Declan’s Moon Takes Easy Stroll in the Prevue

In the opinion of trainer Ron Ellis, the Eclipse Award for best 2-year-old male is Declan’s Moon’s to win or lose when he runs in the Hollywood Futurity on Dec. 18.

“We’re the front-runner, but now we need to finish it off,” Ellis said Saturday, after Declan’s Moon stayed undefeated with a two-length win in the $100,000 Hollywood Prevue at Hollywood Park.

Wilko, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and Proud Accolade, who ran sixth, are expected to oppose Declan’s Moon in the Futurity.

“If we win the Futurity, we will have beaten the Breeders’ Cup winner, and we’ve already beaten the Breeders’ Cup favorite,” Ellis said.

He was referring in part to Roman Ruler, who ran fifth at 2-1 in the Breeders’ Cup after Declan’s Moon beat him in the Del Mar Futurity. Declan’s Moon didn’t run in the Breeders’ Cup because Ellis thought the Del Mar race had taken too much out of the gelding.

Declan’s Moon, ridden by Victor Espinoza, won the seven-furlong Prevue in 1:21 3/5 , the second-fastest time in the last eight runnings of the stake. Ellis had said during a radio interview Saturday morning that his horse was only at 90-95% for the race.

Bushwacker finished second, a head better than Seize The Day. Both horses were making only their second starts, after recent maiden wins.

Declan’s Moon, owned by Mace and Samantha Siegel, broke his maiden five weeks before the Del Mar Futurity.

“He’s proving to be one of the best young horses right now, and he’s going to get better,” Espinoza said.

“My only concern was that he hadn’t run for so long [2 1/2 months] and he had run really hard in his last race. Sometimes they don’t come back the same, but he came back better. He was more professional, more focused on what he had to do. I just let him gallop around there. This should set him up nicely for the Futurity and a possible Eclipse Award.”

*

Trainer Steve Asmussen won Saturday night’s $50,000 Groovy Stakes with Expect Will at Sam Houston Race Park, giving him 496 wins this year and tying the record set by Jack Van Berg in 1976.

Asmussen, 39, runs a far-flung stable of about 180 horses. He won three races earlier Saturday at Hawthorne near Chicago, Aqueduct in New York and Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

*

Wildcat Heir, a 4-year-old colt with a hind leg that has been broken twice, held off the 6-5 shot Midas Eyes to win the $300,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash at Pimlico. Clock Stopper finished third and Gators N Bears was fourth.

Ridden by Stewart Elliott, who won the Preakness in May at Pimlico with Smarty Jones -- two weeks after they won the Kentucky Derby -- was aboard Wildcat Heir for the first time. Wildcat Heir is owned by Ben Perkins Sr. and trained by Ben Perkins Jr.

The Grade I De Francis was the horse’s first graded stakes win and his fifth win, to go with four seconds, in 10 starts. Running six furlongs in 1:09 2/5 , Wildcat Heir paid $34.

Earlier at Pimlico, favored Defer, trained by Shug McGaughey and ridden by Jerry Bailey, won the $100,000 Laurel Futurity. Funk was second and Woody’s Apache finished third. *

Three jockeys were hospitalized after a four-horse accident near the quarter pole of the second race at Golden Gate Fields.

The seven-horse race for 2-year-olds was declared a no-contest by the stewards, who cited a rule that refers to “interference ... which affects the majority of [the] horses.”

Alfredo Miranda and David Lopez suffered mild concussions. Francisco Duran broke his right collarbone. The fourth rider, Iggy Puglisi, returned to ride other horses on the card.

Irish Tizzy, who was ridden by Miranda, broke his right foreleg and was euthanized.

*

The final three qualifiers for the $500,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos are all trained by Paul Jones. A Regal Choice, Cash For Kas and Whosleavingwho gained berths in the quarter horse race Friday night in the Z. Wayne Griffin Director’s Trials.

Others scheduled to run in the Champion of Champions on Dec. 11 are Buccaneer Beach, Mongoose Jet Eye, Brimmerton, Catchmeinyourdreams, Silent Overdrive, Be A Bono and SLM Snowman.