Mitchell applies winning touch

Trainer Mike Mitchell has done very well claiming veteran turf horses, winning stakes with Star Over The Bay, Leprechaun Kid and Symphony Sid.

Mitchell will try to do it again Sunday at Santa Anita when he sends out the rejuvenated On The Acorn in the $150,000 San Luis Obispo Handicap, a Grade II at 1 1/2 miles on grass.

Claimed by Mitchell on Nov. 25 for $40,000 for a partnership that includes former longtime sportswriter and current Santa Anita media relations man Jack Disney and his brother Doug; Ross Newhan, retired Hall of Fame baseball writer for The Times; former major league catcher and manager Buck Rodgers; and former pro football player Paul Salata; On The Acorn has won two of three since the claim. A winner of five of 25 lifetime, On The Acorn has improved since being gelded the day after he was claimed.

“I didn’t know much about him except that he was supposed to be a tough horse to train,” Mitchell said. “When I saw him the day I filled out the claim slip, he was a very attractive horse. He had a pretty head, a nice shoulder on him and had a really healthy look to him.

“After the claim, I took him back to the stall and the way he walked and acted I knew I was going to geld him. I don’t normally like to geld old horses because I’ve done it before and there have been times when it has not worked out.

“But gelding really has helped this horse. It settled him and relaxed him. He’s still a little bit nasty in the stall, but that’s OK. In the morning he is totally professional.”

With jockey Brice Blanc, who was aboard for the two recent victories, committed to One Off, Mitchell and the partnership went east to get a rider. Julien Leparoux, the winningest jockey in the country in 2006, will be at Santa Anita to ride. Mitchell thought Leparoux would fit the gelding and could make the assigned weight of 111 pounds.

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Successful in six of 10 starts for trainers John Sadler and Jeff Mullins, Selvatica will try to win another in her first race for Julio Canani in the $100,000 Las Flores Handicap today at Santa Anita.

Purchased by Canani for owner Marsha Naify for $560,000 on Jan. 22 at the Barretts’ winter mixed sale in Pomona, Selvatica, a 6-year-old Forestry mare, is one of 12 scheduled to run in the Grade III at six furlongs.

A winner of five in a row before she finished 11th in the Monrovia Handicap on turf Jan. 1, Selvatica will be looking for her second win in three tries on the Santa Anita main track. She will be reunited with leading jockey Garrett Gomez for the first time in well over a year.

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Veteran jockey Jon Court, 46, has been selected -- in voting done by fellow riders -- as the 2007 winner of the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award. The 58th recipient, Court will be presented the award during a ceremony March 25 at Santa Anita.

Named in honor of the jockey who died after falling during a race at Santa Anita more than 60 years ago, the award honors riders “whose careers and personal character reflect positively on themselves and the sport of thoroughbred racing.”

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The purse for the CashCall Mile at Hollywood Park is being increased to $1 million this year and the race will also be graded and run at night.

The inaugural running of the CashCall Mile was won by Dance In The Mood last summer. Ungraded in 2006, the race is now a Grade II and is one of three stakes that will be run on July 6, along with the $150,000 A Gleam and the $100,000-added Flawlessly.

Hollywood Park will begin its spring-summer meet April 25.

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The Champions Mile, which will be run April 29 in Hong Kong, will become the first international race to be part of the new Breeders’ Cup Challenge. The Challenge is a series of races of which the winner will earn an automatic spot in the Breeders’ Cup, to be run Oct. 26-27 at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J.

It was also announced Friday that fans in Hong Kong will be able to wager on the Breeders’ Cup for the first time this year and that a $1-million bonus will be paid to a horse who wins the Breeders’ Cup Mile and the Hong Kong Mile, which will be run in December at Sha Tin.

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bob.mieszerski@latimes.com