Weekend Racing at Hollywood Park : Off Track Would Add a Dimension to Futurity

The prospect of an off track for the Hollywood Futurity Sunday gives the $1-million race an added dimension, one that may lessen the winning chances of King Glorious, the undefeated 8-5 favorite.

If continued rain leaves Hollywood Park in a sloppy condition for the Futurity, it will be the second straight $1-million race for 2-year-old colts that will be run in the mud. The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5, was run on a track heavily hit by rain, and the conditions were considered a factor in the second-place finish by Easy Goer, the 3-10 favorite in the race and still the winter-book favorite, at 6-1, to win the 1989 Kentucky Derby.

King Glorious, who has established himself as the best 2-year-old on the West Coast with 4 straight wins, is listed at 8-1 for next year’s Derby, according to the line furnished by Pat Rogerson of the Las Vegas Sun. Houston, who at 7-1 is rated between Easy Goer and King Glorious, is skipping the Futurity, having had just 2 starts--both wins--in his career.

On Friday, 10 horses were entered for the Futurity, including King Glorious and 4 others whose owners are paying $50,000 supplementary fees in order to run. It’s costing the other owners $7,050 apiece to run, because their horses were nominated long ago and kept eligible by subsequent payments.

Here’s the field, listed by post position with jockeys and odds: Queen Mary’s Boy (Alex Solis), 30-1; Music Merci (Gary Stevens), 2-1; Stephen’s Sooner (Eddie Delahoussaye), 15-1; Caro Lover (Russell Baze), 12-1; Three Times Older (Rafael Meza), 30-1; Shipping Time (Corey Black), 6-1; Super May (Fernando Toro), 10-1; King Glorious (Chris McCarron), 8-5; Hawkster (Laffit Pincay), 10-1, and Mountain Ghost (Pat Day), 30-1. All will carry 121 pounds.

The $50,000 starters besides King Glorious are Caro Lover, Shipping Time, Super May and Hawkster.

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, who was at Hollywood Park Thursday to supervise King Glorious’ final workout for the Futurity, was back at his Bay Meadows headquarters Friday. He does not appear concerned that King Glorious might draw an off track, but naturally rival trainers are always looking for underlying ways that might undermine a heavy favorite.

“We’d prefer a fast track,” Hollendorfer said. “But this horse handles the mud fine. Recently, he worked 7 furlongs in the mud at Bay Meadows in 1:25 2/5.”

All four of King Glorious’ wins have been on fast tracks. He broke his maiden at Golden Gate Fields on May 6, winning by 7 lengths in a 4 1/2-furlong race. On June 13, he won a 5 1/2-furlong stake at Golden Gate by 10 lengths. His next 2 appearances were over the track where the Futurity will be run, a 4-length victory in the 6-furlong Hollywood Juvenile on July 23 and a 1 3/4-length win on Nov. 12 in the 7-furlong Hollywood Prevue.

Since the Futurity is run out of Hollywood Park’s backstretch chute, it will not give King Glorious a chance to run around 2 turns, which is one of the elements young horses face when they begin preparing for the Triple Crown races. Until horses are actually tested, trainers don’t know how horses will handle 2 turns any more than they know about their ability to run in the mud.

One advantage that King Glorious has on an off track is that he’s a front-runner, therefore less likely to have mud splattered in his face. This can be a disarming experience for a young horse. Ask Ron McAnally, who ran Hawkster, the winner of the Norfolk at Santa Anita, on a sloppy track in a division of the Hoist the Flag at Hollywood on Nov. 25.

“He ran for about an eighth of a mile,” McAnally said. “Then when he started getting hit with the mud, he lost interest and quit running. His face was covered with mud when he came back.”

Hawkster finished fifth. Music Merci, who won the other division of the Hoist the Flag--in a much faster time than Shipping Time ran in beating Hawkster--was comfortable in the slop that day, after being a well-beaten fourth in the muddy Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. In their only meeting, King Glorious finished more than 13 lengths ahead of Music Merci in the Hollywood Juvenile.

After the Breeders’ Cup, many Eclipse Awards voters at Churchill Downs indicated that they would be favoring Easy Goer as the champion 2-year-old colt despite his defeat. Is It True, the winner in the Breeders’ Cup, lost to Easy Goer 3 times in New York earlier in the year. King Glorious caught a virus late this summer and lost about a month of training time, which Hollendorfer said prevented him from considering the Breeders’ Cup.

“I would still think my horse deserves strong consideration for an Eclipse,” Hollendorfer said. “Every time he’s run, he’s either broken a track record or won a stake. But I guess he would have to win the Futurity handily in order to have a chance.”

Winning handily--and in the mud--would certainly be something that not even King Glorious has done before.

Horse Racing Notes

Is It True underwent arthroscopic knee surgery for the removal of a bone chip recently and will be sidelined for 60 to 90 days. Trainer Wayne Lukas doesn’t believe that his Kentucky Derby campaign will be compromised and is planning an Arkansas Derby route for the colt. . . . Houston will remain at Santa Anita, Lukas said, and 3 or 4 starts are planned for him before the Kentucky Derby.

A win by King Glorious would give Chris McCarron a major boost in his battle with Jose Santos, a New York jockey, in the national money race. . . . Laffit Pincay is the only jockey to have ridden in all 7 previous runnings of the Futurity. He won with Tejano last year. . . . King Glorious is trying to become the third California-bred to win the race. Fali Time won in 1983 and Snow Chief in 1985. . . . King Glorious worked a half mile on a fast track Thursday at Hollywood in :45 4/5.