HOLLYWOOD PARK : Owners Away, Fillies Do Pay

Owners John Toffan and Trudy McCaffery decided to stay home in Vancouver rather than come to Hollywood Park to see their Pacific Squall run in the $112,100 Honeymoon Handicap Saturday.

“They told me, ‘We’ll leave you alone, maybe it will change our luck,’ ” trainer Juan Gonzalez said.

The way things turned out Saturday, Toffan and McCaffery might hesitate before venturing south to see their horses in person.

Not only did Pacific Squall win the Honeymoon, but Sovereign Liz, a 3-year-old Sovereign Dancer filly they own and who is also trained by Gonzalez, broke her maiden in the sixth race.

Winless with his first 12 starters at the meeting, Gonzalez thought Pacific Squall was in trouble from the start of the Honeymoon.

A virtual wire-to-wire winner in her first two starts, Pacific Squall broke in the air and was ahead of only Cochabamba after a half-mile. “I didn’t think she was going to run any good at all,” Gonzalez said.

Jockey Kent Desormeaux didn’t feel the same way and Pacific Squall, the 2-1 favorite, rallied to beat 12-1 shot Miss Turkana by a length in 1:41 for the 1 1/16 miles on turf.

It was the third victory in four starts for the 3-year-old Storm Bird filly and she had plenty of excuses for the defeat, a fifth-place finish in last month’s Senorita. She broke from the 12 post in a field of 13 and was extremely wide the entire trip. She did well to be beaten by only three lengths.

“She was a totally different horse than last time,” Desormeaux said. “I told (Gonzalez) she should have won it. I was pulling and pulling on her, trying to make her come from behind, and she was fighting me. I should have let her go.

“Today, I had the reins dangling and she relaxed on her own. She reared back leaving (the gate). I think she’d have comfortably been four or five lengths closer. She just sat back there and galloped, galloped and galloped, just the way you want a horse on the turf to relax. When the pace quickened, she quickened on her own. All I had to do was wheel her out and go.”

Gonzalez, who believes Pacific Squall is more effective on the main track, says she will probably return in the Hollywood Oaks on July 12.

Seeking his 12th victory in the Californian, Charlie Whittingham will send out two of the seven entrants in the Grade I race today at Hollywood Park.

The trainer, who last won the 1 1/8-mile race in 1990 with Sunday Silence, will be represented by Mervyn LeRoy runner-up Sir Beaufort, and Excavate. The two will be coupled in the betting and are the 4-1 third choice on the morning line.

Sir Beaufort finished 2 3/4 lengths behind Another Review, the 7-5 favorite today, in the LeRoy. Excavate has never lived up to the expectations for him before his racing debut and after he won his first race by five lengths on Nov. 24, 1990.

Since then, the 4-year-old Mr. Prospector colt and half-brother to Desert Wine has won only twice in eight starts, both allowance races. Chris McCarron will ride Sir Beaufort while Gary Stevens has the call on Excavate.

Three days after arriving in this country, Modesto Linares, 31, won with his first mount at Hollywood Park, riding Xcaret to a $103 upset in the second race Saturday.

“I wasn’t surprised at all that he won the race,” said Panamanian native Alex Solis, who was tutored by Linares while attending jockey school. “He’s been a great rider there for a long time.”