Horse Racing at Hollywood Park : 16,675 Is Smallest Opening-Day Crowd; Gamel Proxy Fight Set

The smallest opening-day crowd in track history--16,675--turned out at Hollywood Park Wednesday, and that wasn’t even the bad news.

That--as far as management was concerned--was the announcement by shareholder Thomas Gamel that he plans to launch a proxy battle for control of the track’s immediate future.

Gamel, who owns 5.6% of Hollywood Park common stock, has been highly critical of track management in recent months, primarily targeting Marje Everett, chairman of the board and chief operating officer.

Everett had no comment Wednesday on Gamel’s proxy challenge, saying only: “This is something our lawyers will be handling. I expect we’ll have something to say next week.”

Earlier in the week, however, Everett indicated that she expected some kind of move from Gamel, noting, “He usually picks a major day, like an opening day, to make his statements.”

Said John Kelly, a Los Angeles representative of proxy fight managers D.F. King & Co.: “I’d like to take credit for being that media-wise but I can’t. It was just a matter of the lawyers getting the paper work ready. It just happened to be opening day.”

Nothing, however, could have spoiled the afternoon for trainer Joe Cannon, who broke his stakes maiden by winning the $84,800 Debonair Stakes with Aaron Jones’ Sabulose.

After showing speed from the start, the dark brown son of Bold Forbes stubbornly clung to his left lead through the stretch, leaning in badly despite Laffit Pincay’s best efforts to keep him straight.

Fortunately, Sabulose bothered no other horses and wound up winning by two lengths in a stakes record 1:21 3/5 for the seven furlongs.

Sabulose paid $9.40, $6 and $3.60 as the second choice in the field of 10 3-year-olds.

Mr. Bolg, ridden by Chris McCarron, finished second and paid $10.60 and $4.60, and fast-closing Timeless Answer, part of the favored entry, salvaged third and paid $2.40.

The crowd might have been weak in numbers, but it was mighty at the windows, pushing through $4,104,495. It was the third-highest opening-day handle.

Another $1,141,168 bet off-track--including $82,599 at the new outlet in Victorville--kept Hollywood Park’s betting on a par with last year’s opener. The attendance, however, marked the first time in 50 spring openings that the Inglewood track drew fewer than 20,000 fans.

For Cannon, 44, it was a big day. Until last December, he spent his days tending the Jones thoroughbreds in Sisters, Ore., while Laz Barrera handled them at the race track.

Cannon, who is also a veterinarian, took over the racing stable last winter and set up shop at Hollywood Park. One of his best prospects was Sabulose, who was an impressive maiden winner in July of 1988 at Del Mar.

“He got very sick after that race,” Cannon said. “It was a respiratory infection, and it was three weeks before we found the right antibiotics to treat him. After that, we just sent him home to Oregon.”

Sabulose had two preps at Santa Anita before unleashing his Debonair effort with a final clocking that bettered a record set in 1952 by the great Calumet Farm filly A Gleam.

“This horse is getting better all the time,” said Pincay, who was riding Sabulose for the first time. Everything went according to pre-race plans, the jockey said, with the exception of the unexpected lane change inside the sixteenth pole.

“I was hitting him left-handed, trying to get him to change leads, when he really started to come over. For a second I was worried I really bothered somebody.”

Fernando Valenzuela, aboard the tiring Yes I’m Blue, could have taken the worst from Sabulose. But the young rider cleared Pincay’s conscience immediately after the race.

“I saw him turn around and look at me when his horse came over,” Valenzuela said. “When we got back I told him it wasn’t even close.”

Cannon has an array of options for Sabulose, now that he is back where he started last summer. The Hollywood Park stakes program is usually ripe for easy picking by a fresh 3-year-old who has not been subjected to the grinding pre-Triple Crown preps.

‘I think he can go farther, and I’d like to try him on turf,’ Cannon said. ‘Right now, though, I’ll just enjoy this win.’ ”

Hollywood Park Notes

The track was fast all day, with $10,000 claimers running 6 furlongs in 1:10. Every bit as impressive as Sabulose was the 3-year-old filly French Sauce, who won the 6 1/2-furlong fifth race by eight lengths. Her time of 1:15 2/5 was just two ticks off the track record. . . . Richard Mandella, who trains French Sauce for Fares Farms, also won the seventh race with Robert Folsom’s Reluctant Guest. . . . Television producer Ed Friendly won the sixth race with Friendly Ed, but had to settle for third in the Debonair with Timeless Answer. . . . Winning Colors, winner of the 1988 Kentucky Derby, is expected to head the field entered this morning for Saturday’s A Gleam Handicap. It will be her first start since losing the Breeders’ Cup Distaff by a nose to the unbeaten Personal Ensign last Nov. 5.