Hollywood Park gears up for Gamely and Shoemaker

The first two Grade I races of Hollywood Park’s spring-summer season arrive Monday.

Older fillies and mares will get together for the $300,000 Gamely Breeders’ Cup Handicap at 1 1/8 miles on turf before several top milers get together in the $300,000 Shoemaker Breeders’ Cup Mile, which is also on grass.

Named in honor of the champion mare of 1968, the Gamely has been won a record six times by trainer Bobby Frankel and the Hall of Famer will be well represented again.

Frankel will send out Price Tag and Citronnade against a field that includes unbeaten Vacare, a 4-year-old Lear Fan filly who will be making her California debut for owners Jon and Sarah Kelly and trainer Christophe Clement.

A five-time winner, Vacare’s biggest victory came in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup last fall at Keeneland. She was purchased by her current connections after that Grade I win. She made her first start for Clement on April 1, winning the Magna Distaff at Gulfstream Park. Jose Valdivia, Jr. will ride Vacare as Clement seeks his first win in the Gamely. The trainer was third with Voodoo Dancer in 2002.

Citronnade, who is owned by breeder Frank Stronach, won the San Gorgonio and Santa Ana Handicaps by daylight earlier in the year on the Santa Anita turf and Price Tag won the Matriarch the last time she was seen at Hollywood Park.

In the Shoemaker, Kip Deville, a 4-year-old gray son of Kipling, will have nine opponents as he seeks his fourth win in a row for trainer Rick Dutrow Jr.

Richard Migliore regains his seat on the Oklahoma-bred after Edgar Prado rode him to victory in the Maker’s Mark on April 13 at Keeneland. Migliore was busy that day in Arkansas, riding Bordonaro to victory in the Count Fleet at Oaklawn Park.

“This horse gave me my first win at Santa Anita, my first stakes win in California and my first Grade I in California,” said Migliore, who rode numerous winners for Dutrow during his successful career in New York. The field for the Shoemaker also includes The Tin Man, the 2006 Arlington Million winner who has been idle since he won the Clement L. Hirsch at Santa Anita last Sept. 30. The 9-year-old has won two of four on the Hollywood Park turf for owner-breeders Ralph and Aury Todd and trainer Richard Mandella.

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There is a possibility racing may continue at Bay Meadows in 2008.

Officials from the San Mateo track hope to work out a schedule with other racing entities in Northern California for dates next year, then present the possible schedule at the next meeting of the California Horse Racing Board on June 19.

In March, it looked as if racing at Bay Meadows would cease later this year after the CHRB decided not to grant a two-year waiver to the track regarding the installation of a synthetic surface. The board mandated in 2006 that all major California tracks had to install a synthetic surface by the end of this year.

bob.mieszerski@latimes.com