Hollywood: Dance With Gable goes for a triple

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Dance With Gable’s win in a $35,000 claimer for turf sprinters on June 12 produced a milestone for the 7-year-old gelding – the first time he won consecutive races in his 33-race career.

Dance With Gable has a chance at a third consecutive win in an optional claimer over six furlongs at Hollywood Park on Friday evening, and trainer Mike Machowsky said this is an opportunity that cannot be skipped considering the circuit’s racing schedule in coming months.

Machowsky said Del Mar’s Polytrack synthetic surface and the five-furlong turf sprints run at that meeting do not suit Dance With Gable as well as six-furlong turf races at Hollywood Park or hillside turf races at Santa Anita.

“He’s not as good a horse on synthetic, and five-eighths on turf is a little too short,” Machowsky said. “We can run him where he can be aggressive.

“He’s getting old and all that, but he’s done so well for us. If I don’t lose him on Friday, I might give him a little break. He’s such an honest horse.”

Dance With Gable is entered for a $25,000 claiming price in Friday’s race, which drew a field of seven. Dance With Gable will make his sixth consecutive appearance in a claiming race, and will be after his 14th win. He won the Wild Harmony Stakes over six furlongs on turf here last November, and two sprint stakes in 2009.

“We want to put him in the easiest race for him,” Machowsky said.

Dance With Gable has won as a stalker or a front-runner in his last two starts, the first of which was an optional claimer against statebreds on May 14, the same conditions as Friday’s race.

Dance With Gable is likely to stalk the pace. The quick geldings Casual Obsession and Caught a Flyer and the 3-year-old Classic Bobby will ensure a fast pace. Aliza’s Dream, claimed for $25,000 here on June 2, is a late threat in his debut for trainer Mike Puype.

Shadow of Illinois, the 11-year-old senior racehorse on the circuit, has drawn the rail and would be greatly helped by a fast pace.

“He’s doing really well,” trainer Anthony Saavedra said on Wednesday. “He was ornery as can be getting him ready to go to the track this morning.

“There is a lot of speed in there,” Saavedra said of Friday’s race. “He runs his best race from off the pace.”