HOLLYWOOD PARK : Golden Pheasant Is Favored Today

From a clockers’ stand on the Hollywood Park backstretch, trainer Charlie Whittingham looked down on a set of his horses out for a morning gallop.

“There’s Flawlessly,” Whittingham said, pointing to the winner of last Sunday’s Beverly Hills Handicap as she cantered by. “She came to us from New York. From out of left field. She’s saved the day.”

Standing next to Whittingham, his assistant, Tim Yakteen, said that they have a full brother to Flawlessly--by Affirmed, out of the Nijinsky II mare La Confidence--in the barn.

“Pricelessly,” Whittingham said. “He’s a 2-year-old. That’s a good follow-up name, isn’t it?”

“They almost look like twins,” Yakteen said.

A 3-year-old colt passed and Whittingham identified him as Atlantian. “He’s a half-brother to Ruhlmann,” Whittingham said of the Alydar-Indian Maiden chestnut with one white stocking. “We’ve gone slow with him, but he could be all right.”

Ruhlmann, originally trained by Bobby Frankel, in 1990 gave Whittingham his eighth victory in the Santa Anita Handicap and wound up earning $1.8 million.

That Big ‘Cap was one of more than 600 stakes victories for Whittingham. The trainer once won four stakes on consecutive days at Santa Anita, but this year has been different. Before Flawlessly’s victory, Whittingham had only four stakes victories all year, and he had dropped out of the money list of top 10 trainers nationally.

“The year ain’t over yet,” Whittingham said Friday. Today, he will run heavily favored Golden Pheasant in the $200,000 American Handicap, a race Whittingham has won seven times. Golden Pheasant’s chore will be easier because Tight Spot is not expected to run, leaving only three horses for Golden Pheasant to beat.

“I entered, since it didn’t cost anything,” said Tight Spot’s trainer, Ron McAnally, who saddled the 5-year-old to win the American last year. “It was just to protect myself, in case something happened to Charlie’s horse. The weights (123 for Golden Pheasant, 126 for Tight Spot) were a factor, but just as big a reason is that I don’t think my horse is ready to run a mile and an eighth now.”

Undefeated in two 1992 starts, Tight Spot hasn’t run since winning the San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields on March 21. In late May, the sore-legged horse suffered an injury that was thought to be career-threatening before it was diagnosed as merely a bruised hoof.

“Knock on wood, the horse is all right,” McAnally said Friday. “We’ll shoot for the Eddie Read Handicap (at Del Mar on Aug. 16), and hope that takes us into the Arlington Million (on Sept. 6).”

Tight Spot won the Million last year, en route to the male grass championship, and Golden Pheasant won the Arlington race in 1990. Golden Pheasant’s Arlington prep was a third-place run in the Eddie Read, but Whittingham isn’t certain that he will use that stake to get his horse ready for Chicago this time.

“Maybe he’ll need that race, maybe he won’t,” Whittingham said. “He gets a lot out of training, so we’ll see if he needs another race.”