Hollywood Don will try dirt again in Los Alamitos Futurity

CYPRESS, Calif. – A stakes winner on turf, Hollywood Don will switch surfaces and run in his second Grade 1 of the year on dirt in the $300,000 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 19.

From trainer Peter Miller’s perspective, the Los Alamitos Futurity provides an ideal opportunity to see if it’s worth pointing Hollywood Don to dirt stakes for 3-year-olds in 2016.

“We’ll give him a try and see if we can’t turn him into a dirt horse,” Miller said on Friday. “There are no monsters in there as of yet. They could turn out to be. It looks wide open.”

The race will not include division leader Nyquist, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland on Oct. 31. Nyquist has resumed training, but will not race until early next year.

Hollywood Don, who is owned by Gary Hartunian and Calumet Farm, won the Del Mar Juvenile Turf on Sept. 5 and was third behind Nyquist in the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes on dirt at Santa Anita on Sept. 26.

Miller said he was disappointed with Hollywood Don’s ninth-place finish in the BC Juvenile Turf at Keeneland on Oct. 30, the colt’s most recent start. He described the loss as “a lackluster effort.”

Victor Espinoza is booked to ride Hollywood Don for the first time in the Los Alamitos Futurity.

“We’ve got the guy who won the last two Kentucky Derbies and that’s not bad,” Miller said.

Miller said Hollywood Don can revert to turf races if he does not perform well on dirt.

“There’s not much on the grass for the first half of the year,” he said. “If we can do some good in some of these dirt races, it will bode well.”

Entries will be drawn on Wednesday for the Los Alamitos Futurity.

The other probable starters with stakes experience include Toews On Ice, I’malreadythere, and Dr. Dorr, who were first, third, and fourth in the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes at Del Mar on Nov. 14; Mor Spirit, who was second in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs on Nov. 28; and Frank Conversation, who was third in the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes on turf at Del Mar on Nov. 29.

Bob Baffert trains Toews On Ice, Dr. Dorr, and Mor Spirit.

Sorryaboutnothing and Urlacher, first and second in a maiden race at Del Mar on Nov. 15, also are candidates. Urlacher finished first in that race, but was disqualified and placed second for causing interference.