Cougar Ii

Hollywood Park's new turf course certainly agreed with Heavenly Ransom. Making her first appearance in a graded stakes on opening day in Inglewood, the 4-year-old Red Ransom filly responded with an impressive victory in the $100,000 Wilshire Handicap. Purchased for a bargain $22,000 at the 2003 Keeneland September sale by trainer Ray Bell for owners Mr. and Mrs. Vicken Meguerditchian, Heavenly Ransom, the 5-2 second choice, won for the fifth time in six starts in her Hollywood Park debut.

A pair of 3-year-olds riding three-race win streaks will get together in the $150,000 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Breeders' Cup today at Saratoga. The Grade II at 1 1/8 miles on turf is the main event on a card that follows the induction of Cougar II, trainer Carl Hanford and jockey Bill Boland into racing's hall of fame. The race is also part of a pick six with a carry-over of $96,214.

Melanie Stubblefield has managed to remain neutral during most of the thousands of Hollywood Park races for which she has handled the paperwork, but during the $250,000 Californian on Saturday, expect her to be cheering for her namesake: Melanyhasthepapers. "Ron Anson, his owner at the time, asked if he could name him for me and I said sure," Stubblefield said from her desk in the racing office.

Griswold, a 5-year-old quarter horse, is the 1-2 favorite to win the first match race in Santa Anita history today. It will be held between the fourth and fifth races and there will be win betting only. The 5-year-old Merridoc gelding's opponent in the four-furlong match is Valiant Pete, who wasn't the first choice to be the thoroughbred participant. Originally, Sunny Blossom was going to oppose Griswold, but he was dropped after a dull 1991 debut and Olympic Prospect took his place.

Neither the winner nor the beaten favorite had an easy time during the $165,200 Gamely Handicap at Hollywood Park on Sunday. The difference was, Toussaud scored a one-length victory, and Exchange, at 17-10, got nothing for finishing last in a nine-horse field. Toussaud suffered a cut on her left foreleg at the top of the stretch, when she was in fifth place and her jockey, Kent Desormeaux, was looking for racing room.

Trainer Eddie Gregson, who saddled longshot Gato Del Sol to win the Kentucky Derby in 1982, died of what police believed was a self-inflicted gunshot wound Sunday night at his office in South Pasadena. The South Pasadena police, who said that Gregson's body was discovered by his wife, Gail, at 9:45 p.m. Sunday, were treating the death as a suicide, pending an investigation. "There's nothing that would indicate foul play," officer Matt Peterson said.

If it's Friday night, this must be Hollywood Park. And if it's Saturday, it must be Wyoming Downs, in a town of fewer than 7,000 people on the Wyoming-Utah border. From the big leagues to the bushes, this is the nature of Bill Shoemaker's last hurrah in the United States. Monmouth Park one week, Northlands Park the next.

Reality, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Different people see different things, but few could believe what they saw Sunday at Hollywood Park. Before an astonished crowd of 26,039, Cutlass Reality, a 6-year-old longshot running in his 58th race, carried Chris McCarron to a memorable upset victory in the $300,000 Californian.

If you think it's tough picking the right horse, consider squeezing into Bill Shoemaker's boots this week. He has his choice of two of trainer Charlie Whittingham's three entries in Sunday's Santa Anita Handicap.

So much for those of us who thought the safest bet of the bowl season was that a lame-duck coach would win the Aloha. . . . Glen Mason's turnabout was reminiscent of Larry Brown's decision to remain as Kansas basketball coach in 1988 after telling sportscaster Jim Lampley that he was taking the UCLA job. . . . I hope Terry Donahue, the CBS analyst, will criticize any team that comes out as flat as UCLA did on Christmas Day. . . .