Hollywood Park will restore four stakes to the schedule, including the $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup (gr. IT), when its autumn meeting opens Nov. 4.
The meet will follow the first Oak Tree Racing Association stand at Hollywood Park on the Southern California racing calendar. Hollywood Park announced Sept. 22 that the 31-day meet will include 18 stakes, 12 of them graded, with purses of $3.2 million. It runs through Dec. 19.
Three of the grade I races - the Matriarch, Citation Handicap and Hollywood Derby - have each had their purses reduced by $50,000 to $250,000 to accommodate the return of the four races that were cut last year.
The most significant of those four is the Hollywood Turf Cup, a 1 1/2-mile race on Nov. 13.
The other three are ungraded -- the $100,000 Real Quiet Stakes for 2-year-olds on Nov. 6, the $100,000 Sharp Cat Stakes for 2-year-old fillies on Nov. 7, and the $55,000 Playa Del Rey Stakes for older fillies and mares on Nov. 14.
“We’re glad that we were able to bring the Hollywood Turf Cup, the Real Quiet and the Sharp Cat back as we are running a longer meet this year,’’ said Martin Panza, vice president of racing. “We’re once again happy to offer the Turf Cup. It is important to add a mile and a half turf race to the Southern California calendar.
“The Real Quiet and the Sharp Cat provide an opportunity for young horses to develop and offers a preview to both the Futurity and the Starlet.’’
The richest race during the meet is the $750,000 CashCall Futurity (gr. I) Dec. 18, the next-to-last day of the autumn meet.
The Futurity is in the fourth year of sponsorship by the consumer loans company founded by prominent horse owner and breeder J. Paul Reddam. The race has produced six Kentucky Derby champions and winners of 15 Triple Crown races since its inaugural running in 1981.
Lookin At Lucky, currently considered the top 3-year-old in the country, became the third Futurity winner trained by Bob Baffert – joining Real Quiet (1997) and Point Given (2000) – to capture the Preakness (gr. I), winning the second jewel of the Triple Crown last May 15 at Pimlico.
Sharing the spotlight again with the Futurity and the $300,000 guaranteed Hollywood Starlet (gr. I) for 2-year-old fillies that will be run on Dec. 11 is the popular Turf Festival.
Consisting of five graded stakes during a span of three days (Nov. 26-28), the Turf Festival will be held for the 19th time in 20 years over Thanksgiving weekend.
The Matriarch, Citation Handicap and the Hollywood Derby headline the festival.
The Matriarch, a mile race for older fillies and mares, begins things Nov. 26. The Citation, which is for older horses and run at 1 1/16 miles, and the $100,000 Generous Stakes (gr. IIIT), for 2-year-olds at one mile, will be run Nov. 27.
Climaxing the Turf Festival Nov. 28 are the Hollywood Derby and $100,000 Miesque Stakes (gr. IIIT) for 2-year-old fillies at one mile.
The first Oak Tree at Hollywood Park meet commences with night racing on Sept. 30 and concludes Oct. 31.
