General Challenge Heads Swaps, Latest Big Race With a Small Field

For the third time in its 26-year history, only four horses will run in the Swaps Stakes, Hollywood Park’s signature race for 3-year-olds.

The reasons for the small field this time are Triple Crown attrition and General Challenge, who shook off a hard-luck 11th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby to win the Affirmed Handicap at Hollywood last month.

General Challenge, winner of the Santa Anita Derby, warmed up for Sunday’s $500,000 race by working six furlongs in a blistering 1:09 4/5 at Santa Anita on Tuesday. The other starters in the Swaps are Desert Hero, who finished second, two lengths back, in the Affirmed, Cat Thief and Walk That Walk.

The Swaps, first run in 1974, has a history of small fields, but the only times just four horses showed up were at the start of the decade. In 1990, Jovial won the race as Stalwart Charger, the 3-5 favorite, ran third; and the next year favored Best Pal was a four-length winner.

Hollywood Park’s major race for older horses, the $1-million Hollywood Gold Cup, also drew only four horses, with Real Quiet winning that stake. Both General Challenge and Real Quiet are trained by Bob Baffert, who will saddle Excellent Meeting, the 3-5 morning-line favorite, in today’s Hollywood Oaks for 3-year-old fillies.

Baffert said Friday that Silverbulletday, his other top 3-year-old filly, will miss a week of training at Churchill Downs after she kicked herself in the right foreleg while winning last Saturday’s Monmouth Oaks in New Jersey.

“When she gets back to training, we’ll figure out what to do with her next,” Baffert said. “It’ll either be the Haskell [a $1-million race at Monmouth Aug. 8] or the Alabama [a $400,000 race restricted to fillies at Saratoga on Aug. 21].”

After Sunday, Baffert would also like to ship General Challenge to Saratoga, for the Jim Dandy Stakes and the Travers in August, but the California-bred gelding is more likely to try older horses in the $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 29. John Mabee, who races General Challenge with his wife, Betty, is board chairman at Del Mar.

Horse Racing Notes

The Swaps is part of the meet-ending weekend at Hollywood Park. Also on Sunday’s card are the $250,000 Sunset Handicap, the $100,000 Hollywood Juvenile and the $100,000 Answer Do Stakes, and on Monday, closing day, the $100,000 Robert Kerlan Memorial Handicap will be run. . . . The winners of the 1999 Eclipse awards, including horse of the year, will be announced at a dinner at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 17.