(Edited press release)
The CashCall Mile Invitational Stakes (gr. IIT) will become Hollywood Park’s richest race with a $1-million purse and will also be run at night in 2007.
The race, first sponsored by J. Paul Reddam’s consumer loan company with a purse of $750,000 in 2006, will be carded July 6 along with the $150,000 A Gleam Invitational Handicap (gr. II) and the $100,000-added Flawlessly Stakes on the Friday night program.
“I am absolutely thrilled that we will have another million-dollar race in Southern California,” said Reddam, a prominent horse owner and CashCall founder. “Hopefully, it will be a big night, and we will get some exposure to a sector of the public that doesn’t usually see horse racing.”
“We’re very pleased to continue our relationship with CashCall,” said Martin Panza, Hollywood Park’s vice president of racing. “Dance in the Mood’s victory was a highlight of the 2006 meeting. We’ve always believed in promoting Friday night racing at Hollywood Park, and for the first time, we will have a major racing event on a night program.”
The CashCall Mile, an invitational event for fillies and mares which was formerly run as the Royal Heroine Stakes, was upgraded to grade II status following Dance in the Mood’s impressive victory in 2006. With the increase to $1 million, it becomes the richest race offered on the grass for fillies and mares in North America other than the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (gr. IT).