Hollywood cuts stakes, stakes purses for spring/summer meet

The $700,000 Hollywood Gold Cup (G1) and the $700,000 American Oaks

Invitational (G1) will anchor an $8-million stakes schedule for Hollywood Park's

65-day spring/summer meet which opens April 22. The stakes schedule was revamped

due to the sagging economy with the intent of protecting the overall quality of

racing.

"We thought the best course of action was to do as much as we could for

overnight purses," said Martin Panza, vice president of racing. "The deductions

will help keep overnight purses at or near their 2008 levels."

The Hollywood Park stakes schedule, reduced by $1.5 million from 2008, will

not include three graded races -- the Jim Murray Memorial H. (G2), the Hawthorne

H. (G3) and the Will Rogers S. (G3). The deletion of the three graded races will

be reviewed in 2010.

"For this year, only, they are discontinued," Panza said. "Under the

guidelines of the graded stakes committee, as long as we run them again next

year, we're allowed to keep the grades. It would probably be our intent to

re-establish those races, but we will have to wait and see if the economy

improves."

In addition, the CashCall Mile (G2) will be run as the Royal Heroine Mile

with a $250,000 purse, a $500,000 decrease.

"We're very pleased that CashCall, through owner Paul Reddam, was a sponsor

and that they remain with us for the CashCall Futurity (G1)," Panza said,

referring to the major juvenile feature of the fall meet. "We hope the CashCall

Mile will be coming back to Hollywood Park in the future. We're very

disappointed that it was not given Grade 1 status, a point that is hard to

explain to our sponsor. It is unfortunate that Japanese Grade 1 winners are not

taken into account by the graded stakes committee."

The eighth running of the American Oaks is scheduled for July 5, along with

the $300,000 Triple Bend H. (G1). The Hollywood Gold Cup will be run for the

70th time on July 11, the same day as the Grade Royal Heroine Mile. While the

Gold Cup and American Oaks remain the richest races on the calendar, they have

each been cut by $50,000.

There are 49 races on the stakes schedule, including six Grade 1 events, 10

Grade 2 races and 11 Grade 3 races. There will be seven days with multiple

stakes races, beginning with the $1.3-million Gold Rush X on April 25. The

$250,000 Snow Chief S. is the feature event on Gold Rush Day, but it has strong

support in the $200,000 Melair S. and four $150,000 races -- the Khaled S.,

Fran's Valentine S., B. Thoughtful S. and Tiznow S. All of these races are

restricted to California-breds.

The first Grade 1 race on the schedule is the $250,000 Shoemaker Mile on

Memorial Day, May 25. The Shoemaker, first run as the Premiere H. on Hollywood

Park's inaugural opening day on June 10, 1938, will be contested for the 66th

time. The prestigious $300,000 Charles Whittingham Memorial H. (G1) will be run

on June 6 and will be accompanied by the $100,000 Ack Ack H. (G3) and the

$70,000 Redondo Beach S.

The $250,000 Californian S. (G2), last major stepping-stone to the Hollywood

Gold Cup, will be run on June 13. The $100,000 Round Table H. (G3) will also be

part of the program.

Hollywood Park's two major races for two-year-olds will be run on the same

day with the $100,000 Hollywood Juvenile Championship (G3) and $100,000

Landaluce S. scheduled for July 12.

Closing weekend will feature the $300,000 Swaps S. (G2) and $150,000 A Gleam

Handicap (G2) on July 18, with the Sunset H. (G2) on July 19.