Hollendorfer Enters Five in Las Virgenes
Jerry Hollendorfer has five horses entered in Saturday’s Grade I Las Virgenes Stakes, half the field.
That couldn’t happen in the old days, when they would have had to run as an entry, a bet on one being a bet on all.
“I think the most we’ve entered in a race before was three,” said Hollendorfer’s assistant of eight years Dan Ward.
“I never saw it,” said agent Vince DeGregory, who has been in the game since 1959. Ditto for agent Scotty McClellan, who although he didn’t remember it occurring in the 43 years he’s been in racing, added, “But I think it might have happened.”
Be that as it may, Hollendorfer, who is inching his way towards 7,000 career wins, entered five of the six horses he had nominated to the one-mile race for 3-year-old fillies.
Hollendorfer’s Fab Five for the $300,000 race: Glory, Lutine Belle, Achiever’s Legacy, Majestic Presence and Light the City.
Safety in numbers is not necessarily a bad thing. “Years ago,” California Horse Racing Board steward Tom Ward recalled, “someone said that one day Charlie Whittingham will have every horse in a race,” to which Santa Anita Racing Secretary Jimmy Kilroe had this rejoinder: ‘What’s wrong with that?’”
The field for the Las Virgenes, which goes the eighth race: Glory, Mike Smith, 4-1; Maybellene, Rafael Bejarano, 3-1; Lutine Belle, Alex Solis, 12-1; Achiever’s Legacy, Drayden Van Dyke, 8-1; Mio Me, Corey Nakatani. 15-1; Majestic Presence, Gary Stevens, 7-2, Callback, Martin Garcia, 4-1; Suva Harbor, Martin Pedroza, 8-1; Miss Mandate, Joe Talamo, 12-1; and Light the City, Kent Desormeaux, 6-1.
Source: Santa Anita Park