HOLLYWOOD PARK : Jungle Pioneer Gets to Stay Home

Because he knows Jungle Pioneer is fond of the Hollywood Park turf course, trainer Gary Jones decided to run the son of Conquistador Cielo in Monday’s $500,000 Hollywood Turf Handicap.

Jones chose to stay home rather than ship the 5-year-old north to Albany, Calif., for today’s Rolling Green Handicap at Golden Gate Fields, where he probably would have been favored. Jungle Pioneer is unbeaten in three U.S. starts and won locally last Nov. 16, but he’ll be looking at an Eclipse Award winner, Itsallgreektome, and the 1989 Breeders’ Cup Turf star, Prized, on Monday.

“He wants the course firm and hard,” Jones said. “I don’t know if he’d like that course up there. I know for sure he likes this course and the one at Santa Anita; they’re both like pool tables. If I sent him up there, I’d be gambling on whether or not he’d like that course.

“To tell you the truth, the John Henry (Handicap on May 12) was the race we wanted to go in, then come back in the Inglewood (on June 8). But coming up to (the John Henry), he wasn’t training like he had been. He wasn’t the same horse. He wasn’t getting ahold of the track.

“Now, he’s training well and doing well, and the distance is perfect for him. I wouldn’t be going in the race if I felt I didn’t have a chance. But there are people all over the world trying to avoid (Itsallgreektome and Prized), and here I am, trying to beat them.”

Win or lose, Jungle Pioneer has been a bargain. Purchased for $100,000 last year in France through bloodstock agent Hubert Guy, he has won three well-spaced starts and has done so using different styles.

In his American debut, he rallied from next-to-last to beat $100,000 claimers going away. Next, he won wire to wire, upsetting Laxey Bay Feb. 7 at Santa Anita. Then, he came from just off the pace to win the restricted Santa Gertrudes Handicap April 6 at Santa Anita. All this was accomplished despite ongoing hoof problems.. At one time, he had five quarter-cracks.

Although Jungle Pioneer won four of 12 starts in Europe, he enjoyed most of his success at the smaller tracks and didn’t compile much of a bankroll.

“I’m not really a big fan of Conquistador Cielo’s, but I loved this horse’s action when I saw him,” Jones said. “I just loved the way he moved.”

Completing preparations for the Hollywood Turf Handicap, Itsallgreektome breezed a half-mile in 51 seconds Friday morning. The 4-year-old will be returning to his favorite course for the first time since he capped a banner 1990 season with a victory in the Hollywood Turf Cup. His other local victories last year came in the Will Rogers Handicap, the Spotlight and the Hollywood Derby.

Itsallgreektome will carry 123 pounds, the same weight as when he lost by a nose to Opening Verse in the Early Times Classic on May 3 at Churchill Downs and the same impost Prized will have.

“I feel very confident going into this race,” trainer Wally Dollase said. “I feel he’s going to run a super race. He likes this course and it suits him. He has a daisy-cutting style of running and he’ll have very little resistance. When the turf’s deeper, he has trouble because of his action.”

For the first time since he won the Spotlight May 5, 1990, Itsallgreektome will race without blinkers Monday.

“I feel like he’s been waiting on horses,” Dollase said. “He’s lost a couple of races because of that. The horse won a million dollars with them on, so it’s kind of difficult to take them off. But I think he’s mature enough where I don’t think the crowd or anything else will bother him anymore.”

Regular rider Corey Nakatani thinks the equipment change will make a difference. “It’s something we talked about after the Early Times,” Nakatani said. “He’s not really seeing a horse come up to him and he tends to wait on them. He does it almost all the time. He did it in the Breeders’ Cup (Mile).”

Ifyoucouldseemenow is the likely favorite in today’s Hollywood Park feature, the $108,800 Railbird Stakes at seven furlongs.

Beaten by 17 1/4 lengths by Lite Light in the Kentucky Oaks, the 3-year-old Tunerup filly will be returning to sprinting, and she has five victories in eight starts around one turn.

She drew the outside post in the field of seven and worked five furlongs in 58 3/5 May 16 for trainer Brian Mayberry. Before her Oaks failure, Ifyoucouldseemenow was a four-length winner in Keeneland’s Beaumont April 7. Martin Pedroza will ride today.

The other entrants are Zama Hummer, with Alex Solis; Freedom Cry, with Nakatani; Impertinent Lady, with David Flores; Apreciada, with Gary Stevens; Suziqcute, with Chris McCarron, and Welcome Messenger, with Russell Baze.

Horse Racing Notes

High Rank, who was beaten by a neck by Tight Spot when the latter equaled the North American record for 1 1/8 miles on turf, easily won Friday’s feature, running the 1 1/16 miles in 1:39 1/5. This was two-fifths of a second off the course record. . . . Six 3-year-old fillies were entered Friday in Sunday’s $107,400 Honeymoon Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the turf, but Southern Truce isn’t expected to start after being injured slightly the other morning. The other probables are Haunting, Masake, Fantastic Ways, Now Showing and Saucy Lady B.

The Rolling Green Handicap at Golden Gate Fields will be simulcast between the sixth and seventh races at Hollywood Park today. . . . Jose Santos and Alex Solis each rode two winners Friday. . . . The other likely starters in Monday’s Hollywood Turf Handicap are the improving Exbourne, who won the Shoemaker Handicap last month; Missionary Ridge, winner of the closing-day San Jacinto at Santa Anita, and River Warden, runner-up in the San Juan Capistrano.