Hollywood Park notes: Sahara Sky back in training

Sahara Sky, winner of the Met Mile in May, has returned to training at Betfair Hollywood Park after a lengthy layoff and should be set to race again during the Santa Anita meeting, according to Dan Ward, assistant to Sahara Sky’s trainer and co-owner, Jerry Hollendorfer.

Sahara Sky had a productive first half of the year. In addition to winning the Met Mile, he won the Grade 2 Palos Verdes and the San Carlos at Santa Anita, and was second in the Grade 1 Carter at Aqueduct.

“He was turned out at Tommy Town and came back looking super,” Ward said. “We wanted to run him in the Breeders’ Cup, but he came back looking so good from the Met Mile we went on with him. He ended up needing freshening. For next year, the plan is to give him more time immediately over the summer and have a fresh horse for the fall.”

Ward said Test winner Sweet Lulu, fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint in her last start, is being pointed to the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes early in the Santa Anita winter meeting, which opens Dec. 26.

The barn is very high on the 2-year-old Shared Belief, the powerful Hollywood Prevue winner who will make his next start in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park on Dec. 14.

“I’ve been around here since 1976, and I haven’t seen a 2-year-old win like that since Landaluce,” Ward said of Shared Belief’s Prevue win.