Top Horses Missing From Californian

Check out the original 15 nominees to the $250,000 Californian, which will be run for the 53rd time today at Hollywood Park, and two names stand out.

Unfortunately, neither Lava Man nor Buzzards Bay will be running in the Grade II at 1 1/8 miles, the final significant prep for the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on July 8.

Lava Man, who won the Californian last year before winning the Gold Cup by 8 3/4 lengths, won the Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap a week ago, giving him consecutive victories on turf.

Meanwhile, Buzzards Bay, who has won his last two races by a combined 10 1/4 lengths for owner Gary Broad and trainer Ron Ellis, was shipped out of town. The 4-year-old Marco Bay colt and 2005 Santa Anita Derby winner is one of the favorites in the $750,000 Stephen Foster Handicap, a Grade I today at Churchill Downs.

That leaves Preachinatthebar and Spellbinder as the headliners in the Californian. The two 5-year-olds will carry co-high weight of 120 pounds against Yes He’s A Pistol, Dixie Meister, Super Frolic, Melanyhasthepapers, That’s An Outrage and Ice Cole.

Spellbinder, a son of Tale of the Cat owned by Jerry and Ann Moss, is the only horse in the field with at least a Grade II victory this year. He won the San Antonio Handicap on Feb. 5 at Santa Anita for Richard Mandella, the Hall of Fame trainer who began Friday without a win at the spring-summer meet.

Better than third in five of his seven races on Hollywood Park’s main track, Spellbinder will be ridden by Martin Pedroza five weeks after finishing second to Surf Cat, who has since been sidelined because of an injury, in the Mervyn LeRoy Handicap.

Preachinatthebar, owned by breeder Mike Pegram and trained by Bob Baffert, had won two consecutive Grade III races, at Santa Anita and Lone Star Park, before a dismal effort over a muddy track in the Lone Star Park Handicap on May 29. He finished eighth at 5-2, more than 14 lengths behind winner Magnum.

“He ran horrible in Texas,” Baffert said. “Sometimes they run, and sometimes they don’t. They aren’t machines.”

A winner of four of seven over Hollywood Park’s main track, Preachinatthebar, a gray son of 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Silver Charm, will be reunited with jockey Victor Espinoza. He was aboard the horse for four wins in 2005.

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Two races before the Californian, a trio of 3-year-olds soundly beaten by Barbaro in the Kentucky Derby will be trying to rebound in the $100,000 Affirmed Handicap. A Grade III at 1 1/16 miles, the Affirmed is a prep for the $400,000 Swaps Breeders’ Cup Stakes on July 8.

Point Determined, Cause To Believe and A.P. Warrior will renew acquaintances after finishing ninth, 13th and 18th, respectively, in the Derby.

Point Determined will be ridden for the first time today by Espinoza as he seeks his third win in eight starts for Baffert and the Bob and Beverly Lewis Trust.

Besides the Derby also-rans, the Affirmed attracted Arson Squad, who will be trying two turns for the first time, Shooter’s Touch and Record, who is also trained by Baffert and was last seen winning the Derby Trial on April 29 at Churchill Downs.

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According to the Daily Racing Form, Baffert has been fined $500 by Churchill Downs stewards for altercations with security personnel on Kentucky Derby day.

Chief Steward John Veitch said Baffert made contact with a security officer who would not permit an associate of Baffert’s into the paddock because the man did not have the proper credentials, then later tore off another security officer’s credential and handed it to Olympic skier Bode Miller, Baffert’s guest at the Derby.

Veitch said Baffert told him that he intended to apologize to both men.

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Post time at Hollywood Park today will be 1:10 p.m., 10 minutes earlier than normal. The change was for ESPN, which is televising the Californian as part of a $400,000 guaranteed national pick four.

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Buzzards Bay, winner of the All American Handicap at Golden Gate Fields and the Oaklawn Handicap at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., will break from the rail in the Foster, which is run at 1 1/8 miles at Churchill Downs.

A winner of five of 15, Buzzards Bay will be ridden by Jose Valdivia Jr. and will race, among others, Brass Hat, Perfect Drift and Love Of Money.

“The Foster is probably one of the three or four most prestigious races in the country,” Ellis said. “That was factored into our decision to go to Kentucky rather than stay in California. He’s been training so well that now is the time to try and win a race like this. He’s a very talented horse.”