Entry Figures to Be Favored in Turf Cup

Although Lazy Lode has won the Hollywood Turf Cup the last two years, the 6-year-old Argentine-bred is not expected to be favored Saturday in the 20th edition of the 1 1/2-mile grass race.

A three-horse entry, with different trainers, will probably be favored in the $400,000 race. Heading the trio is trainer Paco Gonzalez’s Bienamado, who was favored in the Arlington Million in August but injured his back while running fourth in suburban Chicago. The rest of the entry, coupled because of overlapping ownership, consists of Single Empire, trained by Neil Drysdale and third in last year’s Turf Cup, and trainer Steve Asmussen’s Vergennes, who has recovered from a series of foot injuries to be able to run.

Until Lazy Lode, the only double winner of the Turf Cup had been Alphabatim, who was first at Hollywood Park in 1984 and 1986. Lazy Lode has run only once since winning the stake last year, finishing fourth in a one-mile allowance Nov. 18, and when trainer Richard Mandella was unsure of his horse’s status several days ago, Laffit Pincay took the mount on Single Empire. Pincay won the Turf Cup on Lazy Lode last year after Corey Nakatani had ridden him to victory the year before.

With Pincay riding for Drysdale, Brice Blanc will ride Lazy Lode for the first time. This is the field, in post-position order:

Res Judicata, Alex Solis; Binn Tin Tin, Corey Nakatani; Lazy Lode, Brice Blanc; Perssonet, Eddie Delahoussaye; Bienamado, Chris McCarron; Lord Flasheart, Victor Espinoza; Single Empire, Pincay; Vergennes, Garrett Gomez; and Northern Quest, Gary Stevens.

Lazy Lode was trained by Wally Dollase when he won the Turf Cup for the first time, but wound up in Mandella’s barn when there was a split between Dollase and Prince Ahmed Salman’s Thoroughbred Corp., the owner of the horse. Under Mandella, Lazy Lode has won two of nine starts. Other than the Turf Cup, Lazy Lode’s only other stakes win in the last three years was the Jim Murray Memorial Handicap at Hollywood Park last year.

Bienamado, whose career began in Europe in a partnership involving Californians Trudy McCaffery and John Toffan and England’s Robert Sangster, won the Murray race this year, then won the tougher Sunset Handicap at Hollywood before his star-crossed run in the Arlington Million. McCarron, who has ridden Bienamado in both of his U.S. wins, will be back aboard as he seeks his eighth Turf Cup win. No other jockey has won the race more than twice.

Sangster also races Single Empire with Gary Tanaka, who is the outright owner of Vergennes. Well-traveled, Single Empire has run at five tracks while going winless in eight starts this year. His best races came early in the campaign when he finished second in the San Luis Rey and the San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita. A shipper from Churchill Downs, Vergennes hasn’t run in California since 1998, when Mark Hennig, his previous trainer, saddled him for a 17-1 upset over another longshot, Dixie Dot Com, in the Hollywood Derby. The only horse to combine wins in the Hollywood Derby and the Turf Cup has been Itsallgreektome, who swept both races for Dollase in 1990.

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Commendable, a $575,000 yearling purchase by Bob and Beverly Lewis, won two races during his 12-race career. One was a maiden event for sprinters at Del Mar in his debut in August 1999.

After that, Commendable’s losses began to pile up, the worst a 17th-place finish in this year’s Kentucky Derby. But by the time they ran the Belmont Stakes, in June, the 3-year-old division had fallen apart: Fusaichi Pegasus, the Derby winner, and Red Bullet, first in the Preakness, were both on the sidelines. At 18-1, in racing’s equivalent of a losers’ bracket, Commendable won a lackluster Belmont.

After the Belmont, the losses continued. Years from now, though, few will remember the horses behind Commendable in the Belmont. In fact, one of them, Unshaded, went on to win the Travers. Now Commendable has been retired, to Mill Ridge Farm in Lexington, Ky. His stud fee next year will be a modest $15,000.

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Aptitude, one of the horses Commendable beat in the Belmont, had an excuse for his eighth-place finish in the Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs. He ran with an entrapped epiglottis, which hampered his breathing, and he has undergone surgery to clear the way for his 4-year-old season in 2001.

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Two horse owners and five of the seven jockeys indicted in a race-fixing ring at Penn National have pleaded guilty, a week before their trial was scheduled to begin. The trial of another jockey is scheduled for January, and another of the accused riders is listed as a fugitive.

With the owners masterminding the schemes, the jockeys reportedly were paid between $400 and $1,000 to hold back horses in 15 races at the track, which is located near Harrisburg, Pa. Maximum penalties include imprisonment for five years and fines of $250,000.

Notes

Halo, who sired Kentucky Derby winners Sunny’s Halo and Sunday Silence, has died, possibly of a heart attack, at Stone Farm in Paris, Ky. He was 31 and had been retired as a stallion in 1997. Since 1900, the only stallions with more than two Derby winners have been Sir Gallahad III, who sired Gallant Fox, Gallahadion and Hoop Jr., and Bull Lea, whose winners were Citation, Hill Gail and Iron Liege. . . . Caffe Latte, winner of the Ramona Handicap at Del Mar but more recently sixth in the Matriarch at Hollywood Park, has been retired. . . . The San Carlos and Ancient Title Handicaps at Santa Anita have been upgraded to Grade I status for next year. . . . Kent Desormeaux is in Japan, riding in an international jockey competition. . . . Cigar holds the record for earnings in the United States, with $9,999,815, but in Japan, T.M. Opera O has passed him with $11 million. T.M. Opera O earned $2.2 million for his win in the Japan Cup. The 4-year-old colt was bought as a yearling for $83,000. He’ll run one more time this year and is expected to be back in 2001. . . . Macho Uno and Point Given, the 1-2 finishers in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, are listed at 12-1 for the Kentucky Derby by the Flamingo Hilton in Las Vegas. That makes sense, because a Breeders’ Cup winner has never won the Derby. But why is A P Valentine 10-1? He ran last in the Juvenile and suffered a shin injury.