Court’s Quick Stopover Results in Easy Victory

Just passing through, Jon Court rode favored Diligent Prospect to a four-length win Friday in the $60,000 Foothill Stakes at Fairplex Park as the 16-day Los Angeles County Fair meet began.

“Now I’m off to Kentucky, to visit a lot of friends,” said Court, who was based in Kentucky until he joined the major-track circuit in Southern California in March 2004. Court will return to California when the Oak Tree meet opens at Santa Anita on Sept. 28.

Court had ridden at the Fairplex bullring only one day before Friday -- closing day in Pomona a year ago.

“Hoosier Park used to have tight turns like this, when it first opened,” Court said of the track in Anderson, Ind. “And I’ve ridden at some other tracks with turns like [Fairplex], such as Sportsman’s Park [in suburban Chicago].”

Diligent Prospect hadn’t run since Dec. 30 because of sore shins, trainer Doug O’Neill said.

O’Neill, who finished 1-3 with Stevie Wonderboy and Jealous Profit in the Del Mar Futurity on closing day Wednesday, said that both horses would run in the Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 2. Bro Lo, another O’Neill 2-year-old, won the I’m Smokin Stakes at Del Mar last Monday and will run in the Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park on Oct. 8.

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To insure that Commentator won’t get away with the easy early lead that led to a win in the Whitney Handicap, trainer Rick Dutrow is running two pace factors besides Saint Liam, the star of the stable, in today’s $500,000 Woodward at Belmont.

Dutrow’s so-called “rabbits” are Show Boot, who was claimed for $75,000 in mid-July, and Crafty Player, who ran for a $12,500 claiming tag earlier in the year. Both colts are sprinters, never having run the 1 1/8 -mile Woodward distance but will be expected to keep Commentator honest in the early going.

Commentator led by 5 1/2 lengths before holding off Saint Liam by a neck in the Whitney. Saint Liam carried six more pounds at Saratoga, but the horses will carry the same weight today under the Woodward’s weight-for-age conditions.

Six horses are entered, with only four betting interests. Trainer Nick Zito’s Commentator and Sir Shackleton, who was third in the Whitney, are coupled, as are Show Boot and Crafty Player. Shaniko rounds out the field.

There are three other Grade I races at Belmont. Leave Me Alone, who shipped in from Santa Anita to win the Test at Saratoga, will be favored in the $250,000 Gazelle. Kent Desormeaux, who is three for three with the filly, has the mount. The $500,000 Man o’War brings together King’s Drama and Relaxed Gesture, who were 1-2 in the Sword Dancer at Saratoga, and in the $300,000 Garden City, Luas Line, fourth in the Hollywood Oaks in July, gets John Velazquez, the nation’s leader on the jockeys’ purse list, for her second U.S. start.

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Martin Pedroza, seeking his seventh straight Fairplex title, rode four winners.... Max Corrales was not injured when his filly, Irunalone, dumped him in a breakdown just past the finish line after the 11th race.... Various contributions at Del Mar raised about $100,000 for victims of Hurricane Katrina. One of the fund-raisers was a dunk-the-jockeys water tank the last weekend of the meet, and Victor Espinoza donated $5,900, the amount he earned from a day of riding.... The city planning commission recommended that the San Mateo City Council approve Bay Meadows’ plans to convert its racetrack into housing and retail development.