CHALLENGE DOESN'T SCARE 'EM.Byline: Kevin Modesti Staff Writer INGLEWOOD - The $1 million Hollywood Gold Cup The Hollywood Gold Cup is a Grade I stakes race for thoroughbred horses inaugurated in 1938 at Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, California. It was run as a handicap race until 1997 when it was switched to weight-for-age conditions. was more than 24 hours away, and favorite General Challenge was under attack already. There was Bobby Frankel, the Hall of Fame trainer of Chester House, answering questions in a fans forum near the Hollywood Park Hollywood Park may be several places:
``I think everybody is caught up in (how well) he's training,'' Frankel said. ``Now he's got to do it in the afternoon. He's no superstar right now. He's got to prove it to me. It's a wide-open race.'' There was Michael Hushion, trainer of the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of invader named David, saying on the phone that he couldn't identify a single ``horse to beat.'' ``Of course, I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. which General Challenge is going to show up,'' Hushion said, referring to the colt's inconsistency. And there were the handicappers' selections in the Daily Racing Form The Daily Racing Form, LLC (DRF) is a broadsheet newspaper founded in 1894 in Chicago, Illinois by Frank Brunell. The paper publishes the past performances of race horses as a statistical service for bettors on horse racing in the United States. , six of seven experts picking somebody else - David, Chester House or Out of Mind - three of them dropping General Challenge to third. ``Monster when in mood,'' one Racing Form analyst noted in handicapper hand·i·cap·per n. Sports & Games 1. One who assigns handicaps. 2. One who predicts the winners in a horserace, especially one who publishes such predictions as a guide for bettors. Noun 1. shorthand. General Challenge goes into today's 61st running of Hollywood Park's marquee race as the favorite, all right, as he tries to be the first horse since Affirmed in 1979 to win the Santa Anita Handicap The Santa Anita Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually in the late winter at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. It is a Grade I race for horses three years old and up, and is considered the most important race for older horses in North America during and Gold Cup in the same year, and the only horse other than Best Pal to have won the Big 'Cap, Pacific Classic and Gold Cup. He's 9-5 on the morning line. But everybody is taking shots at him. And the 4-year-old bred and owned by John and Betty Mabee of San Diego's Golden Eagle Farm doesn't figure to have it any easier when the starting gate opens for a Gold Cup featuring nine intriguing possibilities from all over the map. The opponents include: Cat Thief, the 1999 Breeders' Cup Classic The Breeders' Cup Classic is a Grade 1 Weight for Age thoroughbred horse race for 3 years old and older run at a distance of 1¼ miles (2012 m) on dirt. It is held annually at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part of the Breeders' Cup. winner who defeated General Challenge in the former's only Hollywood Park start, the Swaps Stakes last July; Chester House, who figures to improve on his fourth-place effort at muddy Churchill Downs, where he threw a shoe; Out of Mind and Big Ten, South American-breds trained by two-time Gold Cup winner Richard Mandella; and former claimer Early Pioneer and New York-bred David, the horses who outran out·ran v. Past tense of outrun. General Challenge in the San Bernardino; and New York-based Pleasant Breeze, ridden by 1999 Eclipse Award winner Jorge Chavez. Horsemen and handicappers, like rank-and-file racing fans, prize reliability above all in their would-be superstar thoroughbreds. General Challenge does not fit that bill. When he's good, he's very, very good - a dazzling winner in last year's Santa Anita Derby The Santa Anita Derby is an American Grade 1 thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds run each April at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California and carries a purse of $750,000. and Pacific Classic and this year's Santa Anita Handicap. When he's bad, well, you get the idea - he finished 11th in the Kentucky Derby and 10th in the Breeders' Cup Classic last year, and has been beaten as an odds-on favorite four times in a 16-race career. The 4-year-old California-bred comes into the 1 1/4-mile Gold Cup off a third-place finish at 1-5 odds in the April 9 San Bernardino Handicap at Santa Anita. An entrapped epiglottis epiglottis (ĕp'əglŏt`ĭs): see larynx. and throat ulcer caused him to miss nearly a month of training, and he hasn't raced in three months, although he has recorded a series of fastest-of-the-morning workouts. ``I guess that (time off) scares a lot of people,'' trainer Bob Baffert told a Hollywood Park publicist Saturday after scanning the Racing Form in which handicappers lined up against General Challenge. ``I guess it's one of those deals that everyone wants to try and beat the favorite.'' Baffert, whose Real Quiet won the 1999 Gold Cup, would be the first to train back-to-back winners since Charlie Whittingham had Kennedy Road (1973) and Tree of Knowledge (1974). There is really no in-between for General Challenge. He'll either be the winner or a loser. If he wins, he'll confirm his talent and stamp himself the handicap-division leader of the West Coast. If he loses, he'll confirm his undependability and kill whatever Horse of the Year chances he had. GOLD CUP When: Today, 2:40 p.m. TV/Radio: Channel 11 (2 p.m.); KNX-AM(1070) At Stake: $600,000 CAPTION(S): box Box: Gold Cup (see text) |
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