Sandpit Goes for a Piece of History

Since the multi-named Caesars Palace Turf Championship was first run at Hollywood Park in 1938, Whodunit has been the only horse to win the race twice.

And even trainer Bill Winfrey’s horse didn’t win the race--which was the old Sunset Handicap--back to back. His victories in 1959 and 1961 were sandwiched around a year in which Whodunit missed the race.

They have come and gone since then, the grass horses who have failed to become multiple winners of the stake. Cougar II came very close to being a double winner, finishing second under 130 pounds to Over The Counter with 114 in 1971, then winning the Sunset as a 7-year-old in 1973.

Craelius, in the 1980s, and Find, a quarter of a century before, were the most frustrating, winning the stake in their first attempt and then failing twice in subsequent years. In 1960, Find was a 10-year-old when he was still trying to win the Sunset for Winfrey and owner Alfred G. Vanderbilt.

All of this puts Sandpit at history’s doorstep. The 7-year-old Brazilian-bred won the race last year, the first time it was known as the Caesars, and he’s the 7-5 morning-line favorite for Sunday, when six horses will try to stop him.

The 1 1/2-mile race is worth $700,000 for all of them, with $420,000 going to the winner, but Sandpit is running for an extra $280,000 bonus because he won another race, the Caesars International at Atlantic City, N.J., a month ago.

A year ago, Sandpit collected the bonus by pulling off the Atlantic City-Hollywood Park Caesars sweep, and his trainer, Richard Mandella, likes the horse’s chances again Sunday. “He’s as good as he’s ever been, and maybe even better,” Mandella said Thursday when entries were drawn.

Mandella is running another horse in the race, but Talloires is 20-1, having won only four of 18 starts and gone unraced since December because of a splint injury.

Talloires’ owners, who include R.D. Hubbard, the Hollywood Park chairman, are supplementing him into the race at a cost of $25,000. The track wasn’t going to be caught short of starters, as it was last year, when only five horses ran. A minimum six-horse field is needed before the insurer of the Caesars bonus is required to pay off. Last year, despite five starters, Caesars made good on the bonus.

Lassigny, not close when he ran against Sandpit in Atlantic City, will try again at 116 pounds, running from the No. 1 post with Jerry Bailey riding. Awad, with 117 pounds and Chris McCarron aboard, breaks from No. 2; and outside them will be Talloires, 116 pounds with Kent Desormeaux riding; the mare Windsharp, 116, Eddie Delahoussaye; Special Price, 116, Rene Douglas; Time Star, 115, Corey Black; and Sandpit, 125, with Corey Nakatani. Windsharp, second in her last start, in the San Juan Capistrano at Santa Anita on April 21, is the 3-1 second choice, followed by Awad at 5-1 and Special Price and Lassigny, who are both 6-1.

Special Price actually went off a slight favorite over Mandella’s horse at Hollywood Park last year, then finished second, beaten by 1 3/4 lengths. This year, Special Price is running less than three weeks after a third-place finish at Arlington International, which is counter to trainer Neil Drysdale’s style. Drysdale also trains Time Star, winner of the Golden Gate Handicap and undefeated in three starts in this country.

Special Price is running for only the seventh time in the last two years.

A win Sunday would send Sandpit over the $3-million mark in earnings. He’s had 12 wins and nine seconds in 29 starts, and despite four wins and three seconds in nine races last year, didn’t win a division title, something that sticks in the craw of his owner, Sergio Coutinho de Menezes, and his jockey, Corey Nakatani.

“He was the best [grass] horse in the country last year,” Nakatani said. “Now I think he’s getting better with age.”

Horse Racing Notes

On the final weekend of the season, Hollywood Park is cramming four of its biggest races into Sunday’s card, which will have six stakes in all. Besides the Caesars, also on the schedule are the $500,000 Swaps for 3-year-olds, the $250,000 Vanity Handicap for fillies and mares and the $100,000 Hollywood Juvenile. Monday is closing day, with Del Mar opening Wednesday.

The return of Serena’s Song to California, where she hasn’t run since March, didn’t deter the trainers of Twice The Vice and Jewel Princess from running in the Vanity. Jewel Princess, who beat Serena’s Song by a neck at Churchill Downs in May with a five-pound edge, has the same weight advantage in the 1 1/8-mile Vanity. Serena’s Song is carrying 125 pounds, the same as her last race, and while that puzzles Ron Ellis, he’ll still try to beat her again with Twice The Vice, who is carrying 122 pounds. Others entered are Airistar, Borodislew, Top Rung and Real Connection. Serena’s Song is 8-5 on the morning line, with Twice The Vice 9-5 and Jewel Princess 5-2.

The 1 1/8-mile Swaps drew only five horses--Semoran, Slews Royal Son, Hesabull and the Wayne Lukas-trained Victory Speech and Prince Of Thieves. Victory Speech is 8-5 and Prince Of Thieves is 2-1.