HOLLYWOOD PARK : Jazzing Hi to Return in Sprint

Promoting his horse the last few years, Kenneth Wright has given away fanny packs, watches, golf shirts and $2 bills depicting his 6-year-old quarter horse, Jazzing Hi.

Early next year, there will even be Jazzing Hi foals; the stallion stood at stud last spring in Fresno. What’s missing, though, from the collection of souvenirs and racing trophies is a victory on Breeders Classics Night.

Wright and co-owner Wayne Charlton have brought Jazzing Hi back to the races this fall for one final run at the Champion of Champions, which will be held later this year at Los Alamitos. The road to that $250,000 race begins tonight in the $35,000 Breeders Classics Sprint, one of eight stakes at Hollywood Park.

Jazzing Hi is the 2-1 morning line favorite in the eight-horse field, which offers a much easier return than the $125,000 Breeders Championship Classic, a 440-yard race that drew a six-horse field, including Refrigerator, the favorite to be voted World Champion.

The deciding factor was jockey Bruce Pilkenton, who was committed to Bills Ryon in the Championship Classic, but had no mount in the Sprint.

Besides the Sprint and the Championship Classic, the program includes the $35,000 Distaff for fillies and mares, the $100,000 Juvenile for 2-year-olds, the $25,000 Sophomore for 3-year-olds, the $30,000 Marathon for 870-yard horses, the $15,000 Freshman and the $167,000 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Assn. Futurity for 2-year-olds.

Jazzing Hi is trained by Wayne Charlton’s nephew, Daryn Charlton, who will saddle six stakes horses tonight. Last season, Jazzing Hi won two major races with Pilkenton aboard--the Vessels Maturity and the Horsemen’s Quarter Horse Racing Assn. Invitational--but finished poorly in the Los Alamitos Championship, Champion of Champions and the Championship Classic with other riders aboard. In 1990, he was second, a head behind Heisajoy, in the Championship Classic. This will be his first start since January, when he won the HQHRA Invitational.

“I want to take on Refrigerator, but I want a prep race first,” Wright said. “Pilkenton fits him like a glove. All his big races were with Pilkenton aboard.”

Jazzing Hi returned to training during the summer and joined Daryn Charlton at Hollywood Park recently. Pilkenton said it didn’t take him long to get back into racing.

“When he first got here, he was all talk,” Pilkenton said. “He was nickering at all the horses, but after we breezed him, he was all business.

“My concern was not only being able to ride him for the Championship, but the quarter-mile (distance). I was afraid it would knock him out. I was glad they opted for the Sprint.”

Also entered in the Sprint is Stochastic, a former claimer who has won three consecutive races, and One Slick One, who ran well at Ruidoso, N.M., during the summer.

Refrigerator, unbeaten in three starts this year, is the 4-5 morning line favorite for the Championship. His competition includes Grand Package, Holland Ease, Femmes Frolic, Dash Ta Fame and Bills Ryon.