Hollywood Park: Acclamation skips Sunset to await Eddie Read

INGLEWOOD, Calif.- Acclamation will skip Sunday’s $100,000 Sunset Handicap in favor of the $300,000 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar next Saturday, owner Bud Johnston said over the weekend.

The absence of Acclamation leaves the Grade 3 Sunset Handicap with a field of seven. Atticus Jack, a 12-1 shot on the morning-line, was scratched on Sunday morning. The Grade 3 Sunset is run over 1 1/2 miles on turf and is the closing-day feature of the Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting.

Two horses who ran behind Acclamation in the Jim Murray Handicap in May and Charles Whittingham Handicap in June, are leading contenders.

Falcon Rock, second in the Murray, and Celtic New Year, second in the Whittingham, are part of the challengers in the Sunset.

The distance will suit Imponente Purse, who was second in the Grade 2 San Juan Capistrano Handicap over about 1 3/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita in April. Trained by A.C. Avila, Imponente Purse was sixth in his only subsequent start, an optional claimer over a mile on turf on July 2 when the gelding was in traffic through the stretch under jockey Chantal Sutherland.

“Chantal had nowhere to go,” Avila said.

The other runners are Restless Soul, Victorian Price, First Settler, and Ashtar.