Higher Power looks to rebound in Hollywood Gold Cup

The handicap division seeks a fresh start Saturday at Santa Anita in a historic race once among the premier Grade 1’s of spring.

It is a good time to start over, with welcome restoration of the name Hollywood Gold Cup to the 1 1/4-mile race run for 75 years at Hollywood Park. When that track closed in 2013, the race changed locales and was renamed the Gold Cup at Santa Anita.

But now the Hollywood Gold Cup name is deservedly reintroduced, and six runners in the 2020 edition will try to live up to tradition. That will not be so easy.

Higher Power is the best horse, a Grade 1 winner, but is unraced since a last-place finish in January. Improbable has finished off the board in his last four graded stakes tries. Midcourt did not stay 1 1/4 miles last out, third at odds-on. Tenfold has finished off the board in seven straight races. Brown Storm and Parsimony also are entered.

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This is not murderer’s row. But the Gold Cup, race 10, is an opportunity for program favorite Higher Power to regain his position as top older male in California.

Higher Power burst to the fore with a Grade 1 romp last summer in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar. He emerged from a pair of Grade 1 thirds with his reputation intact. A stumble cost him in the Awesome Again; he finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Next was the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park, where Higher Power inherited favoritism.

He could not have run worse, last of 10, with an alibi.

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“He was fighting some sort of infection, he had a high white count,” trainer John Sadler said. That wasn’t all. “He had ulcers that were bugging him, so we gave him some light training and treated him.”

Sadler said Higher Power “looks good and he’s training good, and he’s been good at a mile and a quarter. He has an innate ability to stay. It’s in his comfort zone.”

Flavien Prat has worked Higher Power and “seemed very pleased,” Sadler said. Beyond the layoff, another challenge is anxiety in the gate. Higher Power does not always break sharply. Win or lose, the Gold Cup will set up Higher Power for summer at Del Mar.

While the layoff and break are hurdles for Higher Power, the 1 1/4 miles is a challenge for Improbable. Bob Baffert trains the 4-year-old, whose runner-up finish last out behind Grade 1 winner Tom’s d’Etat at Oaklawn Park was better than it looks.

“He ran a really good race, he was in a bad spot,” Baffert said.

It was an understatement. Improbable raced four wide on both turns, opened up in the lane, and got collared.

That was early April, and the first start for Improbable in five months. Baffert said he “came back and worked well.” But can he stay a mile and a quarter?

“It depends on how fast he goes early, that’s the key,” Baffert said. “They can all go a mile and quarter at the right speed.”

Drayden Van Dyke rides Improbable, who can make the lead or press Brown Storm.

Improbable has not won an important race since 2018, but with a comfortable pressing trip, the Gold Cup could be redemption. The same applies to Midcourt.

Midcourt developed late last year into a legitimate division leader with decisive victories in two graded stakes at 1 1/8 miles. But when he started at odds-on in the Santa Anita Handicap in March, he sputtered and finished third.

Trainer John Shirreffs believes Midcourt was forced to move too early, while a skeptical assessment is the distance was out of reach.

“He always acted like a mile and a quarter would be a good distance for him,” Shirreffs said.

Then there is the layoff.

“Midcourt’s the kind of horse that doesn’t like a lot of training,” Shirreffs said. He acknowledged the “three-month layoff is a little difficult because it’s much better for him to have races than to have training. A lot of horses are probably in somewhat similar positions.”

They include Steve Asmussen-trained Tenfold, who arrived Tuesday from Kentucky.

“With the pandemic and everything that’s happened, every horse’s schedule has been adjusted,” Asmussen said. “Nothing’s been ideal. It’s not perfect.’

Tenfold will be facing a modest Gold Cup field, and he does have attributes.

“He’s a horse that is accomplished over a distance of ground, he’s a Grade 2-winning millionaire with a huge pedigree,” Asmussen said.

The 2019 Gold Cup was won by shipper Vino Rosso, like Tenfold a son of Curlin. If the Gold Cup falls apart, late-runner Tenfold and jockey Mike Smith could post an upset.

Higher Power opens at 9-5 by linemaker Jon White. Midcourt and Improbable both are listed at 2-1; Tenfold is 6-1.