CashCall sponsors futurity

The Grade 1 Hollywood Futurity at Hollywood Park in December will be sponsored by the loan company CashCall and be renamed the CashCall Futurity, according to Paul Reddam, the president of CashCall and a horse owner. The race will be worth $750,000, he said.

Reddam did not disclose terms of the arrangement, which were recently finalized with Hollywood Park officials. CashCall sponsors a $750,000 turf race for fillies and mares at a mile on turf at Hollywood Park in July known as the CashCall Mile. The race was known as the Royal Heroine Stakes through 2005.

Reddam is hoping the futurity's higher purse will give it more importance in determining the divisional champion.

"I think this would be a great way to have something [prominent] at the end of the meeting," he said. "It's more likely to have an impact on the 2-year-old championship with a bigger purse."

The 2006 Hollywood Futurity was worth $200,000-added. When nomination and supplemental entry fees were included, the race was worth $441,500. Stormello, a leading contender for the Kentucky Derby, finished a neck in front of the Reddam-owned Liquidity, another Kentucky Derby hopeful.

This year's CashCall Futurity is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 22, the final program of a 32-day fall meeting. According to Hollywood Park general manager Eual Wyatt Jr., Hollywood will ask the California Horse Racing Board to race on Sunday, Dec. 16, then be dark until the final two days of the meet: Friday, Dec. 21, and Saturday, Dec. 22.

"We'd like to build the weekend around that race," Wyatt said of the CashCall Futurity.