Gentlemen Can Easily Find Skip Away at Gold Cup Post

Skip Away, the even-money favorite, and Gentlemen, the 7-5 second choice, drew post positions alongside each other when entries were drawn Thursday for Sunday’s $1-million Hollywood Gold Cup.

Eight horses were entered for the 1 1/4-mile race, including Budroyale, whose owner, Jeffrey Sengara, is paying a $25,000 supplementary fee to run. First place is worth $600,000, and a win by Skip Away would increase his earnings to $8.9 million, about $1 million less than record-holder Cigar, who was retired in 1996.

Skip Away, who arrived at Hollywood Park on Thursday after a flight from New York, drew the No. 2 post, with Gentlemen, the winner of last year’s Gold Cup, starting from No. 3. This is the lineup, starting at the rail, with jockeys and morning-line odds:

Floriselli, Corey Nakatani, 20-1; Skip Away, Jerry Bailey, even money; Gentlemen, Gary Stevens, 7-5; Bagshot, Alex Solis, 15-1; Budroyale, Matt Garcia, 15-1; Don’t Blame Rio, Frank Alvarado, 20-1; Puerto Madero, Kent Desormeaux, 7-5; and Mud Route, Chris McCarron, 6-1.

Gentlemen and Puerto Madero, who both race for Hollywood Park Chairman R.D. Hubbard, are coupled in the betting. Puerto Madero, second to Skip Away in the Massachusetts Handicap at Suffolk Downs last month, would have been 10-1 had he run separately.

The Gold Cup, formerly a handicap, is being run under weight-for-age conditions for the second year, and all horses will carry 124 pounds.