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California 1 By Oscar Otis Hollywood Park Meeting Off to Fast Start The Searcher Upsets in Premiere Handicap Sundays Caliente Feature a Major Event EventHOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOOD PARK Inglewood Calif May 9 If the opening day statistics may be taken as a cri ¬ terion Hollywood Park is in for another recordshat ¬ tering season attendance han ¬ dle and pursewise for a crowd of 31703 in a seemingly holiday mood clicked past the admission wickets to witness running of the 20000 added Hollywood Premiere Handicap The afternoon for the most part was overcast and coolish although about the sixth race the sun did begin to burn away the high fog and the day turned more pleasant The multi ¬ tude was treated to a surprise of considerable magnitude when The Searcher a former C V Whitney campaigner but of more recent date rac ¬ ing for Mr and Mrs Bert Martin of San Marion liter ¬ ally came from the clouds to win and going away by three parts of a length from the consistent How Now and the stouthearted Swirling Abbey Lightly weighted at 107 pounds and given an excellent ride by Warren Ferguson The Searcher raced the 6 furlongs in 109 paid his admirers at the rate of 3450 per twodollar ticket and earned a net of 13150 for his owners from the gross Premiere purse of 22400 22400Prince Prince Khaled Showed Early Speed SpeedThe The favorite in the Premiere was Prince Khaled onetime sensation of the western racing world but who went wrong on the eve of the Santa Anita Derby of 1957 In fact his last start was at Santa Anita on Feb 2 of that year when he won by more than nine lengths to establish himself as the solid Anita Derby favorite His owner General W W Kratz of Santa Barbara had just turned down a really big offer for the colt when his shins and knees began to bother him forcing him out of training After thelong rest of more than a year of farm life and treatment Prince Khaled elected to make his comeback try in the Premiere He had his speed dueling for the early lead with Gold Cover the pair going as a team in22 the half in A55 and almost to the 5 furlongs in 579s Gold Cover cracked from the pace first and Prince Khaled kept right on to the pole itself where he was head and head with How Now and Golden Notes But at that point the competition was too much and he tired seemingly short For a first out it wasnt a bad showing at all but it is just unfortunate he couldnt have found a somewhat softer spot to make his debut as a fouryearold Hes okay ob ¬ served trainer Willie Molter and from here on well gear our training for a try in the Gold Cup CupOscar Oscar O reputedly the best twoyearold prospect In the stable of Rex Ellsworth got the 1958 summer meeting off to an impressive start in the twoyearold feature of the inaugural day a maiden dash of 5 fur ¬ longs Aided by a switch to blinkers and a whip they were not permitted in those 3f urlong dashes at Santa Anita Oscar O outraced and outgamed his field lead ¬ ing from flagfall to finish to score by four open lengths over Sahuara Donna and Farside Just out of the money but racing boldly at the finish was C V Whit ¬ neys Jungle Dancer a roan colt by Native Dancer Monsoon Jungle Dancer is supposedly the best of a strong lot that Whitney is racing in California for the first time of a summer The colt raced greenly so greenly in fact that on the turn it didnt look as if he was going to do anything But he made up ground in the late stages so much so in fact that he impressed as one that must be tabbed for future reference and we refer of course to stakes Oscar Os time for the 5 panels was a neat 59 good enough under the cir ¬ cumstances Shoemaker told us after the race that his colt had a lot left and moreover might be a lot of horse We dont have to say we suppose that he is named after this columnist and trainer Meshach Tenney says the colt may break a longstanding sup ¬ posed jinx i e that no good horse named after a turf writer ever turned out to be very much Well maybe so As far as we can recall Bill Farnsworth was the best colt so named within the last generation generationRound Round Table Aims at Million Mark MarkNational National turf interest centers Sunday at Caliente where Round Table races in Johnny Alessios 50000 Special and as is well known if The Table wins he will pass the milliondollar mark in earnings Willie Mol ¬ ter jtold me just before shipping by van to the border course that Round Table is better if anything right now than ever before in his life But he still has a long way to go to pass Nashuas earnings roughly 300000 Not too many horses have won 300000 in their whole life and Round Table will have to annex that sum AFTER having won a million dollars As for the Caliente race weight to the contrary of what many might suppose I believe well have to run rather well to win it For Ive seen too many races in my lifetime that looked easy on paper but turned out quite some ¬ thing else again when it came to the actual running The most encouraging feature of the Caliente Sunday stake is that it fits nicely into Round Tables racing schedule for the immediate summer ahead especially the 100000 Californian here at Hollywood Park on May 24 Most everyone in the Southern California turf col ¬ ony plans to make the trek to the border Sunday to toContinued Continued on Page Twenty CALIFORNIA CALIFORNIABy By OSCAR OTIS Continued from Page Seven Sevensee see the Round Table race and there is a good chance that all attendance records for Caliente will be shattered We dare say the race will pay for itself as the pass list has been suspended for the day Our suggestion to motorists is to park on the American side of the line using Mexican cabs from the border to the track and back again Whether or not the Caliente Special will become an annual eVent will have to await developments and an analy ¬ sis of the public acceptance of the stake as raced Sunday But nothing could be more pleasing to far western fans than to see the race become an annual fixture After all Tijuana predecessor to the pres ¬ ent Caliente track was founder of the 10000 race and while 50000 admittedly is just onehalf a huhdred the purse still represents a big step on the trail back to world prestige which Caliente once en ¬ joyed a prestige which made it the world capital of winter racing and when Florida and New Orleans were by comparison the bushes
