HOLLYWOOD PARK : Creaking Board Wins Starlet

Eliza, expected to be voted champion 2-year-old filly for 1992, was 8 1/2 lengths better than Creaking Board while winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Oct. 31, but their rivalry ought to be much closer when they battle as 3-year-olds next year.

Sixth in the Breeders’ Cup race, Creaking Board went off at 138-1 that day. The English-bred filly had won only one of five starts in France, and while the record included three second-place finishes, she had finished last, behind nine rivals, in her final European race. And what really skyrocketed Creaking Board’s odds was that the Breeders’ Cup marked her first start on dirt.

Pascal Bary trained Creaking Board through the Breeders’ Cup. Also in Florida that day was American trainer Bobby Frankel, trying to win some of the other races.

“I really liked her race in Florida,” Frankel said. “I thought she would like dirt after I saw her run that day.”

Another extenuating circumstance at Gulfstream was that Creaking Board kicked herself early in the race.

Frankel saddled Creaking Board for the first time in the Miesque Stakes on grass at Hollywood Park on Nov. 28, and the granddaughter of Northern Dancer won easily.

Grass opportunities for young fillies are limited in the United States, so Frankel supplemented Creaking Board into Saturday’s $253,500 Starlet at Hollywood. The investment resulted in her Italian owners collecting the $139,425 winner’s share as Creaking Board scored an eight-length victory.

Passing Vice finished second, a head better than Madame L’Enjoleur. Trainer Brian Mayberry, who saddled three Starlet starters for different owners, finished fourth with Blue Moonlight. His Zoonaqua, the second betting choice behind Creaking Board, was eighth in the nine-horse field.

“Nobody was going to beat the winner today,” Mayberry said.

Pat Valenzuela, able to ride in the Starlet because California’s designated-race rule supersedes a five-day suspension that began Saturday, was aboard Madame L’Enjoleur.

“The other filly (Creaking Board) was better than my filly,” Valenzuela said. “Maybe we’ll catch her later on an off day. If not, we’ll catch her with Eliza.”

Valenzuela has ridden Eliza in all her stakes victories, which included the Arlington Lassie and the Alcibiades at Keeneland before the Breeders’ Cup.

Creaking Board’s margin was the biggest for a Starlet winner, surpassing Fabulous Notion’s six-length victory in 1982, the second year that the stake was run.

Creaking Board paid $5 to win, running 1 1/16 miles in 1:43 3/5. Corey Nakatani, who passed up a chance to ride Creaking Board in the Miesque to ride the same day at Bay Meadows, was aboard Saturday. Kent Desormeaux, who rode Creaking Board in the Miesque, is sidelined because of injuries he suffered when kicked by a horse at Hollywood on Dec. 11.

Nakatani has been riding Creaking Board for her morning workouts.

“I really wanted to ride her (in the Miesque),” Nakatani said, “but I was in a situation where they were both going to be favorites, so what are you going to do?”

Nakatani had Creaking Board close to the lead out of the gate, and she took over for the run down the backstretch. Blue Moonlight was slightly behind her then, and Madame L’Enjoleur tried to run with her through the stretch. But Creaking Board won without even a reminder from Nakatani’s whip.

“The way she ran today, she can do anything she wants,” Nakatani said. “I knew I had a lot of horse. On the first turn, I hollered (for room), because she was ready to run all over them.”

The only trouble Nakatani had in the Starlet was wearing the right silks. Because of a program error, he came to the paddock wearing another owner’s silks. The post parade was delayed while Nakatani hurried back to the jockeys’ room to get into the right uniform. Creaking Board is owned by Antonio Balzarini, who makes cheese in Milan, his son and one other partner.

“I ran her in this spot because everybody kept telling me that this was a weak race,” Frankel said. “The next $100,000 race for her would have been the Santa Anita Oaks. She’s one of the better fillies around. Because there aren’t many grass opportunities, she’ll stay on dirt for now.”

Today’s Hollywood Futurity is like the Starlet in that it won’t affect the voting for the division championship. The title for 2-year-old colts probably will go to Gilded Time, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, with the Futurity helping decide which other horses will give him the most trouble when he begins his 3-year-old campaign at Santa Anita.

Stuka, undefeated while winning two races by 10 lengths, is the 8-5 morning-line favorite for the Futurity. With Desormeaux sidelined, Laffit Pincay has picked up the mount on River Special, the third-place finisher behind Gilded Time and It’salilknownfact in the Breeders’ Cup and the 2-1 second choice today.

Judge Hammer, the 3-year-old gelding who ducked to the outside, dumping Desormeaux shortly before they were going to win a race at Hollywood Park on Dec. 11, has been retired and will become a stable pony for trainer Neil Drysdale.

Kicked by a trailing horse in the race, Desormeaux was hospitalized because of head injuries, and, although he was released last week, the nation’s No. 1 money-winning jockey is not expected to resume riding until sometime in January at Santa Anita.

“He was a silly horse and we haven’t been able to do anything with him,” Drysdale said of Judge Hammer. “I think his main problem was that he never accepted being hit by the whip.”

The first time Judge Hammer ever ran, a year ago at Hollywood Park, he swerved to the outside, dropping jockey Mike Smith. In subsequent races, the horse had a history of drifting to the outside.