HOLLYWOOD PARK STABLE NOTES

Saturday, June 03, 1995

By Vince Bruun & Ed Golden

BEST PAL PREPS SEVEN PANELS FOR CALIFORNIAN

Golden Eagle Farm's Best Pal continued his preparation for the $250,000-added Californian

on June 11 with a seven-furlong workout in 1:26 2/5 on the fast main track Saturday morning.

Jon Turner was up for the move, which had fractions of :25 2/5, :50 and 1:15. Best Pal,

racing's leading active money-earner with $5,538,145, galloped out a mile in 1:40 4/5. According to head clocker Gary Nelson, Best Pal was "only being asked the final eighth of a mile," in which he was timed in :11 2/5.

The Californian, to be decided at 1 1/8 miles on the main track, is the final major

steppingstone to the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on July 2.

Probables for the 42nd running of The Californian: Best Pal, Chris McCarron; Blumin

Affair, no rider; Let's Be Curious, Kent Desormeaux; Stoller, Gary Stevens; Tinners Way, Eddie Delahoussaye, and Tossofthecoin, Corey Nakatani.

JOHANN QUATZ WILL ATTEMPT TO REBOUND IN SHOEMAKER

Tadahiro Hotehama's Johann Quatz will attempt to snap out of a 13-race winless streak in the

$150,000-added Shoemaker Handicap on June 10.

Trainer Ron McAnally supervised Johann Quartz' seven-furlong workout in

1:26 2/5 on the main track Saturday, and confirmed the 6-year-old son of Sadler's Wells will run in the Grade II event on turf.

Although he hasn't won since capturing the 1993 Col. F. W. Koester Handicap on Oct. 17,

1993, at Oak Tree, Johann Quatz has raced competitively with many of the world's top handicap horses, including a second to Barathea in the 1994 Breeders' Cup Mile. Johann Quatz has finished fifth in both of his 1995 starts, the Santa Anita and Oaklawn Handicaps.

Probables for the 52nd running of the Shoemaker Handicap, to be decided at one

mile on turf: Blaze O'Brien, Corey Black; Bon Point, Eddie Delahoussaye; Eagle Eyed, Corey Nakatani; Johann Quatz, no rider; Journalism, Alex Solis; Rapan Boy, Kent Desormeaux, and Unfinished Symph, Chris Antley.

Possible: Bat Eclat , no rider.

CORRAL TO BE MARRIED IN WINNER'S CIRCLE

There seems to be something about the winner's circle at Hollywood Park that makes it

attractive for weddings.

First it was long-time race fans Gary Stines and Nora Gaye who were married prior to the

first race on May 14.

Now it's jockey James Corral and Laurie Wetzler, who have planned a July 1 wedding in the

winner's circle. Post time for the nuptials is following the day's final race, at approximately 5 p.m. Corral's father, Los Angeles superior court judge Jaime Corral, will perform the ceremony.

Corral, whose best showing at Hollywood Park was at the 1988 spring/summer meeting

when he finished sixth with 40 wins, is currently working as an exercise rider for trainer Richard Mandella at Santa Anita. Wetzler, who worked for several years as an exercise rider/outrider, works for her mother, Gwen, who produces cartoons.

"I'm kind of bummed that we aren't the first ones getting married (in the winner's circle,"

Corral said. "But I guess I will be the first jockey to be married in the winner's circle."

LONG READY TO LAUNCH COMEBACK

Jockey Brian Long was in the stable area Saturday morning with his new agent, Cliff

Goodwin, and said he planned to resume his riding career Friday.

Long, 32, hasn't ridden since the Fairplex Park meet last September, when he was suspended

following a series of incidents, both on and off the track.

"I spent six months in an alcohol rehabilitation facility, and I've been cleared (by the stewards)

to ride," Long said. "I feel good. I've been seeing a nutritionist for three months and my weight has gone from 155 pounds to 117.

"When I was riding last year, I was having to pull eight to 12 pounds a day. You can do that

when you're young . . . but when you get older, it begins to take a toll on you.

"The response of the horsemen has been overwhelming," Long added. "There's a lot of guys

who plan to give me a chance."

CYRANO' TAKES RIVALS BY STORME

Trevor Denman said it was one of the best runs he had seen in many a year. "People had to

be tearing up their tickets at the 16th pole," Hollywood Park's track commentator said. "His run was electrifying."

Denman was speaking of a last-ditch burst by a 5-year-old Irish-bred gelding named Cyrano

Storme, who overcame traffic problems in deep stretch after rallying from next-to-last in Thursday's 5 1/2-furlong Jack Disney on the turf o win by a nose under Kent Desormeaux.

"He was running like that in France," said Jean-Pierre Dupuis, one of the hottest trainers

on the circuit with five wins and two seconds in his last 11 starts. "He was running short (distances) but finishing very fast."

What helped send Cyrano Storme off at 9-2 in the field of nine turf sprinters was his last race.

He finished eighth and last, beaten nearly 20 lengths, in a seven-furlong dirt race at Hollywood Park on May 3. In 22 career starts, that was the son of Cyrano de Bergerac's only one on the main track.

"When I began to train him here, he went very well and it looked like we could do anything

with him," said the 43-year-old Dupuis. "I ran him seven furlongs the first time and I told Kent he would break slow and finish fast. Well, he broke slow, and 100 yards after the race he passed everybody. You should see the films!

"If all goes well from here, we'll run him back in the Bedside Promise (June 23)," Dupuis said.

"Then there's the Hollywood Park Budweiser Breeders' Cup ($150,000-added on July 15)."

MINOR AILMENT CAUSES IN CHARACTER TO MISS CINEMA

In Character, 8-1 morning line selection in Saturday's $100,000-added Cinema Handicap,

was scratched from the Grade III event due to a minor mishap to his left front foot.

"He pulled a shoe off and pulled part of his wall of with it," trainer Bruce Jackson explained

Saturday morning. "It's a little tender, but he's fine and I probably could have run, but we decided to play it safe. It's not serious. In fact, he went to the track this morning."

In Character, runner-up in the Louisiana Derby, was scheduled to make his turf debut in the

nine-furlong Cinema. In Character is eligible to run in the $500,000-added Belmont Stakes next Saturday, but Jackson did not indicate the colt would participate in third final leg of the Triple Crown.

BELMONT STAKES TOPS SIMULCAST SLATE

Hollywood Park will present the 127th edition of the Belmont Stakes via simulcast next

Saturday, in addition to three other stakes races on the Belmont Park program.

Scheduled post time for the final leg of the Triple Crown is 2:30 p.m., between Hollywood

Park's second and third live races.

The other simulcasts: the $100,000-added Hill Prince Stakes (Gr. III) for

3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on the turf (12:27 p.m.), the $100,000-added Riva Ridge Stakes (Gr. III) for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs (1:05 p.m.) and the $200,000-guaranteed Early Times Manhattan (Gr. I) for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/2 miles on the turf (1:42 p.m.).

Hollywood Park will also simulcast the $200,000-guaranteed Mother Goose

Stakes (Gr. I), featuring Serena's Song and Cat's Cradle, from Belmont Park on Friday, along with the $75,000-added Jaipur Stakes (Gr. III) for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs on the turf.

The Jaipur runs at 1 p.m. and the Mother Goose at 1:30 p.m.

FINISH LINES: Laffit Pincay Jr., scheduled to ride in three $100,000 stakes Saturday at

Calder Race Course, was due back at Hollywood Park on Sunday . . . One of Pincay's mounts Sunday is Bridge of Royalty in the $70,000-added Westchester Stakes for 2-year-olds. In his debut May 4, Bridge of Royalty set a track record for 4 1/2 furlongs of :50 2/5. The Slew's Royalty colt has since been sold to Sidney H. Craig and is now trained by Bill Spawr . . . Vicky Aragon, one of the leading riders at Yakima Meadows, will be at Hollywood Park on June 11 to ride Hot Hooves for trainer Wesley Ward in a 1 1/2-mile allowance race on turf. "She can tack 107 pounds, easy," Ward said of Aragon . . . Trainer Ian Jory, after saddling Lord Shirldor to a second-place finish in Friday night's Bo Derek Stakes: "I wanted that picture bad." . . . Kent Desormeaux, Chris Antley and Russell Baze will represent the Thoroughbred jockeys in the All-Star Jockey Challenge at Los Alamitos on July 1. Quarter horse riders competing are Joe Badilla, John Creager and Eddie Garcia. The annual event helps raise money for the Don MacBeth Memorial Jockey Fund . . . Trainer Charlie Whittingham said Damon and Phillip J. Stathatos' Patiotaki will skip the $150,000-added Shoemaker Handicap. "There's got to be an easier spot for him than that race," Whittingham said . . . Mr Purple worked six furlongs in 1:12 2/5, handily, in preparation for the $100,000-added Harry Henson Stakes on June 10 . . . Morning line for Sunday's $150,000-added Gamely Handicap (Gr. I): Wende, 20-1; Aube Indienne, 4-1; Morgana, 3-1; Lady Affirmed, 12-1; Fondly Remembered, 20-1; Possibly Perfect, 3-5, and Don't Read My Lips, 30-1 . . . River Flyer had his first work at Hollywood Park on Saturday morning since returning from Golden Eagle's farm in Ramona. The David Hofmans trainee went in :35 3/5.