HOLLYWOOD PARK : The Exeter Man Could Surprise in $500,000 Hollywood Futurity

Amid ads for casinos and break-the-bank racing tips in the Daily Racing Form is trainer Bob Marshall’s call for 2-year-olds:

“This year ALL of the 2-year-olds in my barn won,” Marshall’s small ad says. “And NONE had shin problems. . . . If you have yearlings turning two on Jan. 1, give me a call now.”

Marshall, who won the $400,000 Californian Stakes last year at Hollywood Park with 17-1 Latin American, a horse he had claimed the year before for $100,000, said that he ran the recent ad because the claiming game--which has been the source of most of his horses--has dried up.

“The money’s not out there,” Marshall said. “Owners are scared to go for $100,000 to claim a horse now. And because there are so few horses, trainers are protecting their horses more than usual, running them for higher prices than the horses are worth. Nobody wants to take chances. It’s easier to have 20 2-year-olds delivered, if you can get them, than scrambling to claim horses.”

One of Marshall’s current band of 2-year-olds was delivered, after being bought at auction for $35,000 as an unraced 2-year-old, and the 50-year-old optometrist-turned-trainer can’t take his eyes off him. The Exeter Man, who broke his maiden on Nov. 13 with a 10-length victory, is one of four horses that will challenge favored Afternoon Deelites Sunday in the $500,000 Hollywood Futurity.

An hour after The Exeter Man’s 6 1/2-furlong victory, Afternoon Deelites threatened the track record for seven furlongs, winning the Hollywood Prevue Breeders’ Cup Stakes in a brilliant 1:20 4/5.

In Afternoon Deelites’ only other race, going six furlongs at Santa Anita on Oct. 23, he beat Tyson’s Revenge by a neck, with The Exeter Man finishing third, 1 1/4 lengths farther back.

The Exeter Man and jockey Gary Stevens had a wide trip, and later Marshall was approached by someone who said he was a mathematician. “Your horse had to run 170 yards more than Afternoon Deelites,” the man said.

Wishful-thinking trainers are looking for just those kinds of reasons they might stop Afternoon Deelites. Ian Jory, who trains Nice Fred, another starter in the 1 1/16-mile race, points out that owner Burt Bacharach’s colt has yet to be tested around two turns. Jory has won this race before, in 1990, when he was Best Pal’s first trainer.

Wayne Lukas, who will saddle Thunder Gulch, has won the Futurity with Stalwart, Tejano and Grand Canyon. Another of Lukas’ current colts, Timber Country, is a cinch to win the division title, but Thunder Gulch is also a stakes winner, having taken the Remsen at 1 1/8 miles at Aqueduct three weeks ago. Gary Stevens rode Thunder Gulch in that race, but has retained the mount on The Exeter Man for the Futurity.

Thunder Gulch, with Corey Nakatani riding him for the first time, will break from the inside post, and next to them are A.J. Jett, ridden by Eddie Delahoussaye; Nice Fred, Alex Solis; The Exeter Man, Stevens; and Afternoon Deelites, Kent Desormeaux. They all will carry 121 pounds.

“I don’t know if that 170 yards business means anything or not,” Marshall said. “Just based on how my horse is doing, I think he’s got a real shot. He worked six furlongs the other day in 1:14, which is just what I wanted.”

The Exeter Man’s owner, Patrick Sheehy of Newport Beach, is paying a $25,000 supplementary-nomination fee to find out. The colt is a son of Capote, Lukas’ champion 2-year-old colt in 1986, and a grandson of Seattle Slew, the 1977 Triple Crown champion.

The Exeter Man’s first two races were only 11 days apart, a fourth-place finish as the favorite in a maiden race at Del Mar and a fifth in the $102,000 Barretts Juvenile at Fairplex Park.

Horse Racing Notes

Because of the time difference between Japan and California, Chris McCarron will be able to ride at both places on Sunday. His assignment in Japan is Soviet Problem in the $1.7-million Sprinters Stakes. Soviet Problem, second to Cherokee Run in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, is hoping to improve her chances in the Eclipse Awards voting for best sprinter in North America. McCarron, who won the first Hollywood Futurity with Stalwart in 1981, doesn’t have a mount in that race Sunday, but he is scheduled to ride Echo Of Yesterday, winner of the On Trust Handicap last month, in a $60,000 handicap on the card.

The California Horse Racing Board unanimously reelected Ralph M. Scurfield of Sacramento as its chairman and Donald Valpredo of Bakersfield as its vice chairman. . . . In other action, the board awarded its primary drug testing contract to Harris Laoratories in Arizona, the lowest bidder. Harris replace Truesdail Laboratories of Tustin. . . . Hollywood Park Racing Charities, Inc. has been authorized to distribute $758,000 to 93 beneficiaries, including $50,000 to the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Heritage Month Committee, $25,000 to the Centinela Hospital Foundation, $25,000 to the Los Angeles Urban League, $25,000 to the Don MacBeth Memorial Jockey Fund, and $25,000 to the Shoemaker Foundation.