Extra furlong may be tough for Go Go

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Since last fall, no horse in California has been as consistent for as long as Go Go, who has won six of seven starts, including four stakes.

Sunday, she will be heavily favored to win her fifth stakes of 2001 in the $200,000 A Gleam Handicap for fillies and mares at Hollywood Park.

But Sunday's race is not an easy assignment for Go Go. She is the 124-pound highweight, spotting five others from seven to 13 pounds and is trying seven furlongs for the first time.

In her last start on June 2, Go Go was all out to win the Grade 3 Desert Stormer Handicap over six furlongs, a point not lost on trainer Warren Stute. "It was a tough race on her," he said.

Go Go caught pacesetter Kalookan Queen in the Desert Stormer and must track the same mare in the A Gleam. Trained by Bruce Headley, Kalookan Queen was making her first start since April 2000 in the Desert Stormer. She has not won at seven furlongs, but finished second in the 2000 Santa Monica Handicap and third in the 1999 La Brea Stakes over that distance.

Go Go has won over six furlongs on dirt and over about 6 1/2 furlongs on Santa Anita's hillside turf course. "I'd rather the race was six," Stute said of the A Gleam. "She's bred to go on - more or less."

Kalookan Queen is brilliantly fast, and unlikely to be challenged by Kitty on the Track or Image of Glory, whose best chances are as stalkers. Kitty on the Track is making her first start since winning a California-bred stakes in December 1999. She was off for 18 months due to a hairline fracture of a shoulder, according to trainer Bill Spawr.

The closer to fear is Nany's Sweep, the winner of the Santa Monica Handicap last January. A 5-year-old, Nany's Sweep was third in the Grade 2 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs on May 5 in her last start, closing into a track that played very fast.

"Maybe the seven furlongs will help," trainer Kathy Walsh said. "She's training really well. She likes the distance."