Round Table J

AMERICAN

GRADED STAKES PREVIEWS

A compact field of five turf marathoners will travel 1 3/4 miles in the

$100,000 Round Table H. (G3) at Hollywood Park on Saturday. OBRIGADO (Fr) (Enrique)

is the class of the field, and while he's far from a win machine, we have

nowhere else to go in this questionable field. Trained by Neil Drysdale, the

Grade 2 winner has never won in eight tries at Hollywood but he's run

some big ones, including a second-place showing in the Hollywood Turf Cup S. (G1)

in December. The gelded six-year-old will break from the inside post beneath

Joel Rosario.

Trainer Mike Mitchell is no stranger to taking claimers to stakes success in

California, and he'll attempt to do the same with PLUG ME IN (Hold For Gold) in

here. The gelded bay was once a quality performer for Marcelo Polanco and seems

to be rounding back into his best form after facing claiming foes in six

straight. If they let the speedy six-year-old alone early, he may get brave

under Martin Garcia.

PORFIDO (Chi) (Mash One [Chi]) has run well against much better but settles

for minor awards too often for Bobby Frankel. The seven-year-old has placed in

four of his five career tries over this green and could win this with his best.

Grade 2 hero ZAPPA (Afternoon Deelites) is not in the best form of his

career but has the back class to make some noise against these for John

Sadler. The gelded bay responded from a brief freshening to show some life when

closing for fourth in an allowance test last out, but he runs best when on or

near the lead, and this race has a lot of speed.

LEESIDER (Bertrando) wired a $50,000 claiming field at 1 1/16 miles on the

Cushion Track in advance of this and is winless in three career turf attempts,

so we'll have to pass.