Desormeaux Remains on a Roll, Winning the Hollywood Turf

This Kent Desormeaux hot streak is getting out of hand. The forest rangers need to be called in to put out this fire.

Everything Desormeaux touches turns to platinum. Now he’s passing up stakes winners to ride other stakes winners on the same day, which is what happened Monday at Hollywood Park. Instead of riding Wild Rush, who won the $500,000 Metropolitan Handicap for Jerry Bailey at Belmont Park, Desormeaux stayed home in California and found the wire with Storm Trooper in the $400,000 Hollywood Turf Handicap.

Desormeaux also won Sunday’s $100,000 Los Angeles Handicap with Gold Land. Not bad for a guy who’s just killing a few days, waiting to head for New York where he’ll try to sweep the Triple Crown with Real Quiet in the Belmont Stakes on June 6.

“I had a chance to ride horses [Monday] that could win the Breeders’ Cup Sprint [Wild Rush] and the Breeders’ Cup Turf [Storm Trooper],” Desormeaux said. “There was really no choice between Wild Rush and Storm Trooper. Although I had won with him last time [the Carter Handicap the day after his winning Derby ride on Real Quiet], I was committed to Storm Trooper some time ago.”

Both Gold Land and Storm Trooper are trained by Neil Drysdale, who is as hot among trainers as Desormeaux is in the jockey ranks. Drysdale was in Europe over the weekend, attending the wedding of a nephew and visiting a sister. He had won the Turf Handicap twice before, most recently with Political Ambition in 1988.

That was the year that the race was changed from 1 1/2 to 1 1/4 miles, Monday’s paceless running was one of the slowest at the current distance. Storm Trooper’s time of 2:03 was the slowest since Steinlen won with the same clocking in 1990.

“The pace was a due concern,” Desormeaux said. “When I had an opportunity at the half-mile pole, I jumped on it.”

The late-running River Bay, the even-money favorite even though he hadn’t run since winning the Hollywood Turf Cup in December, finished second and Prize Giving, another Drysdale runner, was third.

Storm Trooper, who races for Prince Fahd Salman of Saudi Arabia and David Thompson’s Cheveley Park Stud in England, earned $240,000 for his seventh victory in 21 starts. The 5-year-old paid $10 as the second choice, carrying 117 pounds, four less than the top-weighted River Bay.

Bobby Frankel saddled River Bay and Six Zero, who finished fourth. “I should have sent [Six Zero],” Frankel said. “The pace was too slow.”

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Grand Slam became a candidate for the Belmont Stakes after his two-length win Sunday in the Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park.

“I’ll look at the Belmont for six or eight days,” said Wayne Lukas, who trains Grand Slam. “This is a giant step forward for us. Big time. There’s no question that he has an affinity for Belmont Park.”

Grand Slam was won all four starts at Belmont and is winless in four races at other tracks. The 1 1/8-mile Peter Pan was the colt’s first victory since he won the Champagne seven months ago. Grand Slam was sidelined until late March after suffering a tendon injury in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Hollywood Park in November.

Grand Slam’s winning time was a slow 1:49 on a fast track. Rubiyat, who finished second, is not likely to come back in the Belmont. Parade Ground, third Sunday, is still possible for the Belmont. Dice Dancer, fourth as the Peter Pan favorite, won’t be among the horses that try to block Real Quiet’s bid for a Triple Crown sweep.

Hanuman Highway was scratched from the Peter Pan and his status for the Belmont is uncertain. Seventh in the Kentucky Derby after running second to Victory Gallop in the Arkansas Derby, Hanuman Highway came back from a Saturday gallop with heat and a slight pulsating in his right front foot, something that also flared up after the Kentucky Derby.

In other Belmont developments, Orville N Wilbur’s may be shipped to New York for the race and Victory Gallop, second to Real Quiet in the Derby and the Preakness, is being treated for a large rash at Belmont Park.

Orville N Wilbur’s, fourth in the Santa Anita Derby and disqualified from second to third in the Illinois Derby, will work Thursday at Hollywood Park and then trainer Wally Dollase will decide.

“He had a breathing problem in the Santa Anita Derby,” Dollase said, “and an equipment change corrected that in the Illinois Derby.”

Other horses expected to run in the Belmont are Classic Cat, Yarrow Brae, Limit Out, Thomas Jo and perhaps Hot Wells. If Grand Slam runs, he and Yarrow Brae would give Lukas two starters.

Horse Racing Notes

Distorted Humor, the 6-5 favorite in the Metropolitan, couldn’t handle the muddy going and finished fifth. Despite the off track, Wild Rush ran the mile in a dazzling 1:33 2/5. The winner, who paid $11.40, is trained by Richard Mandella. Banker’s Gold finished second, beaten by two lengths, and Accelerator was third and Frisk Me Now fourth. . . . Jockey Eddie Maple, who rode two Belmont Stakes winners (Temperence Hill and Creme Fraiche), announced his retirement, ending a 33-year riding career with 4,398 wins.

In another stake at Hollywood Park, trainer Noble Threewitt, 87, and jockey Laffit Pincay, 51, teamed to win the $70,860 Harry Henson Stakes with Old Topper. Old Topper gave Pincay three wins in a row on the card. Pincay has 8,613 wins, which leaves him 220 short of Bill Shoemaker’s record. The late Harry Henson, who called races for 44 years at Hollywood, retiring in the mid-1980s, rode Threewitt’s first winner, Crackerjack, at Caliente in 1932. . . . Sea Twister, making his second start for trainer Brian Mayberry, won the $66,560 Westchester Stakes for 2-year-olds.