Hollywood Park: Acclamation could run in either Sunset or Eddie Read

INGLEWOOD, Calif.- Acclamation may attempt to win his third graded stakes on turf at the Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting in next Sunday’s $100,000 Sunset Handicap over 1 1/2 miles. Or, Acclamation may skip the race in favor of the $300,000 Eddie Read Stakes over 1 1/-8 miles on turf at Del Mar on July 23.

Trainer Don Warren said on Sunday that Acclamation will be entered for the Grade 3 Sunset on Thursday. Before the Sunset is run, he and the partnership that owns the 5-year-old will assess the nomination list for the Read and see how Acclamation fits in the two races, Warren said.

“I certainly like the mile and a half more than the mile and an eighth,” Warren said. “He’s a specialist at a mile and a half. The Read is more money and it’s a Grade 1. We’ll take a look and decide.”

Acclamation won the Grade 2 Jim Murray Handicap over 1 1/2 miles on turf and Grade 1 Charles Whittingham Handicap over 1 1/4 miles on turf earlier at this meeting, taking both races for the second consecutive year. He would be a heavy favorite in the Sunset.

The Sunset is the closing-day feature of the spring-summer meeting. As of Sunday, the other probable starters include Ashtar, Celtic New Year, Falcon Rock, Imponente Purse, and Victorian Prince.

The Sunset is one of five stakes on the final two days of the spring-summer meeting. The most lucrative race is Saturday’s $250,000 American Oaks for 3-year-old fillies over 1 1/4 miles on turf. Bizzy Caroline, the winner of the Grade 3 Regret Stakes, and Cambina and Star Billing, stakes winners this year, head a small field expected to include Entrustment and Nereid.

Saturday’s program also includes the $200,000 A Gleam Handicap for fillies and mares over seven furlongs. Ultra Blend, the promoted winner of the Grade 2 Milady Handicap on May 21, and the outright winner of four of her five starts prior to that, is among the 12 nominations.

The race is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge program, offering a fees-paid berth to the winner for the BC Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill Downs in November.