Greenman Finds Greener Pastures

One day into the meeting and Hollywood Park has already been kinder to trainer Walter Greenman than was Oak Tree, which concluded Monday at Santa Anita.

Unable to reach the winner’s circle in Arcadia, Greenman won with his second starter of Hollywood Park’s 37-day fall season when 19-10 favorite Country Garden rallied to win the $77,650 Ridgewood Pearl Stakes on Wednesday.

A troubled second in her American debut in the Hidden Light on Oct. 16 at Santa Anita, the 2-year-old Selkirk filly won in 1:41 3/5 for the 1 1/16 miles on turf.

Ridden by Kent Desormeaux, Country Garden finished two lengths ahead of Hidden Light winner Czarina. Eastside Westside, who skipped the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies for this spot, was third, beaten by nearly three lengths as the 2-1 second choice under Gary Stevens.

“She’s a really, really nice horse,” said Desormeaux, who had been criticized by some for his ride on Eastside Westside when she was favored in the Oak Leaf last month. “I was very fortunate to be able to ride her today. It was an awkward situation, but, fortunately the racing gods were involved today.”

*

Besides the seven Breeders’ Cup races, entries were taken Wednesday morning for the three other races on Saturday’s card.

Madame Pandit, who has won three of her five starts at Hollywood Park, heads a field of six in the $100,000 Desert Stormer Handicap at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Named in honor of the mare who scored a major upset in the 1995 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, the Desert Stormer will be the first race on the program Saturday and post time will be 10 a.m.

Also in the field is Advancing Star, who failed to draw into the Breeders’ Cup Sprint; Raw Gold, Tiffany Diamond, Ivory Mint and Stop Traffic.

Trainer Richard Mandella, who won two supporting stakes in addition to two Breeders’ Cup races the last time the event was held in California in 1993, will send out both Advancing Star and Stop Traffic. The former has two wins and a second in three local races; the latter will be seeking her fourth consecutive victory.

After the Breeders’ Cup concludes with the Classic, there will be two more races at Hollywood Park--the $100,000 Hollywood Prevue Stakes at seven furlongs and the $150,000 Steinlen Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

Commitisize, who was only a neck behind Juvenile contender and stablemate Souvenir Copy, heads the field of six 2-year-olds in the Prevue. Owned by Mike Pegram and trained by Bob Baffert, he will be trying to rebound from a disappointing third-place finish as the 4-5 favorite in an allowance race last month at Santa Anita.

Search Me, Cape Town, Grady, Buttons N Moes and Oly Ogy will join the field.

Puissant, who has rattled off four consecutive wins since being purchased privately for $10,000 by owners George Hicker, Dan Robinson and Alex Venneri, will try for his first U.S. stakes win in the Steinlen. He will race coupled with Sharekann, and both are trained by Marty Jones.

Others in the race are Bienvenido, Mufattish, Boggle, Hawksley Hill, Tychonic, Via Lombardia, Old Chapel and Gastown.