Racing at Hollywood Park : Bel Air Handicap Open-and-Shut Case for Judge Angelucci

Beware of horses who begin their careers at tiny Turfway Park in Northern Kentucky.

Alysheba won his first race at Turfway as a 2-year-old, then blossomed this year in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness and came within one win of sweeping the Triple Crown.

Judge Angelucci is another horse who had inauspicious beginnings at Turfway.

Last September, as a 3-year-old making his second career start, he beat maidens at the track across the state line from Cincinnati.

Judge Angelucci didn’t do much else in Kentucky, but then he was sent to trainer Charlie Whittingham at Santa Anita.

Whittingham usually doesn’t have much room in his bulging barn of stakes winners for 4-year-olds still eligible for races for non-winners of two, but he was familiar with Victorian Queen, Judge Angelucci’s dam. Whittingham trained Victorian Queen, later turning her over to his son, Michael.

Victorian Queen has produced two colts who have become major stakes winners this year. War won the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on a disqualification, and Judge Angelucci, after taking the Californian at Hollywood Park last month, added to his dam’s reputation with a three-length win Saturday in the $159,400 Bel Air Handicap before 30,228 fans.

The Bel Air didn’t shape up as much of a race, with the best horse nominated, Bedside Promise, not running because his trainer, Bobby Martin, didn’t approve of the weights.

Only five horses were entered, anyway, and there didn’t appear to be anybody fast enough to run with Judge Angelucci early.

Trainer Dick Mandella had hoped that the blinkers added for Polynesian Flyer would improve his speed.

But Polynesian Flyer, who was eased at the end when he was hopelessly beaten, couldn’t stay with Judge Angelucci coming out of the gate, and it was up to Mandella’s other horse in the race, 6-year-old Hopeful Word, to make a pass at the leader. Hopeful Word finished third.

Gary Baze, who rode Judge Angelucci for the first time in the Californian and then finished in a dead heat for second place behind stablemate Ferdinand in the Hollywood Gold Cup three weeks ago, kept his mount comfortably in front under modest fractions going down the backstretch.

That saved enough of Judge Angelucci’s energy for the finish, and he was never threatened in running 1 1/16 miles in 1:40 3/5, the fastest time at the distance since Bean Bag’s 1:414/5 in 1984.

Judge Angelucci, earning $91,900 and boosting his career total over the $500,000 mark, paid $3.80, $2.60 and $2.10. Bolder Than Bold, overtaking Hopeful Word to gain second by three-quarters of a length, paid $3.20 and $2.20, and Hopeful Word returned $2.20.

“The race set up like we thought, with not much speed,” Baze said. “He broke sharp, and I let him run through the first turn, then I had him relax.

“I asked him a little bit when they came to me in the middle of the backside. I gave him a good, long rest on the final turn, then turned him loose through the stretch. He gets better every time. He always seems to find an extra gear.”

Judge Angelucci, a son of Honest Pleasure, was named after Armand Angelucci, a friend of breeder Tom Gentry and a circuit-court judge in Lexington, Ky. The real judge was on hand, as he usually is, for the victory.

Judge Angelucci started winning for Whittingham right away, taking an allowance race at Santa Anita in February, and he now has five victories in seven tries in California.

Judge Angelucci carried top weight of 118 pounds, two more than Bolder Than Bold and one more than Hopeful Word.

After a rest, Hopeful Word was making his first start in three months.

“I had to try to keep up with the leader,” said Laffit Pincay, who rode Hopeful Word. “It was the only chance I had. But we couldn’t keep up. My horse ran a good race. He tried all he could.”

Whittingham got a late start in the stakes department at Hollywood Park, not connecting until the end of May.

At the time, he noted that the meeting wasn’t close to being over. Saturday’s win gave him five stakes wins for the season, and Whittingham has two shots--Reloy and Infinidad--in today’s $200,000 Vanity Handicap.

Horse Racing Notes

Lady’s Secret, a disappointment this year after being voted Horse of the Year in 1986, will attempt to pass All Along in career earnings in a $25,000 allowance race Tuesday at Monmouth Park. All Along, who was Horse of the Year in 1983, holds the record for purses by a female with just over $3 million, which is about $9,200 more than Lady’s Secret. Chris McCarron will ride Lady’s Secret Tuesday. . . . McCarron will also be at Monmouth Aug. 1 to ride Alysheba in the $500,000 Haskell Invitational. Alysheba worked a mile in 1:38 1/5 Saturday at Monmouth in preparation for the Haskell. Bet Twice, who prevented Alysheba from sweeping the Triple Crown by winning the Belmont Stakes, is also running in the Haskell and he worked three-quarters of a mile Saturday in 1:14 1/5. Both horses will carry 126 pounds in the Haskell, with Lost Code next in the weights at 124. . . . Jack Van Berg, who trains Alysheba, ran 2-3 with Feeling Gallant and Spellbound in the Oceanport Handicap Saturday at Monmouth. . . . Pat Valenzuela rode three winners at Hollywood Saturday, two of them--He’s a Saros and Aviator--for owner Earl Scheib.