Hollywood Trainers Are Busy

Some of the trainers running horses in today’s opening-day stake at Hollywood Park can be excused if their minds--and perhaps even their bodies--are elsewhere. Bobby Frankel, Bob Baffert and Jim Cassidy are involved in getting horses ready for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 4.

Meantime, Frankel will try to win today’s $75,000 Harry Henson with the probable favorite, Six Hitter, whose owner, Edmund Gann, will have one of the favorites for the Derby in the Frankel-trained Medaglia d’Oro. Frankel--notorious for piling up wins in the second half of the year, as he did in 2001 when he totaled 36 graded stakes wins and 18 Grade I’s--is off to an uncharacteristically fast start with 11 graded wins, most in the country.

Other Kentucky Derby trainers with horses in the Henson are Baffert, who’s running Ecstatic at Hollywood for the Thoroughbred Corp., the same outfit that recently bought War Emblem for a shot in Louisville; and Cassidy, who trains Henson contender Irish Vale for the same group of owners who race Ocean Sound, a Derby longshot.

The Henson, named after the late track announcer who called the races for 25 years, is the centerpiece for the opener of a 65-date Hollywood meet that runs through July 21. Sometime early in the season Laffit Pincay Jr. is expected to ride his 3,000th winner at the Inglewood track. Pincay, 55 and riding better than ever, will take off to ride Medaglia d’Oro in the Derby. He has won 506 races, lifting his record total to 9,340, since he broke Bill Shoemaker’s career mark of 8,833 with a win at Hollywood on Dec. 10, 1999. Pincay, with 2,970 wins, is far ahead of everybody on the Hollywood victory list.

Hollywood will reintroduce Friday-night racing this season, running all but one of its Fridays--May 3--under the lights.

Last year, in an energy-saving measure, the track scuttled the Friday nights after running only one. Subsequent twilight cards on Fridays were unsuccessful.

The first weekend includes 12 stakes races, 10 of them on Sunday in the third annual Gold Rush day, a 10-race, $1.3-million card for California-breds.

The $250,000 Cal Fed Snow Chief Stakes might be the richest race of the day, but the most intriguing is the $175,000 Khaled, at 11/16 miles on the grass. Among the probables are Spinelessjellyfish, who’s trying to win the race for the third consecutive year; Fit For A King, who has won seven in a row; Native Desert, the overachieving former $32,000 claimer who, at the age of 9, has earned $1.6 million; and Hugh Hefner, who beat both Spinelessjellyfish and Native Desert last month at Santa Anita.

Besides the return to Friday nights, other changes this season are the first running of the American Oaks, a $500,000 race for 3-year-old fillies at 11/4 miles on grass July 6; and the July 14 pairing of the Swaps, Hollywood’s premier dirt race for 3-year-olds, with the 63rd running of the Hollywood Gold Cup, the richest race of the meet at $750,000. By running the Gold Cup toward the end of the meet, the race is less likely to collide with the Stephen Foster Handicap, also a $750,000 race for older horses, at Hollywood’s parent track, Churchill Downs, on June 15.

For the first time, bettors who receive the Television Games Network (TVG) will be able to watch the Hollywood races on cable and bet at home via telephone or the Internet. TVG will carry all the Hollywood races, and two hours of that programming will be shown daily on Fox Sports Net and Fox Sports Net 2. The Fox coverage, which begins at 3 p.m., will switch to 7 p.m. for the Friday-night cards.

The Thoroughbred Owners of California signed a contract Tuesday with Hollywood Park that clears the way for the merger of TVG’s coverage with the network’s home betting system. Horsemen receive a share, in purses, of the money bet with TVG. Youbet, another state-licensed betting company, also has a contract with the TOC.

“A big factor in getting together,” said John Van de Kamp, president of the TOC, “was the broad distribution that TVG will get over Fox. We’d like to see more, naturally, but this is a step in the right direction.”

Phone betting was legalized in California at the start of the year.

Chris McCarron exercised two Kentucky Derby horses Tuesday at Churchill Downs. Came Home, the Santa Anita Derby winner and McCarron’s mount in the Kentucky Derby, worked six furlongs in 1:12 3/5, which was more than a second faster than his trainer, Paco Gonzalez, had wanted. McCarron also worked Ocean Sound, the third-place finisher in the Blue Grass, who was timed in 1:28 1/5 for seven furlongs. Alex Solis will ride Ocean Sound in the Derby.... Medaglia d’Oro, who may be the third betting choice in the Derby, behind Harlan’s Holiday and Buddha, worked five furlongs in 1:01 2/5.

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*--* Hollywood Park at a Glance Meet: Today-July 21 (65 days) Post Times: 1:15 p.m. Wednesday- Thursday, Saturday-Sunday and May 27; 7 p.m. Friday, except May 3 (1:15 p.m.) Highlights: California Gold Rush Day (Sunday), $200,000 Milady Breeders’ Cup Handicap (May 25), $500,000 Gamely Breeders’ Cup Handicap (May 27), $500,000 Shoemaker Breeders’ Cup Mile (May 27), $350,000 Charlie Whittingham Memorial Handicap (June 15), $250,000 Vanity Handicap (June 22), $500,000 American Oaks (July 6), $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup (July 14) and $500,000 Swaps Stakes (July 14) Leading Trainer (2001 Meet): Jack Carava (22 wins) Leading Jockey (2001 Meet): Laffit Pincay Jr. (64 wins)

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