HOLLYWOOD PARK : Festin Is Expected to Skip Gold Cup

Festin won’t be running in the $1-million Hollywood Gold Cup June 29.

The points leader in the American Championship Racing Series will next start in either Belmont Park’s Suburban Handicap on July 4 or Rockingham Park’s New England Classic on July 20. The New England Classic follows the Gold Cup in the series and is the seventh race in the 10-race series.

Aside from Jolie’s Halo, the competition in the Rockingham race figures to be weak, but Festin has already shown his fondness for Belmont Park. Aided by a very fast pace, he rallied from last to win the Nassau County Handicap June 9. Festin’s other victory in the ACRS was in the mud in the Oaklawn Handicap.

Horses who like to come from behind have not been faring well at Hollywood Park, and that’s the main reason McAnally is going east.

“(Track announcer) Trevor (Denman) said he gets bored calling the races here,” McAnally said Wednesday. “They leave the gate 1-2-3 and that’s it. I thought the track might have changed somewhat while I was back East, but it’s still the same.

“The only way we’d run in the Gold Cup is if there was a drastic change in the track, and I don’t foresee that happening.”

McAnally will look at the weights for the Suburban and the New England Classic before deciding where Festin runs. The trainer, who last visited Rockingham in 1946, said he is going to watch some races from that track on the satellite to see how it plays.

With Festin passing up the Gold Cup, Eddie Delahoussaye will be free to ride Prized in the race. Other likely starters in the Grade I stake are Farma Way, Summer Squall, Western Playboy, Itsallgreektome and Anshan.

Two victories Wednesday moved McAnally into the lead in the Hollywood Park trainer standings. McAnally has won 15 races, one more than Craig Lewis. McAnally won on Wednesday with first-time starter Trick Me, who overcame a poor start in the sixth, and Silver Beauty in the eighth. A 4-year-old Argentine bred filly, Silver Beauty is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Whitham, Bayakoa’s owners.

Those who wagered on Sunday Shark in Wednesday’s second race were glad the stewards chose to let her run.

Running her first race for trainer Warren Stute, the 3-year-old daughter of The Great Shark dumped jockey Martin Pedroza behind the starting gate and ran off down the chute. She was collared after a few minutes, Pedroza got back aboard and she went on to a wire-to-wire victory, despite a final quarter-mile in 27 2/5 seconds.

The list of horses that have either broken through the gate or run off before the start, then gone on to victory is extremely short. That wasn’t lost on the bettors. Sunday Shark was 5-1 before the incident. When the race went off, she had gone up to 11-1 and wound up paying $25.20.

Trainer Richard Lundy will start both Winglet and Fowda in Sunday’s $150,000 Hollywood Oaks.

The duo, owned by Allen Paulson, will be heavily favored in the meeting’s prime race for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles on the dirt.

In only her third race, Winglet won her stakes debut June 8, beating Ifyoucouldseemenow in the Princess. Fowda’s has also raced only three times and was most recently a troubled second going short.

“(Winglet is) still very green,” Lundy said. “I think that last race with blinkers will help. Just running will help her. I think every single time I’ve run her she’s learned something. I just hope she stays well and continues to learn. It might get real interesting down the road--how good she might be.”

“We did a throat operation on Fowda (after she had run second in the Santa Ynez Breeders’ Cup Feb. 9). She had an entrapped epiglottis and it took a little longer than we thought because it was a little bit more involved.

“She was the best filly in the race the other day (June 9). She was stepping backwards when the gate opened.”

The rest of the field for the Oaks is likely to include Fappies Cosy Miss, Grand Girlfriend, Haunting, Masake, Officer Lea and Sprucory.

Horse Racing Notes

The $60,000-added Johnny’s Image Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the turf is the feature for the second of Hollywood Park’s Friday night programs. A field of 10 was entered, including Super May, Exclusive Partner, Laxey Bay, Val Des Bois and Aldabon. . . . Summer Squall and Western Playboy arrived at Hollywood Park Wednesday. . . . Itsallgreektome worked seven furlongs in 1:24 1/5 Wednesday morning.