Card Comes Up Short

After a long weekend of full fields and interesting turf races, things are back to normal today at Hollywood Park.

Short fields have been the rule rather than the exception during the first three weeks of the fall meet and only two races on this afternoon’s card have more than 10 entrants.

Only 32 horses are scheduled to run in the first five races, but things do pick up in the sixth and seventh as 10 2-year-old maiden claimers will go to the post in the former and 10 older California breds will run 11/16 miles on the turf in the latter.

Heading into the second half of the meet, jockey Alex Solis tops the rider standings with 15 victories, three more than Laffit Pincay Jr., Tyler Baze and Kent Desormeaux.

Bob Baffert, who had a rare down meet at Oak Tree, is running away in the trainers’ race. A winner of the training title here in the fall of 1999, Baffert has 14 wins from his first 44 starters, leaving him eight victories ahead of Bobby Frankel, the defending champion. Doug O’Neill is third with five victories and Bill Spawr, who led the Oak Tree meet for a second consecutive year, Paul Aguirre and Barry Abrams all have four wins.

Solis, seeking his eighth riding title at Hollywood Park, has five mounts today. He will ride Song Of Bernadette for O’Neill in the first, Para Alquilar in the second, Ancient Traveler in the third, Yukon Charley in the fourth and Bartko in the sixth.

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Race of the day: The seventh is the best in terms of quality and also has a sizable field. Contenders include General Store, who broke his maiden over the local turf course for trainer Dave Hofmans; Bastion, who ran extremely well over the layout during the spring-summer meet for trainer Nick Hines; Vixen Storm, third as a longshot in the California Cup Classic, and California Sage, a troubled second in his most recent who gets a jockey change to Desormeaux.

Who’s hot: Todd Pletcher. The trainer, a former assistant to Wayne Lukas, is one of the best in the country, and he is red hot these days. He won two graded stakes Saturday, including the Grade I Cigar Mile with Left Bank, and had scored with five of his last 11 runners at Aqueduct going into today’s action.

Who’s not: Gay Slewpy. The gelded son of Slewpy hasn’t come close in seven starts, so why is he running in today’s seventh at Hollywood Park, the aforementioned allowance race on the turf?

Exotically speaking: A pick three using Big Team Spirit and Apalachee Ridge in the third, singling Jive Talking in the fourth and using Shining Britely, Lunette and Hot Kitty in the fifth.

Winners: Previous Day/Meet Total: 5/33. Money: Previous Day/Meet Total: $36.20/$187.60. Total money bet: $262.