Big Three Could Be Headed for a Gold Cup Showdown

The matchup of the three best older horses in the country, seemingly an impossibility as recently as a week ago, now appears probable in the $1-million Hollywood Gold Cup on June 28.

Skip Away and Gentlemen were already going to run in the 1 1/4-mile race at Hollywood Park, and Friday, trainer Bob Baffert said Silver Charm probably will join them.

“If the trip from Kentucky doesn’t take anything out of him, and if he works good next week, he’ll run,” Baffert said.

Silver Charm, beaten by Awesome Again last Saturday in the Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs, will ship in, along with Real Quiet, Indian Charlie and several other Baffert horses on Sunday. Baffert said Silver Charm is scheduled for a five-furlong workout Tuesday at Santa Anita, with Gary Stevens, his regular jockey, standing by to ride him in the Gold Cup.

Stevens also rides Gentlemen, and Stevens’ agent, Ron Anderson, said if Silver Charm runs in the Gold Cup, Corey Nakatani will take the assignment on Gentlemen. Richard Mandella, who trains Gentlemen, said a decision about a rider will be made later.

Skip Away, winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic at Hollywood Park and later named best older horse for 1997 by Eclipse awards voters, has been increasing his hefty purse total while running in the East. Undefeated in four starts this year, Skip Away pushed his earnings to $8.3 million with a victory in the Massachusetts Handicap on May 30. The record, $185 less than $10 million, is held by retired Cigar.

Silver Charm, voted best 3-year-old last year after winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, started this season with a second-place finish in the Malibu at Santa Anita, then racked up three consecutive wins, among them the $4-million Dubai World Cup on March 28.

Sonny Hine, who trains Skip Away, and Baffert have been trading jibes in recent weeks over who has the best horse and who has been ducking whom in the big races.

“If Skip Away’s ever going to beat us, it’s now,” Baffert said Friday. “He’s there [fully prepared], while we’re just getting there. I didn’t have Silver Charm cranked up for the [Foster]. The race was almost like a workout for him. But Bob Lewis [Silver Charm’s co-owner] and I talked a couple of days ago and decided that this was a good spot to really get him going again.”

Silver Charm has never run against Skip Away and Gentlemen, and Gentlemen and Skip Away have raced only once, when Gentlemen beat Hine’s horse by half a length in the Pimlico Special in May 1997.

Gentlemen, who won last year’s Gold Cup, was scheduled to race Silver Charm in the Santa Anita Handicap last March, but Baffert scratched his colt the day before the race because of a bruised foot. Gentlemen, a victim of pulmonary bleeding, then ran last, at 1-20 odds, in a four-horse field. Malek, also trained by Mandella, won the race.

Baffert runs his training operations at Santa Anita and Churchill Downs, and he has never run Silver Charm at Hollywood Park. Hubbard, board chairman at Hollywood, infuriated Baffert when he wrote an article in the Daily Racing Form last month, criticizing Churchill Downs for jacking up the Stephen Foster purse from $500,000 to $750,000 to get Silver Charm to run.

“The truth is, I told Churchill we were running when that purse was still at $500,000,” Baffert said. “I think Hubbard shot himself in the foot with that [article]. He’s surrounded by people who don’t know racing, and I think he got bad advice. Hollywood Park ought to spend a few days at Churchill Downs to see how to really run a track. At Churchill, they let the racing people make the racing decisions.”

Baffert said Hubbard’s article is one of the reasons he probably will skip the $500,000 Swaps at Hollywood to run Real Quiet, this year’s Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, in the $1-million Haskell Invitational Handicap at Monmouth Park. The Swaps is July 19 and the Haskell Aug. 9.

“If they sweetened the pot for the Swaps, we might consider it,” Baffert said. “What’s wrong with a track putting up extra money to get the top horses? It’s like anything else, you have to pay extra to get the best. These horses turn these tracks into great places again. Look at what Cigar did for little Suffolk Downs, and then the same thing happened when they got Skip Away this year.”

Horse Racing Notes

Skip Away, scheduled for a gallop around Belmont Park on Friday, gave trainer Sonny Hine a scare. A horse cut in front of Skip Away, who tossed his rider and took off. He ran about seven furlongs before stopping, then stood on the track for about 10 minutes. Hine said Skip Away was not injured. He will complete his work for the Gold Cup at Belmont and ship to Hollywood Park late next week.

Silver Charm earned $159,900 for finishing second in the Stephen Foster. That’s only $10,100 less than Victory Gallop earned for finishing second in this year’s Kentucky Derby. . . . The Gold Cup was already expected to have a small field, and the addition of Silver Charm would definitely discourage other trainers.