HOLLYWOOD PARK : Solis Stays Home, Wins Five

Like any other jockey in the world, Alex Solis would rather have been sitting where Chris McCarron was Saturday at Churchill Downs.

However, Hollywood Park wasn’t a bad place for Solis to be on the first Saturday of May.

For the second time in his career, Solis, 30, won five races, including an easy victory aboard favored Fumo Di Londra in the $105,625 Spotlight Breeders’ Cup Handicap.

The quintuple gave Solis eight winners in the last two days and, nine days into the 68-day season, he is Hollywood Park’s leading rider with 18 from 63 mounts.

Purchased for a reported $750,000 by Sid and Jenny Craig to be their Kentucky Derby horse, Fumo Di Londra failed miserably in the San Rafael Stakes in his first try on the main track.

After the Indian Ridge colt was beaten by 31 lengths by Tabasco Cat, trainer Ron McAnally, who had three winners Saturday, decided to put him back on the turf, which is where he will remain.

Sent to the front by Solis from his inside post, Fumo Di Londra, the 2-1 choice, set moderate fractions before pulling away from his seven rivals through the stretch and winning by three lengths in 1:35 for the mile.

Unfinished Symph, making his first start on turf and on Lasix, outfinished 5-2 second choice Timbalier by a half-length for second. Screaming Don, the upset winner of the California Derby last month, was a nose back in fourth.

“He broke so well and I had the advantage of the rail, so I just said, ‘Shoot, I’m going to save some ground and try to make my own pace,’ ” said Solis, whose other five-winner day came on July 24, 1989, at Hollywood Park.

“He was just able to gallop out there and when I asked him at the three-sixteenths pole, he responded very well. I thought I had a good chance (to have a big day) because I had a lot of good mounts and things worked out great.”

Solis was aboard all three of McAnally’s winners. He rode Sinag in the first and Potridee in the $61,200 Typecast. The jockey’s other two victories were aboard La Frontera in the fourth and Buyimback in the fifth.

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Hollywood Park handled a single-race record $3,570,779 on the Kentucky Derby Saturday, breaking the mark of $2,986,676 for last year’s Derby.

A total of $1,113,722 was bet at the track and $2,457,057 was handled at the numerous off-track locations. All told, $5,683,261 was bet on the Derby and the five other stakes that were simulcast from Churchill Downs. The total attendance was 66,625, with 22,779 at Hollywood Park.

Go For Gin paid $23.60 at Hollywood Park compared to $20.20 in Kentucky. The $2 exacta combining him with Strodes Creek paid $186.60 locally and $184.80 at Churchill Downs. The $2 trifecta paid $2,885.40 compared to $2,351.40 at Churchill.

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Skimble, often close but a winner of only once in her last 11 starts, is the 2-1 favorite in the $107,800 Wilshire Handicap today at Hollywood Park.

Third behind Corrazona and Cargo in the Santa Anita Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Handicap last month, Skimble is one of two entrants in the race trained by Bobby Frankel. He will also send out 4-1 shot Lyphard’s Delta, who will race on Lasix for the first time after finishing fifth in the Budweiser Breeders’ Cup.

Bel’s Starlet, a 7-year-old Bel Bolide mare, is the 5-2 second choice and she has shown a fondness for the Hollywood Park grass. She has four victories, three seconds and a third in 12 local tries. Kent Desormeaux will again ride for trainer Richard Mandella.

The three other starters in the 1 1/16-mile Wilshire are Miami Sands, Dior’s Angel and Blue Tess.

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The National Best Seven bet will begin on May 30 and will feature stakes from seven tracks, including the Hollywood Turf Handicap.

A 50-cent bet, the National Best Seven will be run in a one-hour span, and the other tracks that will be featured in the kickoff to the wager are Belmont Park (the Metropolitan Mile), Sam Houston (Memorial Stakes), Arlington Park (Washington Park Handicap), Monmouth Park (Red Bank Handicap), Calder (Memorial Day Handicap) and Churchill Downs (Kentucky Breeders’ Cup Stakes).

After Memorial Day, the Best Seven will be offered every Saturday as well as Monday, July 4.