THE KENTUCKY DERBY : Music Merci Upset in Spotlight Handicap : Hollywood Reporter, 15-1 Shot, Wins Race After Stopping for a Bite

While Sunday Silence and Charlie Whittingham were busy turning the racing world upside down in the Kentucky Derby, a former claimer named Hollywood Reporter shocked the folks back home with a $32.20 surprise in the $84,000 Spotlight Handicap Saturday at Hollywood Park.

It was a bad day for odds-on favorites everywhere. Music Merci, at 1-2, was the Easy Goer of the Spotlight field and had no apparent excuse for his second-place finish in the one-mile turf event.

“Turning for home, I thought we were going to win easy,” said Chris McCarron with a shrug. ‘He just got outrun.”

Outrun, as a matter of fact, by an ornery colt who took a bite out of his pony going to the post, then spotted the rest of the field a 20-yard head start while he was looking around for something else to chomp.

“He ripped a hole in the outrider’s pants, too,” said jockey Rick Dominguez of Hollywood Reporter. “I guess we owe him a new pair.”

The $50,250 first prize earned by Hollywood Reporter will cover the cost nicely, while at the same time it more than doubled Hollywood Reporter’s lifetime earnings.

While Hollywood Reporter fumbled his way out of the gate, Music Merci and the aptly named Double Quick made right for the lead. Those two controlled a realistic pace, with an opening quarter in :23 1/5 and the half in :46 2/5.

In the meantime, Dominguez was more concerned about finding a way to avoid complete embarrassment. The 28-year-old journeyman never had won a stakes at Hollywood Park, and, as far as he was concerned, that did not figure to change.

“I just kept creeping up on them,” Dominguez said. “At one point I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll get a piece of it.’ Then, when we straightened into the stretch, I felt like he had a chance to win it all.”

Music Merci never knew what hit him. Hollywood Reporter passed the front-runners with a final rush that took him one length clear at the end. Music Merci finished a head ahead of third-place Exemplary Leader.

The winner paid $32.20, $6.20 and $4.40. Music Merci returned $2.80 and $2.40, and Exemplary Leader paid $2.80.

Owned by television producer Allan Landsburg and New Yorker Robert King, Hollywood Reporter began his career in the Wayne Lukas barn, where one of his regular exercise riders was Dominguez.

It was not the same Hollywood Reporter, though. The son of Saratoga Six lost his first five races by a total of 68 lengths before breaking his maiden for a $50,000 claiming price last December. On April 12 Lukas dropped the colt in for $32,000 and didn’t really mind losing him.

Trainer Vladimir Cerin gave Landsburg the credit for making the claim.

“I thought it would be a dicey claim,” said Cerin, 34, who got his first stakes victory. “But I did like the breeding.

“I thought maybe he could win an allowance race up north, and then, if he didn’t win too impressively, we could run him back for a $25,000 tag and get all our money back.”

Hollywood Reporter split from the program immediately, winning an April 22 allowance race at Golden Gate Fields by 13 lengths. Cerin turned from the claiming races to the stakes schedule, and now he will look around the country for the colt’s next start.

“I think maybe the Gold Rush Stakes at Golden Gate or the Jersey Derby,” said Cerin. Told that unbeaten King Glorious probably would be waiting for him in San Francisco, Cerin quickly made up his mind.

“Then it’s the Jersey Derby for sure,” he said.

Another former claimer, the 5-year-old Sensational Star, outlasted favored Oraibi to win the co-featured, $83,450 Triple Bend Handicap.

Ridden by Rafael Meza, Sensational Star pressed a fast pace and still had enough left to win by a half-length in 1:21 2/5 for the seven furlongs on the main track.

Trained by Bill Spawr and owned by Tony Calhoun and Lawrence and John J. Sullivan, the California-bred gelding paid $22, $6.60 and $6. Oraibi paid $3.40 and $3.40, and Hot Operator returned $8.40.

Horse Racing Notes

Southern California fans (34,553 at Hollywood and 18,773 at eight off-track sites) bet $2,361,952 on the Kentucky Derby. For a while, local hero Sunday Silence was favored over Easy Goer but eventually drifted up to close at 2-1. The Easy Goer-Awe Inspiring entry was 4-5 and the local exacta paid $13.80, compared with $15.20 at Churchill Downs. . . . Harvey Cohen, co-owner of Music Merci, had a good news/bad news day. Although the Spotlight got away, he will be cashing a Future Book ticket on Sunday Silence at odds of 30-1.