Hollywood Park Might Showcase Eclipse Hopefuls

The leftovers from the Breeders’ Cup appear to be skimpy for the 34-day Hollywood Park season that starts today. If the meeting is to have any Eclipse Awards connotations, One Dreamer and Soviet Problem will have to run at the Inglewood track.

Hollywood is more likely to get One Dreamer than Soviet Problem, and if the gray, 6-year-old mare were to win the $400,000 Matriarch on Nov. 27, Eclipse voters might have this decision to make in the older filly-mare division: Should they vote for Sky Beauty, a filly who has won 10 consecutive races in New York the last two years, but ran fifth and last in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff? Or should they go for One Dreamer, who sneaked into the Distaff at 47-1 and then stole off with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup race that had been advertised as the toughest of the day to win?

Another option for Tom Proctor, who trains One Dreamer, is the $200,000 Falls City Handicap, a 1 1/8-mile dirt race at Churchill Downs on Nov. 24. The Distaff was also 1 1/8 miles on dirt. The Matriarch is 1 1/8 miles on grass. Leonard Lavin, a Chicagoan, uses Willard Proctor, Tom’s father, as his trainer in California.

Already, One Dreamer deserves some sort of award for versatility this year, having won two stakes on grass and two on dirt. Her only Grade I victory was in the Distaff, but the Matriarch could give her a Grade I on grass as well. The Falls City is only a Grade III race.

Because of the French-based Hatoof, the female grass title seems out of reach for American-trained horses, even Aube Indienne, who is the only runner with a chance to register a rare year-end double by winning the Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita and the Matriarch at Hollywood.

Hatoof ran only twice in the United States this year, but both starts were highly visible as she beat Flawlessly, a two-time Eclipse winner, in the Beverly D. at Arlington International, and finished second to the French colt Tikkanen in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Hatoof was nominated for the Matriarch, but last Sunday, the day after the Breeders’ Cup, she was sent by van to the Lexington, Ky., farm of her owner, Sheik Maktoum, where she will be bred early next year.

While Hatoof was traveling Sunday, the owners and trainer of another talented filly, Soviet Problem, were thinking out loud about what to do next after a heart-breaking loss, by only a head, to Cherokee Run in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Soviet Problem is eligible for the Hollywood Turf Express, a 5 1/2-furlong grass race on Nov. 20. But that opportunity pales alongside the invitation that Soviet Problem has to run in Tokyo on Dec. 18. That purse, for running six furlongs on grass, is an estimated $1.8 million, compared to the Turf Express’ $150,000.

The Tokyo race, closer to the mailing of the Eclipse ballots, would have more of an impact on the voters if Soviet Problem won it. Her record of nine victories and three seconds in 12 starts this year is far superior to Cherokee Run’s, but Cherokee won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint the only time they met, and that might be enough of a barometer for the electorate.

Last year’s champion sprinter, Cardmania, didn’t win a race until October, but the voters supported him after he had won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in November.

Injured early this year, Cardmania got into an oversubscribed field for Saturday’s Sprint only because he had won the race a year ago, and he justified the selection committee’s decision by running third, less than two lengths behind Cherokee Run.

After the race, trainer Derek Meredith said that Cardmania is likely to run in the $100,000 Vernon O. Underwood Stakes at Hollywood Park, a six-furlong race on Dec. 10, and he’s also expected to run next year, as a 9-year-old.

Another Breeders’ Cup horse from California who ran well without winning was Dramatic Gold, who was third, behind Concern and Tabasco Cat, in the Classic. Dramatic Gold led the Classic with an eighth of a mile to go.

“The mile-and-a-quarter was just a bit too far for him,” trainer David Hofmans said. “But he’s going to continue to be tough at anything up to a mile-and-an-eighth.”

Dramatic Gold might also resurface at the Hollywood Park meet. One of the first graded stakes, the $100,000 Laz Barrera, is 1 1/16 miles on Nov. 19, and the $100,000 Native Diver Handicap, at 1 1/8 miles, is scheduled for Dec. 4.

One of two $500,000 races on the schedule, the Hollywood Futurity, has been won three times by trainer Wayne Lukas, but he has closed the 1994 books on Timber Country, his Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, and will skip the Dec. 18 stake.

“I’m figuring on the same program that Tabasco Cat had this year,” Lukas said. “Timber Country will train in California, and he should have one race in February, one in March and one in April to get him ready for the (Kentucky) Derby.”

Horse Racing Notes

The Hollywood Park meet will start modestly today with the $50,000 Jim Hill Stakes for 2-year-old fillies. The season, which runs through Dec. 24, will not be without its specialties, which include night cards every Friday in the fall for the first time, and full-card simulcasting from Bay Meadows. Hollywood plans to put more emphasis on the Bay Meadows races than the recently completed Oak Tree Racing Assn. meet at Santa Anita did. . . . The meet also lists five different times for first post, with 12:30 p.m. the most frequent. The Friday night cards will have 6:45 starts, except for the 4 p.m. program Nov. 25. . . . Cezanne, the British 5-year-old who was ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, might be headed for Hollywood Park and a return to grass. . . . A new stake on the fall turf festival schedule is the $150,000 Hollywood Mile on Nov. 27.