The Winner’s Circle Belongs to Shoemaker : His Mount Finishes Fifth in Sunset, but Jockey Comes Away With Glory

As long as Hollywood Park wanted to try another controversial evening racing program, trainer Eddie Gregson thought it might be worthwhile to make the whole thing a special salute to the retirement of Bill Shoemaker.

Gregson’s idea resulted not only in the biggest crowd of the Hollywood Park meeting, about 41,000, but also the trainer’s finest hour of the season.

Sixty minutes after Shoemaker was honored in a star-studded ceremony, Gregson found himself in the newly christened Bill Shoemaker Winner’s Circle after winning the $269,700 Sunset Handicap with the Argentine horse, Pranke.

With Pat Valenzuela in the saddle, Pranke held off the late charge of Wayne Gretzky’s and Bruce McNall’s favored Frankly Perfect to win the 1 1/2-mile turf race by a nose in 2:28.

Pranke returned $12.60, $5.20 and $3.40 in winning his second American stakes race since coming to Gregson last year. Frankly Perfect paid $3.40 and $2.60, and third-place Pleasant Variety returned $2.80.

Shoemaker, attempting to win the Sunset for the 14th time, ended up fifth aboard the filly, No Review, after pressing the pace to the top of the stretch.

Pranke is owned by Argentine auto parts manufacturer Hector Sanchez. Pranke, a 5-year-old son of Cipayo, showed good form in his last race, the July 4 American Handicap, when he barely lost at 1 1/8 miles. The added distance and a six-pound advantage in the weights compared with Frankly Perfect did the trick.

Chris McCarron, who finished sixth in the Sunset aboard Desert Chief, tried to steal the Shoemaker show earlier in the evening when he recorded win number 5,000. He is the 10th jockey to reach that plateau, and the 34-year-old native of Boston did it faster than any of the others, including Shoemaker.

It took McCarron 15 1/2 2 years to reach the 5,000 mark with the 4-year-old filly, I Sure Hope So, in Friday night’s fifth race. Shoemaker did not hit 5,000 until the end of his 16th year in the saddle.

“You picked the wrong night, jock,” chided Shoemaker as McCarron spoke with the media about his milestone win.

“No way,” McCarron laughed in reply. “I’d much rather do it in front of 40,000 people than 20,000. This makes tonight even more exciting.”

Earlier, McCarron was one of several racing personalities who participated in a 15-minute ceremony honoring Shoemaker’s Hollywood Park achievements. Hollywood Park directors Merv Griffin and John Forsythe acted as emcees.

Fans packed dozens deep around the winner’s circle chanted, “Shoe! Shoe! Shoe!” as Griffin introduced the jockey, his wife Cindy, his daughter Amanda and his mother, Ruby Call.

“I’m tickled to death you finally decided to do this,” McCarron said tongue-in-cheek. He then presented Shoemaker with a stopwatch on behalf of the entire Hollywood jockey colony. Upon his retirement next February, Shoemaker intends to become a thoroughbred trainer.

Shoemaker thanked his wife, his mother, his fellow riders and Hollywood Park management for the special evening, then drew loud applause when he added:

“And I’d especially like to thank all of you fans out there.”

Charlie Whittingham, who trained many of Shoemaker’s best mounts, including Ferdinand, Exceller and Ack Ack, got the last word of the proceedings when he said: “There’ll never be another one like you, Shoe. You can bet on it.”

Horse Racing Notes

Jockey Gary Stevens and his wife, Toni, became the parents of a boy born at 12:39 a.m. Friday morning. It is their third child, and they named him Riley. “It’s got nothing to do with the Lakers,” Stevens insisted. . . . The California Horse Racing Board’s medication committee adopted a resolution to change the Lasix rule to 4 hours before post and limit the dosage to 250 milligrams, given intravenously. Currently, the time limit is three hours and there is no dosage limit. The full racing board will take up the proposal next week. . . . Bill Shoemaker finished third with his other two mounts Friday night.