’s $100,000-added On Trust Handicap has a field of 10 California-breds going to the post, headed by Calestoga, He’s a Saros and Mark Chip.

The 6-year-old Calestoga was not a factor in finishing 11th in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, but has earned more than $593,000 in his career. Trained by Neil Boyce, Calestoga carries high weight of 122 pounds.

He’s a Saros was a double winner at Fairplex Park last summer, and Mark Chip was second in last year’s On Trust, finishing 1 1/4 lengths behind Caros Love.

Horse Racing Notes

Jockey Chris McCarron will be trying to win 2 races 5,470 miles apart on Dec. 4. He will ride in the annual international jockey competition in Osaka, Japan, that day. Then, taking advantage of the time difference, will fly to Los Angeles to compete in the $500,000 Hollywood Starlet. “We could do that all the time and ride 700 days a year,” joked McCarron’s agent, Scotty McClellan. . . . Also making the trip to the Far East next week will be Bill Shoemaker, who will join McCarron as the U.S. representatives in the Osaka invitational.

Wayne Lukas, the nation’s leading money-winning trainer each of the last 5 years, will be a runaway winner again in 1988. Through last Sunday, Lukas had sent 1,354 horses to the post this year and had seen 278 win, 216 finish second and 177 third. His horses had earned $16,511,702, almost as much as the next three trainers--Shug McGaughey, Jack Van Berg and Charlie Whittingham--combined.

Gary Stevens is one of five riders who have been nominated for the 1989 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award. The others are Vincent Bracciale, Earlie Fires, Jose Santos and Larry Snyder. The Chilean-born Santos came to the United States in 1984 and led the nation in earnings in 1986 and 1987. He leads again this year, with earnings of $13,269,116 through last Sunday.

Snyder, sixth on the all-time winning list with more than 5,000 victories, has been the leading rider at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., 8 times and Louisiana Downs 6 times. Fires, based at Chicago’s Arlington Park, was the nation’s leading apprentice in 1965 and has won more than 4,500 races. The East Coast-based Bracciale has more than 3,400 victories.