HOLLYWOOD PARK : Jovial’s First Race on Dirt Results in Narrow Victory in Swaps Stakes

It’s unlikely that Jovial and Silver Ending, the first two horses across the wire in Sunday’s $210,000 Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park, will meet again soon.

Jovial, a horse whose six-race career had been strictly on grass before Sunday, has found a home on the dirt. And Silver Ending, despite winning the Arkansas Derby and one other stake on dirt, is going to return to the grass as soon as trainer Ron McAnally can find a spot for him.

Jovial, with a rush from the outside under Gary Stevens, beat Silver Ending by a neck, and it was 3 1/2 lengths farther back to Stalwart Charger, who went off a 3-5 favorite in the crowd of 24,723 after three consecutive stakes victories.

“My horse was in a good position at the top of the stretch, and then there was no response,” said Pico Perdomo, who trains Stalwart Charger. “He’s supposed to take off, but he didn’t do it today. Maybe something happened to him. Maybe nothing happened, and he just got beat.”

Laffit Pincay, who had ridden Stalwart Charger for the first time on July 1, when they won the Silver Screen Handicap, also seemed puzzled.

“All I know is that he didn’t want to open up on those other horses at the quarter pole,” Pincay said. “I thought I could open up on the field, and they would have to come and get me. The last part, he felt like he got tired. I really don’t know why he stopped like that at the end.”

Running slow fractions, Stalwart Charger made the lead and held it until the horses straightened out for the stretch run. Silver Ending, never far back in second place, took over near the eighth pole, but Jovial was running even faster on his right flank and edged ahead with about 40 yards left. Silver Ending tried to come back, but Jovial wasn’t quitting.

Jovial, the third choice behind Stalwart Charger and Silver Ending in the four-horse field, paid $8.60 and $3.80 with no show betting and was clocked for 1 1/4 miles in 2:01 1/5. Silver Ending, carrying 126 pounds, six more than Jovial, paid $3.80 to place.

Owned by Jack Munari, a Paso Robles real estate man, and trained by Bruce Jackson, Jovial earned $120,000, which was about $17,000 more than the English-bred colt had collected while winning three of six starts on grass. Jovial’s career began last year with with three races in Europe and he had won his last two starts at Hollywood Park, including the Cinema Handicap on June 10.

Munari and Jackson used to race quarter horses together. Several years ago, they won the Rainbow Derby, a $600,000 race, at Ruidoso Downs with Corporate Bug, a horse they had claimed for $12,500.

“Jovial’s breeding (Northern Jove and Rensaler, a Stop the Music mare) indicated that he might like dirt, and we’ve been working three months to get him ready for the dirt,” Jackson said. “We sure picked the right time to try him on dirt.”

Stevens, who won the Arkansas Derby with Silver Ending in April, has won six races in the last two days to virtually clinch the season’s riding title at Hollywood. Going into the last day today, he has 59 wins, three more than Pat Valenzuela and four more than Pincay.

Stevens is three for three on Jovial. “When I worked this horse in company (on dirt), he wasn’t bothered by dirt hitting him in the face,” Stevens said. “The first time he worked in company, it didn’t bother him. I was surprised that he handled the dirt as well as he did.

“He’s an awesome colt. He made the lead today a lot easier than I thought he would.”

Jovial came back coughing from one of those dirt workouts, and an endoscopic examination showed that he had bled internally. That enabled Jackson to run him on Lasix, the bleeder medication, in the Swaps.

Eddie Delahoussaye rode Silver Ending for the first time. “I was surprised that my horse made as long a run as he did, and he galloped out strong, too,” Delahoussaye said. “Knowing that, I might have gotten into him at the three-eighths pole and maybe been a little more gung-ho about it. I had seen some of the horse’s races on tape, but you never know sometimes until you ride the horse.”

The only time Silver Ending has been on grass, he won an allowance race at Hollywood last fall. Since his fifth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, McAnally has been saying that the Silver Hawk colt would like grass better.

“I didn’t know whether to run in the Swaps,” McAnally said. “But the way the race came up, I figured there was just one horse (Stalwart Charger) to beat. I wasn’t sure about that horse (Jovial) coming off the grass. My horse will be going on the grass from here. Definitely.”

Horse Racing Notes

Like Jovial, Steinlen is another grass specialist who will be switched to dirt. Steinlen, who has made only one start on dirt, has been added to the field for the Arlington Challenge Cup on Aug. 4. Steinlen, last year’s male grass champion, won the Caesars International Saturday at Atlantic City. In his only dirt race, Steinlen finished seventh at Santa Anita in March of 1988. . . . Hollywood Park’s stewards lectured owner Jay Goldinger, who appeared in the winner’s circle Sunday with a for-sale sign after his Putting, running for a $75,000 claiming price, won the seventh race. A multiple stakes winner, Putting has won 10 of 45 races and earned almost $800,000. “We frowned on what Goldinger did,” steward Tom Ward said. “The trainer (Julio Canani) apparently wasn’t part of it. It looked like he didn’t even want to be in the (winner’s circle) picture because of the sign.”

Bill Shoemaker’s on a hot streak, with four wins from his last eight runners. Dean, a 2-year-old colt, won Sunday to give Shoemaker his fifth training win in 17 starts. . . . Richard Mandella saddled two winners, tying him with Ron McAnally for second place in the standings. They are one winner behind Wayne Lukas, who has 22 wins for the meet.

Bel Air Paster was scratched from the Swaps. . . . Kent Desormeaux, riding Toby Jug, claimed foul against Stalwart Charger and Laffit Pincay for interference on the far turn, but the stewards ruled that there was no effect on the final order of finish. . . . Bel Air Paster is entered in the second division of the Oceanside Stakes, the opening-day feature at Del Mar on Wednesday. . . . Today at Hollywood, Petite Ile tries to become the second female to win the Sunset Handicap and trainer Charlie Whittingham, who saddles Live the Dream, tries to win the stake for the 11th time. The only female to win the Sunset was Typecast in 1972.