Harlan’s Holiday to Run in Hollywood Gold Cup

The 64th Hollywood Gold Cup received a needed boost when trainer Todd Pletcher scratched Harlan’s Holiday from Saturday’s Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park and said Sunday that he would ship the 4-year-old colt to California for next Saturday’s $750,000 race.

Instead of running Harlan’s Holiday as the second or third choice in the $500,000 Suburban, Pletcher worked the horse five furlongs in 1:01 on Sunday at Belmont and booked a Thursday flight to California. Neither Pletcher nor Harlan’s Holiday’s jockey, John Velazquez, has competed in the Gold Cup, which is shaping up as a six- or seven-horse race.

“I thought [the Gold Cup] would be a slightly easier race, and I like the two turns better,” Pletcher said. “The Suburban was one turn and started on the middle of a turn. Mineshaft [the Suburban winner] is a tough horse to take on right now, and the way he won, I think I made the right decision.”

The Gold Cup will be run at 1 1/4 miles, same distance as the Suburban. Other probable Gold Cup participants include Congaree, Kudos, Piensa Sonando, Western Pride and Golden Ticket. Rodion might also run. Jerry Bailey, who has journeyed to California to win the Gold Cup four times, has been selected to ride expected favorite Congaree. Bailey, who won two stakes at Santa Anita with Congaree earlier this year, replaces Gary Stevens, who is on Piensa Sonando after riding Congaree in his two most recent races.

Harlan’s Holiday has won nine of 20 starts and earned $3.4 million. Favored in last year’s Kentucky Derby, he ran seventh at Churchill Downs, and after a fourth-place finish in the Preakness, his owner, Jack Wolf, replaced trainer Ken McPeek with Pletcher. Since then, Harlan’s Holiday has won three of seven starts, including the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park in February. Since the Donn, Harlan’s Holiday finished second to Moon Ballad in the Dubai World Cup and over a sloppy track was last in a five-horse field in the Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont.

Less than half an hour apart, Pletcher won stakes races Sunday in New York and Kentucky. He saddled Strong Hope for a victory in the $150,000 Dwyer at Belmont, and then his Limehouse upset the 1-2 favorite, Cuvee, in the $150,000 Bashford Manor at Churchill Downs. Running third in the Dwyer was Sky Mesa, who won his three starts as a 2-year-old and was making his first start since an ankle injury knocked him out of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in October.

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Just Too Too remained undefeated, winning for the fifth time in the Flawlessly Stakes at Hollywood Park.... Doug O’Neill, leading trainer at Hollywood, won Saturday night’s $250,000 Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows with Excessivepleasure.... Also Saturday, trainer Laura de Seroux won the $219,200 Stars and Stripes Turf Handicap with Ballingarry at Arlington Park.... Former trainer Frank Olivares, 53, rode for the first time since 1990 and finished second with Laffit in Hollywood’s fifth race. Olivares is returning to a career that resulted in 1,775 victories.... Sarah Nelson, who’s seven years younger, beat the 11-year-old Black Ruby to win the $10,000 Mule Championship at the Pleasanton fair. Black Ruby finished third, only the second time she hasn’t been first or second in 62 official starts. She has won 53, had seven seconds and two thirds.