HOLLYWOOD PARK : Pacific Squall Scores Upset in Oaks

Pacific Squall and jockey Kent Desormeaux caught favored Race The Wild Wind at the beginning of the backstretch and outran her through the stretch for a 1 3/4-length victory Sunday in the $217,200 Hollywood Oaks.

At the five-eighths pole, Chris McCarron, riding Race The Wild Wind, looked to his right and yelled at Desormeaux: “I knew it was going to be you up there.”

Desormeaux tapped Pacific Squall a couple of times with his whip at the head of the stretch, and she began to wear Race The Wild Wind down, pulling away a sixteenth of a mile before the wire.

The second betting choice, Pacific Squall paid $6.80 to win, running 1 1/8 miles in 1:48 over a track that was fast but moist from rain. She earned $127,200 for her owners, John Toffan and Trudy McCaffery.

The Oaks was a two-horse race, with Race The Wild Wind finishing eight lengths ahead of Alysbelle, the third-place horse. All seven starters carried 121 pounds.

Pacific Squall had been running on grass, winning the Honeymoon Handicap in her last start. Sunday’s victory, before 13,444, was the fourth in five starts for the daughter of Storm Bird and Rambolie.

Paco Gonzalez, who trains Pacific Squall, said he has always preferred dirt for the filly, and Sunday he said that another main-track race, next month’s Alabama at Saratoga, will be her next start.

Pacific Squall’s owners bought her as a weanling for $100,000.

“I figured she had a kick that was almost untouchable,” Desormeaux said. “So I figure I’ve got to tag along, at least if I’m going to have a shot. It’s a position where you’re not worried about the pace, you’re just worried about hanging in. It’s always advantageous to be on the outside. You can pressure the horse in front of you, push her down the backside while you’re still in reserve. The other horse has to move when you move. So you’re in the driver’s seat.”

Race the Wild Wind has four victories and two seconds in her last six races.

“She was going along real good,” McCarron said. “I went as slow as I possibly could go. We were just second best. If anyone was going to be pressuring us, it was going to be Pacific Squall. He (Desormeaux) was the only one riding anything with class enough to be there.”

Horse Racing Notes

Eddie Delahoussaye told the stewards he was ill and took off all his mounts. . . . David Flores replaced Delahoussaye astride Alysbelle, the third-place finisher in the Hollywood Oaks. . . . Corey Nakatani rode back-to-back longshot winners, including Kept His Cool, a horse who was 0 for 17 the last two years. . . . Gary Stevens was unseated by Polar Boy, a 3-1 shot, shortly after the start of the ninth race. . . . The tote board malfunctioned and there was a 20-minute delay before the prices were posted for the Oaks. . . . Trainer Brian Mayberry said that Zealous Connection, winner of Saturday’s Landaluce Stakes, is being considered for the Sorority at Monmouth Park on Aug. 1 and the Spinaway at Saratoga on Aug. 29. Mayberry won those stakes last year, with Fluttery Danseur in the Sorority and Miss Ironsmoke in the Spinaway. . . . Dance for Vanny, even-money favorite in the Landaluce, finished sixth and came out of the race with a small bump on a leg. “It’s nothing that would have affected her in the race,” trainer Paco Gonzalez said. “She got behind horses and got dirt in her face for the first time.”