Matriarch on Tap for Sunday

Five winners of the $500,000 Matriarch, which will be run for the 24th time Sunday as part of Hollywood Park’s six-race, $1.75-million Turf Festival, have gone on to win Eclipse Awards as champion female grass horses.

If Ticker Tape wins the one-mile event, the 3-year-old English-bred daughter of Royal Applause could become the sixth to complete the Matriarch-Eclipse parlay.

Owned by a partnership that includes Jim Ford, Deron Pearson and Jack Swesy and trained by Jim Cassidy, Ticker Tape certainly would have Eclipse-worthy credentials if she were successful against older rivals.

A victory would give her six in 10 starts in 2004 and would be her third in a Grade I race. Ticker Tape won the American Oaks locally July 3, then shipped east and won the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland in her last start Oct. 16.

Three Grade I victories would put her even with Quija Board, the impressive winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, but it was the only one for Quija Board in this country.

Cassidy, who bought Ticker Tape slightly more than a year ago, said his filly was a legitimate candidate.

“I said after she won the Queen Elizabeth that she deserved consideration for the Eclipse,” he said.

“Quija Board is scary, but one shot, one race, doesn’t make a career.”

Ticker Tape has finished second in three of her four losses this year, including a nose loss in the Grade I Del Mar Oaks. Her only off-the-board performance was in the Honeymoon Breeders’ Cup Handicap on June 5 at Hollywood Park. She finished fourth, less than two lengths back, after falling too far behind a very slow pace.

In looking for her second win in five starts on the Hollywood Park turf course, Ticker Tape has trained well.

“She’s a pretty tough girl,” Cassidy said. Ticker Tape will have a new jockey, however. Victor Espinoza will replace Kent Desormeaux, who has been aboard for all of her wins. Desormeaux chose to ride Musical Chimes, who won the John C. Mabee Handicap at Del Mar.

“It’s a concern, having a new rider,” Cassidy said. “I probably had every agent on the grounds calling, and Corey Nakatani [who was second with Ticker Tape in the Senorita on May 15 in their only previous collaboration] was the first choice, but he had already given a call away [to Quero Quero].

“Victor’s ridden for me before, and he’s ridden well. He worked her last week, and he was very impressed. She’s in his hands now.

“I’m hoping she’s got one more in her. I never thought she would turn out to be this nice when we bought her. I didn’t know she would be this automatic.

“You can’t fault her. She shows up every morning, wanting to do something.”

*

The Matriarch and the $500,000 Hollywood Derby are the final two races in the Turf Festival, which begins Friday with the $100,000 Miesque Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at a mile, and the $150,000 Hollywood Turf Express for older sprinters at 5 1/2 furlongs.

The Festival races Saturday are the $100,000 Generous Stakes for 2-year-olds at a mile, and the $400,000 Citation Handicap for older horses at 1 1/16 miles.

Besides Ticker Tape, Quero Quero and Musical Chimes, Matriarch probables are Etoile Montante, Intercontinental, Denebola, Island Fashion, Ocean Drive, Hoh Buzzard and Belleski.