Hollywood Park: Acclamation ready for season debut in Inglewood

There are stakes on the first two days of the Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting, which begins Thursday.

Acclamation, the champion older male of 2011, makes his 2012 debut in Friday’s $100,000 Inglewood Handicap over 1 1/8 miles on turf.

Trained by Don Warren, Acclamation has not started since winning the Grade 2 Clement Hirsch Turf Invitational at Santa Anita last October.
In the Inglewood, Acclamation is part of a field of five that includes Haimish Hy, Holladay Road, Smug, and Utopian.

Acclamation, 6, will be ridden by Patrick Valenzuela, who announced his retirement last December and then reversed the decision earlier this month.

Valenzuela, 49, has two mounts on Thursday afternoon’s eight-race program, and four mounts on Friday’s nine-race program, which begins at 7:05 p.m. Pacific.

Passing Game, third in the Baffle Stakes for turf sprinters at Santa Anita in February, starts in Thursday’s $70,000 Harry Henson Stakes for 3-year-olds over six furlongs on turf. The winner of Golden Nugget Stakes at Golden Gate Fields last November, Passing Game is the only stakes winner in a field of eight.

Other contenders are Senor Rain, second or third in four stakes; and American Act, second in the Grade 2 San Vicente at Santa Anita in February.

Eden’s Moon tunes up for Kentucky Oaks

Eden’s Moon, the winner of the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita on March 3, worked five furlongs in 1:00 at Santa Anita on Sunday.

She will make her next start in the $1 million Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 4.

Trainer Bob Baffert said that Eden’s Moon actually worked seven furlongs in “1:25 and change” and galloped out a mile in 1:39 on Sunday.
Owned by Kaleem Shah, Eden’s Moon finished third in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks on March 31, her most recent start. She is one of three hopefuls for the Kentucky Oaks trained by Baffert, joined by Jemima’s Pearl and Mamma Kimbo.