Frankel and Drysdale battle

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - If you want to get a good line on Wednesday's first race at Hollywood Park, just punch up a tape of the third race on Oct. 17 at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting. Of the five runners entered Wednesday, three are exiting the same race, including runner-up Honestly Darling.

The first day of week 3 of the Hollywood Park fall meeting begins with the richest race of the day, a $58,000 classified allowance at 1 1/16 miles for older fillies and mares. Because of the short field, it was moved out of the pick six sequence, leaving an entry-level allowance to occupy the traditional spot for a weekday feature, the seventh race.

The day's opener shapes up as an intramural squabble between trainers Bobby Frankel and Neil Drysdale, a pair of Hall of Famers who are based at Hollywood. They have two runners apiece in the race, with the Pico Perdomo-trained Terna rounding out the field.

Frankel trains both Honestly Darling and L'Emeraude, who finished second and fourth in the Oct. 17 race. Drysdale counters with Live Your Dreams, who finished fifth in that race, and Canasita, a European import making her first start in more than 15 months.

Honestly Darling, who broke from the rail on Oct. 17, was rank during the early part of that one-mile race, then settled down as the race progressed. She did not get a clear run until late in the stretch, however, and fell a neck short of winning.

L'Emeraude, who comes from farther back than Honestly Darling, was hampered by a slow pace that found the early leaders fresh. L'Emeraude made up nearly four lengths in a final quarter-mile that was run in 23.53 seconds.

"They both ran good," Frankel said. "They both were trapped."

Live Your Dreams raced three paths wide the whole way last time out and lost her punch late after breaking from the outside post in a field of six. She again has drawn the outside post in this race, but the field is smaller by one. She has finished first or second in 6 of 7 starts on the Hollywood turf.

Canasita was a listed stakes winner last year in both Italy and France. She hasn't raced, however, since Aug. 4, 2001.

Terna, a Group 1 winner in her native Argentina, has finished last in five-horse fields in all three of her starts in the United States. She hasn't raced since July 29 at Del Mar.

The seventh race finds Cease Span seeking her third straight victory against eight rivals in a 1 1/16-mile grass race.