HOLLYWOOD PARK : Stevens Goes to the Whip at Finish, Riding Five Winners on Closing Day

Gary Stevens predicted he would finish the Hollywood Park meeting with a flourish, and he was right.

After winning two Grade I races on the same day for the first time Sunday with Private Persuasion in the Vanity and Thunder Gulch in the Swaps, Stevens thought he could win with five of his nine mounts Monday, the 67th and final day of the Hollywood Park meeting.

Continuing what has been a dream year, Stevens proved a prophet, matching Eddie Delahoussaye’s May 13 five-winner day and including in his feat the expected romp aboard heavily favored Hennessy in the $102,400 Hollywood Juvenile Championship.

In addition to the Juvenile, the meeting’s third-leading rider behind runaway winner Corey Nakatani and Alex Solis won the fourth with Lloydminister, the fifth with Dash Of Vanilla, the seventh aboard Play It By Ear and the ninth on Something To Say. He won with 15 of his 32 mounts the final six days of the meeting.

Providing Wayne Lukas with his fifth victory in the Juvenile, Hennessy, the 1-2 choice, was outrun early from his outside post, moved up while four-wide to join the leaders, then drew away in the final quarter-mile to win by 5 1/2 lengths in 1:09 4/5 for the six furlongs.

Reef Reef, a 13-1 shot, gamely saved the place by a neck over Desert Native. Then came Houseafire (the 9-2 second choice), Don’t Tell Wayne, Double Brass and Hectic. Bridge Of Royalty, who would have been the second choice, was scratched because trainer Bill Spawr didn’t care for his No. 2 post position.

“He got real worked up before the race and kind of lost his composure,” Stevens said of Hennessy, who is owned by Bob and Beverly Lewis. “He hadn’t run in a while [since July 2] and got a little too excited. I’m sure Wayne was honing on him pretty good to make sure he was ready for this race.

“Thankfully, he was fine during the race, couldn’t have been better. It was just a matter of getting him to the gate. He was getting a little overheated. But once we got behind the gate and he saw it, he slowed his breathing down and kind of regained his composure. I can’t say enough about this colt’s future.”

Named for a favorite restaurant of the Lewis’ daughter, Nancy, Hennessy is probably bound for New Jersey. Lukas indicated that the $200,000 Sapling Aug. 12 at Monmouth Park could be his next start, before he returns to California for the closing-day Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 13.

“We’ve always been high on him,” Lukas said. “We think he’s special. He’s got that Storm Cat [his sire] fire and I think that’s going to be his trademark. He’s never going to walk out there and take things in stride. Gary was real confident in his ride on him.

“I think he’s a talented colt. I think he could go on and do some pretty important things.”

*

Hollywood Park finished its meeting with a record daily average handle of more than $9.6 million, but both on-track and inter-track attendance were down considerably from 1994.

The daily average handle was up 18% from the year before because of boosts from inter-track and out-of-state betting. On-track handle, however, was down 1.5%.

The average on-track attendance was 11,611, down 8.8% from last year, and the inter-track average of 15,463 was off 7.5% The combined average attendance of 27,074 was down 8.1%.

Horse Racing Notes

Sandy Shulman won the training title, beating Bobby Frankel, 23 victories to 21. Neither finished the meeting strong. Frankel’s last victory came on July 9, Shulman’s on July 13. “It means a lot to me,” Shulman said. “I’m very thrilled. It’s a really great accomplishment for everybody who works at the barn.”

Cigar was named horse of the meeting and top handicap horse in the annual media poll. Other winners: Possibly Perfect (older filly/mare); Thunder Gulch (3-year-old, 3-year-old male); Sleep Easy (3-year-old filly); Hennessy (2-year-old, 2-year-old male); Raw Gold (2-year-old filly); Sandpit (grass horse); Pembroke (sprinter); Sweeping Rain (claiming horse); Hollywood Gold Cup (race); Shulman (trainer); Corey Nakatani (jockey); Brice Blanc (apprentice jockey) and Allen Paulson (owner). . . . Nakatani finished the meeting with 82 victories, 25 more than Alex Solis.