Combination Would Have Produced Field of Dreams

The best filly or mare in the country is running today at Hollywood Park, but the best race for fillies and mares is at Belmont Park.

It’s too bad the fields for the $250,000 Vanity Handicap, the main event in Inglewood, and the $300,000 Odgen Phipps Handicap in New York couldn’t have been combined.

Then Azeri, the reigning horse of the year, might actually have some competition.

Azeri, the defending champion in the Vanity, is 4-0 at Hollywood Park, a winner of nine in a row and 12 of 13 overall -- seven of them Grade I races. Azeri will carry high weight of 127 pounds against a less-than-accomplished group. None of the six others who were entered has won a Grade I or II.

At Belmont Park, Take Charge Lady, who nearly ended Azeri’s winning streak in the Apple Blossom Handicap, will take on a field that includes two other Grade I winners.

Trained by Ken McPeek for the Select Stable, Take Charge Lady had a clear lead with less than an eighth of a mile to run in the Apple Blossom on April 5.

However, the 5-year-old Azeri, who was making her first start of 2003, closed strongly as the 2-5 favorite and won by a head under jockey Mike Smith.

Take Charge Lady, unraced since because of a bruised foot, has trained well recently and won’t be uncomfortable if rain falls, as expected, at Belmont Park. She won the Fair Grouds Oaks by five lengths in the slop as a 3-year-old at New Orleans.

Edgar Prado will ride the Dehere filly. Her main threats in the 1 1/16-mile race are Sightseek, who won the Humana Distaff Handicap on May 3 for trainer Bobby Frankel, and Mandy’s Gold, who won the 2002 Ruffian Handicap at Belmont for trainer Michael Gorham.

Azeri, who won last year’s Vanity by three lengths over Affluent, is trying to become the fourth filly or mare to win the 1 1/8-mile race for a second time.

The Vanity is the eighth of nine races on the card, meaning it is part of the pick six and pick four.

Azeri will be singled on a majority of those tickets, but bettors will have one fewer option in the Vanity. With the approval of the California Horse Racing Board, Hollywood Park isn’t offering show betting on the race. Azeri’s presence in the Milady led to a minus show pool of $267,227, money the track had to make up out of its own pocket. Of the $1,607,740 bet to show, $1,528,349 was wagered on Azeri.

The Vanity field is completed by the Wally Dollase-trained entry of Bare Necessities, who has won her last three races at three tracks, and American Czarina, Tropical Blossom, Sister Girl Blues, Keys To The Heart and Meguial.