HOLLYWOOD PARK : Shulman Now a Picture-Perfect Winner at Tracks

Although Sandy Shulman sold his photography business more than 13 years ago, he is still doing his part to help the profession.

Shulman, 57, has spent a lot of time having his picture taken in the winner’s circle at Hollywood Park. With the meeting about two-thirds complete, he leads the trainer standings with 18 victories, three more than Ron McAnally and four more than Mike Mitchell.

This is a continuation of Shulman’s streak of success. He led Hollywood Park’s fall meeting last year with 16 victories and he was third behind Jack Van Berg and Bill Spawr at Santa Anita’s 90-day winter-spring season, which ended April 25.

“It’s been a very good year,” Shulman said Thursday. “The horses have been running well and we’ll keep doing the best we can. It would be a nice accomplishment (to lead the meeting). It’s a major meeting.”

An owner before he became a trainer in 1981, Shulman currently has 36 horses in his care. His primary clients are Clear Valley Stables and Ron Charles.

Connected with Charles when the owner gave him the claimer Grits And Fritz to train many years ago, Shulman is still grateful.

“Ron is very easy to get along with and he’s been very loyal,” he said. “He’s very knowledgeable and a very active owner.”

Charles, 46, a businessman, has about 20 horses in training and is very active in the claiming game.

“Once you really start understanding the game, it becomes so challenging,” Charles was quoted as saying in a recent profile in the Daily Racing Form. “ . . . If you’re going to own horses, it should be fun and Sandy makes owning horses very enjoyable.”

One horse who has provided Shulman, Charles and Clear Valley with a lot of enjoyment and could bring a lot more is Abaginone.

Bought for $55,000 at the 1993 Barretts sale of 2-year-olds in training, Abaginone is perfect in two starts and the Devil’s Bag colt could well develop into a stakes performer.

After breaking his maiden by two lengths in 1:09 2/5 on May 30, he came back with a 3 1/2-length victory last Saturday in 1:16 for 6 1/2 furlongs. Gary Stevens, who has been aboard for both wins, had him geared down at the wire six days ago.

The first foal of the dam Oil Fable and bred in Kentucky by Mike Rutherford, the owner-breeder of Lakeway, Abaginone has had shin problems and was in and out of training three times before he made it to the races.

“He’s the most promising young horse I’ve ever had,” Shulman said. “He would have been the sales topper (at Barretts). I don’t think there’s any question about that. His breeding is excellent and he’s a big, good-looking horse.

“But, he’s got problems with his shins (he suffered a fracture last year) and they were no secret. He still has problems and they are not something that are going to go away. He’s a very talented horse and we won’t run him unless he’s 100%.”

Shulman is seriously thinking of trying Abaginone around two turns, but he is in no rush to try stakes company.

“We want to (run) through his (allowance) conditions,” he said.

As of this week, Shulman has a new duty. He was among six trainers elected to the California Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Assn. The new board will have its first meeting next Wednesday.

A member of the trainer advisory committee of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, he ran for the CHBPA board on the TOC slate.

Of the 18 owners and trainers elected, 17 were on the TOC slate, indicating voter unhappiness with the current CHBPA leadership.

“Certain things are happening in our business and instead of talking about (horse racing’s) decline we need to find ways to improve business,” Shulman said.

“We have to cooperate with management and the legislature instead of resisting everything. New things are happening and instead of burying our heads in the sand, we have to open ourselves up to new ideas and new ways of doing business.”

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A small field is a certainty for the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on July 2 because only eight horses were nominated for the 1 1/4 mile race.

Of the eight, five seem definite--The Wicked North, Arcangues, Del Mar Dennis, Kingdom Found and Slew Of Damascus. Fanmore, a turf specialist beaten as the favorite in the Golden Gate Handicap six days ago, is a possibility.

The other nominees are Hill Pass and Bien Bien. A decision about Bien Bien, who will be coupled with Del Mar Dennis if he runs, will be made after owners Trudy McCaffery and John Toffan and trainer Paco Gonzalez get a look at the weights, which are scheduled to come out today.

Hill Pass is the 8-5 favorite in tonight’s seventh race, a $55,000 allowance at 1 1/16 miles.

Horse Racing Notes

Hollywood Park will offer simulcast betting on the $500,000 Caesars International on Sunday at Atlantic City. Lure and Star Of Cozzene head the field and scheduled post time is 12:40 p.m., 20 minutes before Hollywood Park’s first race. . . . There will be two simulcasts from Golden Gate Fields tonight, the first at 6:42 p.m., the other after Hollywood’s first race.

Bertrando will work six furlongs this morning. He is scheduled to return in the Bel Air Handicap on July 17. . . . Strodes Creek had surgery last Sunday for removal of an undescended testicle. “He was walked for two days afterward and now he’s back to the track,” trainer Charlie Whittingham said. “It isn’t hurting him anymore now.”