HOLLYWOOD PARK : Best Pal Favored in Gold Cup

For the first time in recent memory, trainer Gary Jones is satisfied with the weight Best Pal has been assigned for Saturday’s $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup.

Unhappy that the 5-year-old gelding was given 122 pounds for the Hollywood Turf Handicap on May 31, Jones was content with the 121 pounds Best Pal was handed for the 1 1/4-mile Gold Cup, the sixth race in the American Championship Racing Series.

“Going into the race, I’ve got no excuses,” Jones said Wednesday at the post-position draw for the Gold Cup and two other races in the new SummerStakes program--the Dwyer from Belmont Park and the Molly Pitcher from Monmouth Park.

Trying to end a losing streak that spans five races and more than 14 months, Best Pal is the 9-5 favorite against nine opponents in the Gold Cup, and he is training like he’s ready to win for the first time since the Oaklawn Handicap on April 11, 1992.

“He’s coming up to the race perfect,” Jones said. “I’ve finally been able to train him the way I wanted to train him for the first time all year--without my back to the wall. He’s ready to go.”

Corey Black, who replaced Kent Desormeaux on Best Pal for the Turf Handicap, said John and Betty Mabee’s homebred has impressed him in the morning.

Best Pal concluded his preparation with a 59 2/5-second five-furlong workout on Tuesday.

Bobby Frankel will have three representatives--Missionary Ridge, Marquetry and Bertrando--in the Gold Cup, and they will be coupled in the betting because Frankel owns a piece of Marquetry, who upset Farma Way to win the race in 1991.

All three of Frankel’s horses like to run on the lead, so they could compromise each other’s chances. Bertrando, however, seems certain to be in front.

The other six entrants in the Gold Cup are Californian winner Latin American, Major Impact, Potrillon, Lottery Winner, the Australian gelding Rough Habit and Campo Marzio, who has won two of three starts since being claimed for $80,000 by trainer Mike Mitchell. The 5-year-old son of Roy is the race lightweight at 109.

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Let’s Elope, considered the best mare ever to race in Australia, will make her U.S. debut in the eighth race today, a $60,000 allowance at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

Sent to this country after she bled for the second time in Australia, the 6-year-old daughter of New Zealand-based sire Nassipour will race on Lasix today. Let’s Elope has won 10 of 20 starts and has earnings of $2,347,847.

Pat Valenzuela will ride Let’s Elope for trainer Ron McAnally, and she is the 9-5 favorite against five rivals. In her last start, Let’s Elope was seventh of 14 in the Japan Cup last Nov. 29 in Tokyo.

Horse Racing Notes

For the second time in six days, apprentice rider Sal Gonzalez Jr. won four races. He took the opener with favored Freeway Daisy, the third with 35-1 shot My Liberty, the fifth with Stachs Mistress and the sixth with San Berdou. . . . With 16 points, Missionary Ridge is third in the American Championship Racing Series standings. Devil His Due leads with 24, then comes Pistols And Roses with 20. . . . Rough Habit worked a mile in 1:39 1/5 Wednesday morning and Lottery Winner went a half-mile in 46 3/5. . . . Hollywood Park CEO R.D. Hubbard said Autotote, not Hollywood Park, is responsible for the $70,000 paid out incorrectly in the seventh race on Sunday. Favored Tour won the race in a photo finish over 15-1 shot Lily La Belle, but for a short time, the prices posted on the board were as if Lily La Belle won and some people were able to cash $32.60 win tickets on the filly.