Dance In The Mood Gets a Win and a Trip Home

The yen for a win at Hollywood Park two years after a second-place finish in the American Oaks helped Japanese mare Dance In The Mood to an impressive victory Saturday in the CashCall Mile.

“She’s now a mare, and she knows everything,” trainer Kazuo Fujisawa said after the 5-year-old won by 1 3/4 lengths on turf in a time of 1:33.33, breaking the record for the race formerly known as the Royal Heroine Stakes.

The race got a new name and a big jump in the size of the purse this year with the addition of sponsor J. Paul Reddam, co-owner of fourth-place finisher Dancing Edie and founder of CashCall, which makes high-interest, unsecured loans.

But despite the $750,000 purse, Dance In The Mood is headed home Monday to Japan, probably not to return, Fujisawa said. That’s because the money is generally not as good in U.S. races as in Japan, where Dance In the Mood has won most of her nearly $5 million in earnings.

Japanese interests could claim more American dollars today, when Asahi Rising runs in the $750,000 American Oaks. Asahi Rising will also be ridden by Victor Espinoza, who was aboard Dance In the Mood, who paid $7.20 to win.

“I didn’t have to do much,” Espinoza said. “She’s an unbelievable filly.”

Espinoza rode three winners, taking the $150,000 A Gleam by a nose aboard Somethinaboutlaura and the eighth race on Key of Solomon.

Pinata won the $100,000 Landaluce but unseated jockey Martin Pedroza after the finish line. Pedroza walked off the track and Pinata was vanned off as a precaution.

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Fernando Jara, the 18-year-old jockey who won the Belmont Stakes aboard Jazil, claimed another big victory at Belmont Park when he won the $400,000 Suburban Handicap on Argentine-bred Invasor.

Riding for the same connections as in the Belmont -- Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum’s Shadwell Farm and trainer Kiaran McLaughlin -- Jara took the lead at the top of the stretch and won the 1 1/4 -mile race by 4 1/4 lengths.

Earlier, Edgar Prado won the $250,000 Mother Goose at Belmont Park aboard Bushfire, giving the 3-year-old filly her third Grade I victory of the year.

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A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge denied a motion Friday by an attorney for trainer Doug O’Neill seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent Hollywood Park from requiring O’Neill’s horses to run out of a detention barn for the remainder of a 30-day penalty because one of his horses exceeded the permitted level for total carbon dioxide in May.

The motion was denied by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Yaffe, according to court records, after O’Neill filed a lawsuit Friday against Hollywood Park and other defendants seeking a restraining order and unspecified damages.

“It’s just trying to keep a fair playing field, because I didn’t do anything and I haven’t even had a hearing,” said O’Neill, whose penalty began June 14 and is scheduled to end July 13.

O’Neill will saddle Lava Man in the Hollywood Gold Cup on Saturday, and the penalty would require the horse to be moved to the detention barn 24 hours before racing.