Hollywood Park: Synthetic specialist Sparkling Style looks solid; pick six carryover is $170K

Benoit & Associates

Willa B Awesome (left) was sharp early this sesaon when she won the Santa Anita Oaks, but her recent form has been dull.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Sparkling Style returns to her favorite footing Sunday at Betfair Hollywood Park, where she stands out in the $75,000 Cat’s Cradle Handicap.

A field of seven California-bred fillies and mares entered the Cat’s Cradle, a 7 1/2-furlong sprint on Cushion Track. The surface happens to be Sparkling Style’s favorite – 5 starts on the Hollywood synthetic produced 3 wins and a second.

The Cat’s Cradle would be the first authentic stakes win for Sparkling Style, the 2-1 favorite owned by Arnold Zetcher and trained by Bob Baffert. Sparkling Style won a maiden race named the Alphabet Kisses in 2010 and a first-level allowance named the Warren’s Thoroughbreds early this year.

Despite superior recent form of Sparkling Style, the springtime achievements of Willa B Awesome led to her 119-pound top weight assignment. Willa B Awesome ranked among California’s top 3-year-old fillies early this year, with wins in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks and Grade 3 Santa Ysabel.

Willa B Awesome tailed off since then however, and enters the Cat’s Cradle following three subpar efforts. Willa B Awesome has won 5 of 16 races and $615,896, making her the most accomplished in the field. Martin Pedroza rides for trainer Walther Solis.

Going for a Spin starts as second high weight at 118 pounds for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and owner Tommy Town Thoroughbreds, who won the Cat’s Cradle in 2009 with U R All That I Am. Going for a Spin will be ridden by Rafael Bejarano. Her 10 starts this year produced a stakes win at Fairplex Park, and five runner-up finishes.

Camille C could set the pace. A front-running 5-year-old, her earnings total of $395,205 is second-highest in the field. However, she has not won a race since the 2010 Melair Stakes at Hollywood, some 20 starts ago.

Magic School and Cayanna are allowance- or claiming-caliber fillies that figure for a small share, while Really Elegant is ambitiously spotted after being re-claimed by trainer Richard Rosales last out from a fifth-place finish in a $10,000 claiming race.

Sparkling Style is the fastest in the field based on Beyer Figures; she routinely earns numbers in the mid-80s. With a recent fourth-place comeback in the Cal Cup Distaff on turf under her belt, and three subsequent works at Hollywood, Sparkling Style can give Baffert and Zetcher each their second win in the Cat’s Cradle.

Zetcher won the race in 2005 with Ron McAnally-trained House of Fortune; Baffert won it in 2001 with Golden Eagle Farm-owned Favorite Funtime.

The Cat’s Cradle is race 3 on the nine-race Sunday card.