Cup Has Been Running Under

Although there was an unexpected entry, boosting the field to seven, the 63rd running of the Hollywood Gold Cup is a prime example of how a racetrack can run a major race for a lot of money and still wonder where the horses will come from.

The Gold Cup, Hollywood Park’s premier race, was a hit from the start when Seabiscuit, en route to the horse-of-the-year title, won the inaugural in 1938. Since then, such horses as Challedon, Swaps, Ack Ack, Affirmed, Criminal Type, Cigar and Skip Away have used the Gold Cup as a building block toward national titles, but in recent years the track has struggled to assemble quality fields. Last year, only five horses ran and in 1999 there was a four-horse field, the smallest ever.

Martin Panza, Hollywood Park’s racing secretary, and other track hierarchy have tweaked the Gold Cup every way possible in an attempt to bolster the 1 1/4-mile race. For a number of years, and as recently as 2000, the stake was worth $1 million. For a time, during the short-lived, ill-fated run of the American Championship Racing Series, the Gold Cup was part of a multi-race bonus series. Another bonus, coupled with winning the Santa Anita Handicap and the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, came and went in the mid-1990s. In 1997, the Gold Cup was changed from a handicap to a weight-for-age race, which prevented horses from possibly giving away gobs of weight to their opposition.

“Then this year,” said Allen Gutterman, vice president of marketing at Hollywood Park, “we tried to get away from the Stephen Foster by scheduling our race a little later.”

The $750,000 Gold Cup will be run Sunday, the July 14 date the latest for the race since 1986. Since 1973, 23 of the 29 Gold Cups have been run in June, but that month became less attractive when Churchill Downs, now Hollywood’s parent company, made a quantum jump in the purse of the Stephen Foster from $150,000 to $750,000 in 1998. The Foster, the biggest mid-year race for older dirt horses in Kentucky, has been a June fixture on the racing calendar.

Still, even though the eight-horse Foster was run a month ago, the Gold Cup has lured only Dollar Bill, who ran a distant second to Street Cry at Churchill Downs. Although he is 6-1, the fourth choice, on the morning line, Dollar Bill is no drawing card, having lost nine of his last 10 starts, usually at short prices, and frustrated die-hard bettors all over the country.

During the window that began in mid-May and runs through Aug. 3 with the running of the $750,000 Whitney at Saratoga, there are six races worth $3.5 million for this division of horses. Actually, those numbers are down from last year, what with the cancellation of the Pimlico Special in Maryland, but nevertheless the pool of top horses is small and it would be a mathematical contradiction if any of these races came up with overflow fields.

“It’s a job keeping these horses together for an entire year,” trainer Craig Dollase said. “Many of them drop by the wayside because of injuries.”

Dollase, who finished first in last year’s Gold Cup before the stewards disqualified his Futural and moved Aptitude into the winner’s circle, is running a 4-1 shot, Momentum, this time. The 8-5 favorite is Milwaukee Brew, the Santa Anita Handicap winner who prepped for the Gold Cup with a win over Momentum and others in the Californian at Hollywood on June 15. Sunday’s field grew by one when Dig For It, an optional-claiming winner June 6, was entered.

The Santa Anita Handicap, which is run in April, is more likely to draw more horses than either the Gold Cup or Del Mar’s Pacific Classic, which comes up in August. Milwaukee Brew beat 13 horses in this year’s Big ‘Cap, and in the last 10 years the Santa Anita race has averaged 9.5 starters, about 2.5 more per race than the Gold Cup.

Dollase’s reference to attrition is well-founded. Of the 14 horses that ran in the Big ‘Cap, only three--Milwaukee Brew; the speedy Sky Jack, who is 9-5, and longshot Dig For It--are running in the Gold Cup. None of last year’s Gold Cup horses are back for the renewal. Futural, a modest 3-1 favorite in the Big ‘Cap, ran 12th and has continued on a downward spiral. Dollase lost the 6-year-old gelding to another trainer on an $80,000 claim at Hollywood a month ago, and Sunday, the horse was unable to win on the California fair circuit.

Street Cry, Lido Palace and Macho Uno, who could have added luster to the Gold Cup, are based in the East, involved in campaigns that include the Whitney and rich September stakes at Belmont Park. The 3-year-olds, who sometimes enhance the Pacific Classic--two of them, Best Pal and General Challenge, won the Del Mar race--are a couple months away from stepping up to face older horses. A 3-year-old hasn’t run in the Gold Cup in 30 years, not since Quack ran a stakes-record 1:58 1/5 under 115 pounds.

“I don’t know why trainers don’t ship out here as much as our guys go back there, but that’s the way it is,” Dollase said. “Maybe it’s because the guys back east don’t have that much luck out here.”

Skip Away was an invader when he won the 1998 Gold Cup, and so was Sultry Song in 1992, but the roster of winners is mostly dotted with hometown horses. Cigar, the 1995 winner, came from Belmont, but he was a horse for any course, and was actually returning to the stamping grounds where he failed as a grass runner early in his career.

“We’ll just have to keep trying to be more creative,” Gutterman said.

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The Hollywood Gold Cup will be run as Sunday’s fifth race. The third race, the $500,000 Swaps, drew seven horses, including favored Came Home, who’ll be ridden by somebody other than the retired Chris McCarron when Mike Smith takes over. Others entered in the Swaps are Tracemark, Gobi Dan, Sugar Babe, Battler Bob, Like A Hero and Fonz’s.... In another stake on the card, the $200,000 A Gleam Handicap for fillies and mares, Kalookan Queen, with 122 pounds, is the high weight in a field of 10.

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*--* Gold Cup Field The field, in post-position order, for Sunday’s $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup. Post time: 3:30 p.m., ESPN2. First post: 1:15 p.m. Distance: 1 1/4 miles Horse Jockey Trainer Odds MACANEO Patrick Valenzuela Roger Stein 30-1 MOMENTUM Garrett Gomez Craig Dollase 4-1 DOLLAR BILL Mark Guidry Dallas Stewart 6-1 DIG FOR IT Alex Solis Bruce Headley 15-1 SKY JACK Laffit Pincay Doug O’Neill 9-5 MILWAUKEE BREW Kent Desormeaux Bobby Frankel 8-5 OUT OF MIND Eddie Delahoussaye Richard Mandella 10-1 Purse distribution: First place, $450,000; second, $150,000; third, $90,000; fourth, $45,000; fifth, $15,000. Note: All horses carry 124 pounds

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