Suave Bound for Hollywood's Swaps

(from Hollywood Park notes)
Mace and Samantha Siegel's stakes-winning 3-year-old Suave will be shipped to Hollywood Park for the $400,000 Swaps (gr. II) July 10, trainer Paul McGee said Friday.

The last time trainer McGee shipped a horse west from Kentucky to Hollywood Park for the Siegel family of Beverly Hills, they won the 2000 Hollywood Starlet (gr. I) with I Believe In You.

"We plan to work him Saturday at Churchill Downs and ship him Tuesday," said McGee Friday from Kentucky. Rafael Bejarano has the call in his first visit to California.

Suave is by A.P.Indy out of Urbane, a grade I stakes winner. He comes off a three-length victory on a sloppy track in the Northern Dancer Stakes (gr. III), his first added-money victory, at Churchill on June 12.

"After the Northern Dancer, I talked with Samantha, and it made all the sense in the world to run in the Swaps," said McGee.

Suave finished third in the Illinois Derby (gr. II) before finishing a distant 12th in the Lexington Stakes (gr. II) in his two starts prior to the Northern Dancer. "He got bumped around pretty good going around the first turn in the Lexington and called it a day early," said McGee.

McGee, brother-in-law of Southern California trainer Ron Ellis, plans to arrive Sunday for a July 4 family outing. Before his 2000 Hollywood Starlet success, he sent Bet On Sunshine here to finish third in the 1997 Breeders' Cup Sprint (gr. I).

Other probable starters for the Grade II Swaps at 1 1/8 miles include Affirmed Handicap one-two finishers Boomzeeboom (Victor Espinoza) and Twice as Bad (Corey Nakatani) and Preakness Stakes runner-up Rock Hard Ten (Patrick Valenzuela).