By a Neck, Hotel Hall Ends Winless Streak at 16

Hotel Hall, winless in 16 starts the last two years, closed on the inside Sunday under Omar Figueroa to win the closing-day $100,000 Ralph M. Hinds Pomona Handicap at the Los Angeles County Fair at Fairplex Park.

Nose The Trade, who couldn’t hold the lead, finished second, beaten by a neck, and Kristine’s King, the 17-10 favorite ridden by Martin Pedroza, was third, another 4 1/2 lengths back. Pedroza finished with two winners, giving him a record 51 for the 17-day meet. Pedroza rode five winners Saturday, when he passed David Flores, who set the record of 48 in 1991.

Pedroza, who has been the meet leader since 1999, is the first jockey to rack up six straight outright titles at Fairplex. Flores, who shared the title with Pedroza and Corey Black in 1989, then finished first by himself the next five years. Pedroza’s career total at Fairplex is 431 wins, also a record.

“That’s a lot of races to win in just [17] days,” Pedroza said of this year’s title. “I’d like to thank everyone for their support. It’s been great. When I got close to the record, I wanted to get it, because you never know if you’ll get the chance again.”

Hotel Hall, who paid $28.40, running the distance of about 1 1/8 miles in 1:49 3/5, gave Figueroa his fifth stakes win of the meet. Figueroa’s four wins Sunday left him with 14 for the meet, good for a distant second-place finish in the standings.

Hotel Hall, a 6-year-old Irish-bred gelding who carried 114 pounds, six less than the top-weighted Nose The Trade, is trained by Mike Mitchell. It was Hotel Hall’s first win, out of eight starts, since Mitchell claimed him from Carla Gaines for $80,000 in December at Hollywood Park. Hotel Hall’s career record is three wins in 27 starts.

Doug O’Neill saddled one winner on closing day -- the Figueroa-ridden Sigfreto in the seventh race -- to finish with a record 16 wins. The old record of 13 was set by Mel Stute in 1986. O’Neill, who was first at the recently concluded Del Mar meet, was No. 1 in Pomona in 2002 and shared the title last year with Wesley Ward.

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Artie Schiller, who has won five out of seven starts this year, set a track record for 1 1/8 miles on grass as he won the $200,000 Jamaica Handicap at Belmont Park. The 3-year-old colt, ridden by Richard Migliore and carrying high weight of 123 pounds, posted a time of 1:45 2/5, which was one-fifth of a second faster that Subordination’s record clocking in 1997.

“It’s an amazing feeling riding this horse,” Migliore said of Artie Schiller, who beat Rousing Victory by 5 1/4 lengths and paid $2.60. “He gives you a tremendous amount of power.”

Jimmy Jerkens, who trains Artie Schiller, said it was unlikely that the horse would run in the Breeders’ Cup at Lone Star Park on Oct. 30. Jerkens is not enthusiastic about shipping horses.