Swaps Gets an Infusion of Speed

Just because Old Trieste and Old Topper are running Sunday in the $500,000 Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park doesn’t mean the race will be a rerun of last month’s Affirmed Handicap.

Far from it. The Affirmed drew only four horses, and Old Trieste’s three rivals allowed him to grab an easy early lead, a prelude to a 4 1/2-length win. In the 1 1/8-mile Swaps, which is a sixteenth of a mile farther than the Affirmed, there are a couple of new faces--Grand Slam and Shot Of Gold--that also have early speed.

Noble Threewitt, who trains the late-running Old Topper, hopes that Grand Slam and Shot Of Gold will keep Old Trieste busy, giving his colt more of a chance to uncork a come-from-behind move. In his last five starts at Hollywood, Old Topper has registered two wins and three seconds, including his runner-up finish behind Old Trieste in the Affirmed.

Trainer Bob Baffert, saving Real Quiet for the $1-million Haskell at Monmouth Park on Aug. 9, will run Shot Of Gold in the Swaps. Shot Of Gold, owned by George Jacobs and Matt Young, the former major league pitcher, used his speed to reel off three straight wins (one a dead heat) at the recently completed Churchill Downs meet. The Swaps, however, will be Shot Of Gold’s first test beyond 1 1/16 miles.

Grand Slam, trained by Wayne Lukas, will be making his first Hollywood Park appearance since he severely cut his left hind leg in last November’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. His career once in jeopardy, Grand Slam has returned to win the Peter Pan at Belmont Park in May before running seventh in last month’s Belmont Stakes.

The Swaps is part of Hollywood Park’s closing weekend, which includes Saturday’s guaranteed $1.5-million pick six and two other Sunday stakes--the $350,000 Sunset Handicap and the $100,000 Hollywood Juvenile. The meet ends Monday, when the $100,000 Robert K. Kerlan Memorial Handicap will be run.

The field for the Swaps lines up this way, with jockeys and weights:

Old Trieste, Chris McCarron, 118 pounds; Shot Of Gold, Gary Stevens, 116; Old Topper, Laffit Pincay, 116; Lord Smith, Eddie Delahoussaye, 116; Grand Slam, Jerry Bailey, 120; and Availability, Kent Desormeaux, 118.

Trainer Bobby Frankel will saddle two of the six grass runners in the 1 1/2-mile Sunset, including the high-weighted River Bay, who will carry 121 pounds. The French import’s last two well-spaced starts have been in Hollywood Park’s two major grass stakes--a win in December’s Hollywood Turf Cup and a second, behind Storm Trooper, in the Hollywood Turf Handicap on May 25.

Frankel’s other entrant is Star Performance, winless in five starts in the U.S., including three this year, but who was second to Amerique in the San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita in April.

Star Performance drew the rail, and outside him in the gate, in order, will be Lazy Lode, River Bay, Devonwood, Big Sky Jim and Amerique. Star Performance and Amerique are next to River Bay in the weights at 115 pounds apiece.

Lukas has won the Juvenile six times, the first in 1978, with the filly Terlingua, and the most recent with K.O. Punch last year. Lukas takes a shot Sunday with Yes It’s True, an $800,000 March buy who was undefeated in three starts before he ran second to his stablemate, Time Bandit, in the Bashford Manor Stakes at Churchill Downs three weeks ago.

Bailey will ride Yes It’s True for the first time since he helped the colt break his maiden at Keeneland in April. This is the eight-horse lineup for the Juvenile: Buck Trout, Yes It’s True, Sea Twister, Waki American, Yosemite, Primary Action, O’Rey Fantasma and Worldly Manner.

Hollywood Park Notes

Exotic Wood’s second-place finish behind A.P. Assay in last month’s A Gleam Handicap was her last race. A tendon injury has forced the retirement of the 6-year-old mare, who will be bred to a stallion in Kentucky next year. . . .

For the first time since the program began in 1984, the Breeders’ Cup will be an eight-race day when it’s run next year at Gulfstream Park. The Breeders’ Cup has added a $1-million grass race for fillies and mares, which will be 1 3/8 miles at Gulfstream and then 1 1/4 miles in ensuing years.