Here’s a Race That Murray Would Have Loved

Jim Murray understood why most of the best horses are prematurely hustled off to stud careers, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. “Just when I get to know them, they disappear,” Murray would say.

The 16th running of the Jim Murray Memorial Handicap, today at Hollywood Park, is a race the late Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of The Times would enjoy, and not just because it has his name on it. Of the nine horses running, six are 6 or older. There is an 8-year-old, and a 9-year-old making his 70th start.

Murray, who died in 1998, a day after covering the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, would have had fun writing about the 9-year-old, Continental Red, if he won. He might have written something about the California-bred gelding not tripping over his beard, or about lightning striking twice after another longshot, Giacomo, won the Kentucky Derby.

Continental Red, winless since June 2003, is on a 19-race losing streak, but he has hit the board 14 times in 20 starts on the Hollywood Park grass, including a second-place finish April 24. He lost a photo finish with Rhythm Mad in last year’s Murray.

Of the old-timers running today, a stronger contender is Sarafan, an 8-year-old who has earned $2.6 million. With only one win in nine starts in 2004-05, he may have lost a step or two, but he’s coming into the Murray off three consecutive second-place finishes. In his best year, 2002, he won the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar and lost the Arlington Million and the Japan Cup by a head and a nose.

Those sentimental angles to the Murray are likely to be upstaged by trainer Bobby Frankel, who’s running three horses as he tries to win the stake for the seventh time.

Frankel has Exterior, who’ll try to turn the tables on T.H. Approval, the San Juan Capistrano winner; Continuously, who has had some solid races over the Hollywood turf course; and Vangelis, winless in the U.S. and unraced since Oct. 3. Exterior races for Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms, which has owned four of Frankel’s Murray winners.

Another contender is Deputy Lad, who is relatively new to stakes company. He has had three strong outings since being claimed by trainer Mike Mitchell for $50,000. Mitchell will be busy on another front Sunday, running Star Over The Bay in the International Airlines Handicap in Singapore.

*

Other stakes on today’s card are the Los Angeles Times and Mervyn LeRoy handicaps.

Hombre Rapido, an 8-year-old gelding, will be running in the Los Angeles Times -- a race that was called the Los Angeles Handicap until 2002 -- for the fourth time. He was last in 2002, won it at 6-1 odds in 2003 and finished sixth last year.

Trainer Doug O’Neill, who ran 1-2 last year with Pohave and Marino Marini, will saddle Areyoutalkintome, who has had an unusual pattern, winning every other race since August. By that barometer, it’s Areyoutalkintome’s turn again; he was fifth at Hollywood Park on April 24.

The LeRoy is part of a series for older horses on dirt that includes the Californian on June 18 and the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on July 9. In that context, the LeRoy has come up light. The high weight, carrying 119 pounds, is Borrego, who gave Smarty Jones a battle in the Arkansas Derby a year ago but who has won only one of his last 10 starts. In five of those races he was second, and he ran third, behind Rock Hard Ten and Congrats, in the Santa Anita Handicap on March 5.

*

According to Pimlico, there are 11 contenders for the Preakness, a week from today, with four horses on the “possible” list. The field limit is 14, with spots to be determined by a three-tiered money-earned rule that is unlike the qualifying regulations for the other Triple Crown races.

Trainer Nick Zito, hoping to rebound from a Kentucky Derby in which the best of his five horses finished seventh, is considering High Fly, Noble Causeway and Sun King for the Preakness.

Already set are the Derby’s first three finishers -- Giacomo, Closing Argument and Afleet Alex -- plus Wilko, Greeley’s Galaxy, High Limit, Malibu Moonshine, Scrappy T, Hal’s Image, Galloping Grocer and Golden Man, who would require a supplementary payment of $100,000 to run. Also, trainer Wayne Lukas has not ruled out Going Wild, 18th in the Derby after losing his two previous starts by 57 1/4 lengths.

David Flores, replacing Kent Desormeaux, who is riding in Japan, has the mount on Greeley’s Galaxy. With Ramon Dominguez riding Scrappy T, Edgar Prado takes over on High Limit, who ran last in the Derby.

*

Two Coronas Special, the fastest qualifier, is the 2-1 favorite in tonight’s Kindergarten Futurity for quarter horses at Los Alamitos. The field, in post-position order: AB Whos Your Daddy, Finding Nemo, Gold Nugget Rd, Eye Jess Can’t Wait, Litedasher, Dash To La Jolla, Casique Corona, Love My Corona, Higher Fire and Two Coronas Special.