GOLDEN GLIMPSES #80GOLDEN GLIMPSES #80
HOLLYWOOD NOT IN SIMULCAST FOLD YET: HUBBARD
Eh, hold the phone on that simulcast settlement.
At least from Hollywood Park's point of view.
Starting Wednesday with Del Mar's 43-day meet, the race signal from Southern California which had been dormant for more than eight months, will resume in Nevada casinos. Last Thursday, the Nevada Pari-Mutuel Association voted unanimously to accept an agreement with Del Mar, the Thoroughbred Owners of California and the NPMA. The deal was supposed to cover all California tracks.
But Hollywood Park, which has not sent its signal to Nevada for its last two meets, starting back on Nov. 6 and through the 66-day session which ended Monday, has no deal, according to track president R.D. Hubbard. That's not to say Hollywood won't come into fold before its Breeders' Cup meet which begins Nov. 5.
"All I can say is, we don't have an agreement with Nevada," Hubbard said on Sunday. "They have an agreement with Del Mar, and I'm sure we'll be talking to them before the fall meet. (But) that is not an agreement for all tracks. That's just an agreement for the one (Del Mar) meet. The agreement with Del Mar is not a bad one, to be honest. They (NPMA) could have had something very similar to that a long time ago, and they refused."
Asked, why, Hubbard said: "I would guess because we started the problem, but I don't know that for sure."
Asked if he was optimistic he could reach a resolution over the next four months, Hubbard said he thinks "we probably will, but they haven't talked to us and we don't know what their thinking is."
If you're a betting man, bet on an agreement with Hollywood Park, too.
THE HOMESTRETCH: Hubbard was generally pleased with the meet, citing the benefit to the horse population from eight-race cards on weekdays, and handle being "basically even, but down about two percent overall. We were down almost eight percent from out of state, due to the Nevada blackout. The best news is that our commissions and purses actually increased five percent from last year." He said the track was underpaid on about $700,000 in purses. "I think the fact that our commissions and purses are up means a lot of the dollars that were bet in Nevada came back to California, because we get a larger percentage on the money bet in California than we get from Nevada." On Hollywood's proposed race to attract handicap horses that aren't eligible to the Breeders' Cup Classic because the supplementary fees are exorbitant: "We've got to have the TOC's backing on the race, and we've talked with them. The TOC likes the idea and we're going to contact the Breeders' Cup to make sure they have no objection. We probably will have a race on Nov. 30, but it won't have the significance it would have, had the Breeders' Cup not eased its eligibility rules. We'll seriously consider supplementing Gentlemen, because under the new rules, now we can run two years for the price of one. Our race will be $500,000-guaranteed at 1 1/4 miles, probably call it the Eclipse, and it's likely a one-time deal, because if the Breeders' Cup wasn't here, we wouldn't write that race. Since horses will be here for the Breeders' Cup, we'll try to keep them here for the Eclipse." On converting the main track with sports grids and mobilizers, which have received rave reviews on Hollywood's training track: "The odds are we will change the surface, but not for the fall meet. We don't feel we should make a major change like that before the Breeders' Cup (Nov. 8)." . . . Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Silver Charm will miss at least 60 days with a high white blood count. "It's not a fever," trainer Bob Baffert said. "He's not in any pain. It's just that his white count is elevated so I'm going to bombard him with antibiotics, and then he'll be fine. But I'm going to lose some time on him and that will screw up any training plans. I was going to kick him out after the Travers (Aug. 23) anyway, so I'm just going to give him 60 days off, let him recoup, and go on with him. People have to watch him race as a 4-year-old. He's sound, so what the hell. " . . . How does Dick Mandella feel about the prospect of running 1-2-3 in another $1 million race? "Nervous. Seriously, right now, I'm pointing all three of the first three finishers (in the Santa Anita Handicap and the Hollywood Gold Cup) to the Pacific Classic on Aug. 9." That would be Hollywood Gold Cup winner Gentlemen, Big 'Cap winner and Gold Cup runner-up Siphon, and Sandpit, third and second, respectively, in the latter two races. "There's a slight chance I might pass the Classic with Sandpit and go in the Arlington Million (Aug. 24). But most likely, it's the Classic. I'm just trying to get the best out of each one of them." . . . Of Chris McCarron's 6,500-plus wins, about 3,600 have come under the direction of agent Scott McClellan. McCarron became the seventh rider to win 6,500 races when he rode Le Casque Gris to victory on July 16 for David Hofmans. The top six are Bill Shoemaker (8,833), Laffit Pincay Jr. (8,534), David Gall (7,096), Angel Cordero Jr. (7,057), Pat Day (6,973) and Jorge Velasquez (6,791). The star-crossed McCarron missed two graded stakes wins after he sprained his left shoulder when Hello broke his left foreleg in mid stretch in the Swaps Stakes, costing Hello his life and McCarron victories on Twice The Vice and Marlin. "That's twice now I've missed Marlin," McCarron said, referring to a right shoulder injury he suffered in a spill on Debutant Trick just before the San Juan Capistrano Handicap. Eddie Delahoussaye filled in for McCarron that day and won.. "That's no good."
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