Oaks Is Drawing a Crowd

In racing, which is saturated with stakes races, a track can ante up $500,000 or $750,000 and still not be overrun with horses, but Hollywood Park was actually in the position of turning away runners for its fledgling American Oaks, which will be run for the second time Saturday.

“This year,” said Martin Panza, racing secretary at Hollywood Park, “we could have invited 16 or 18 horses, if we had the turf course that could accommodate that many.”

In a good year, Panza said, a track might be fortunate if it averages seven or eight runners a stake, but for the second consecutive year the American Oaks has drawn a capacity field of 14, several of them European fillies who will be tested over U.S. grass for the first time.

On a day when Hollywood Park is offering a guaranteed $1-million pool for its pick six, the Oaks, which is the fifth race on the card and the opening leg of the pick six, is a handicapper’s conundrum. Russ Hudak, who makes the morning line at the track, installed the Santa Anita-based Santa Catarina as the favorite at 7-2.

The credit for inventing the 1 1/4-mile American Oaks goes to Panza, who in 2002 sold track management on putting up $500,000 for a race for 3-year-old fillies on grass.

“I wanted to come up with a race that would be important on the international map, and be attractive to U.S. horses back East as well,” Panza said. “We didn’t have a multimillion-dollar purse to throw around like they do for the Dubai World Cup and the Japan Cup, so we had to look for a division where we might have a chance.”

Other countries have turf races for 3-year-old fillies, but already, as the American Oaks purse has increased to $750,000, Hollywood Park is staging the richest.

“I believe the English Oaks and the French Oaks are worth about $600,000 apiece,” Panza said. “There aren’t many races in the world like the one we’re offering for this division.”

Last fall, Panza visited England and France to promote the American Oaks. He went to Japan in February, and the following month he was in Florida.

“You need for them to connect your face to your name,” he said. “In a year or two, we hope to have at least one filly from Japan running in our race. We hope to get horses from New Zealand and Australia. What will help, next year, is to have the race graded for the first time. We’re shooting for a Grade I listing.”

New races must wait for two years until they are considered by the North American Graded Stakes Committee. The highest of three grades is Grade I designation. Hollywood Park will have run seven Grade I’s by the time the season ends July 20. The last two are the $300,000 Triple Bend Handicap, also scheduled for Saturday, and the Hollywood Gold Cup on July 13.

Starting in 1990, the Gold Cup has been a $1-million race nine times, but two years ago, for the second time, the purse was reduced to $750,000 and that’s what the older dirt horses will be running for this year.

For some, the inaugural American Oaks will be memorable for the wrong reasons. Dublino was the first-place finisher, by a half-length, but she and her jockey, Kent Desormeaux, were disqualified by the stewards to second place for interference in the stretch and Megahertz was declared the winner.

Laura de Seroux, who trains Dublino, and Desormeaux will try to register a win that sticks Saturday when the Irish-bred Liska makes her first start outside of France.

Liska, with one victory in three starts, is 15-1 on the morning line, and De Seroux’s other filly, Golden Nepi, is 20-1 after notching three victories, five seconds and two thirds in 11 starts in Italy.

Golden Nepi ran fifth as the favorite in the Italian Oaks on May 18.

The most dangerous of the foreign contingent is the Irish shipper Dimitrova, who is the 9-2 second choice. Dimitrova, who will be ridden by Patrick Smullen, trainer Dermot Weld’s stable jockey since 1999, will break from the No. 10 post as she shoots for her third victory in six starts and first victory beyond a mile. Dimitrova drew the No. 10 post and Atlantic Ocean will break from No. 2. Should Dimitrova win, neither Smullen nor Weld will need a map to the winner’s circle. They were there in December, when Weld saddled Dress To Thrill for her victory in the Matriarch.

*

The American Handicap, which headlines today’s holiday card, was won in 1960 by William T. Pascoe III’s Prize Host. Pascoe, who was 87, died last week at his home in Corona del Mar. He was one of the founders of the Oak Tree Racing Assn., was a former chairman of the Bay Meadows track and once headed the California Thoroughbred Breeders Assn. ... At 118 pounds each, Avanzado and Joey Franco are the high weights for the Triple Bend. ... A 1 1/16-mile allowance on Saturday’s card has drawn Sky Jack, winless since last year’s Hollywood Gold Cup, and General Challenge, who has earned $2.7 million and hasn’t won since the 2000 Santa Anita Handicap. They’re both 7-year-old geldings. ... Redattore won’t make the Gold Cup because of a bruised foot. ... Julie Krone, recovering from a back injury, has been exercising horses and plans to return before the end of the meet.

*

Hollywood Park

The post times for the holiday weekend:

* Today -- 1:20 p.m. (special holiday matinee)

* Saturday -- 12:30 p.m. (special early post for American Oaks day)

* Sunday -- 1:20 p.m.