US Racing / Nick Shiambouros / 28 December 2007 /

Nick Shiambouros pays tribute to a racing legend stateside and previews the weekend action...

The end of the Hollywood Park meeting last weekend finished on a high note when Political High trained by Jerry Hollendorfer won the last race on the card on Saturday to become only the fourth trainer in history to record 5,000 victories.

What makes this milestone even more impressive is that Hollendorfer has a overall strike rate of 26.3 per cent in a long career that started in 1979. He gives most of the credit to his wife Janet and said: "She's the catalyst and adhesive that holds things together".

The great man was not at Hollywood Park to witness this amazing feat, he was at his home in Northern California.

Earlier on Saturday, Colonel John, our selection for The Grade 1 Cashcall Futurity finished a game second to upset winner Into Mischief. The runner-up was gaining at the end and he will feature in all the Kentucky Derby trials next year along with the winner. Massive Drama finished third for trainer Bob Baffert and I am sure he also will pay his way next year. This year's renewal was a really good one and in my opinion this was one of the best two-year-old races of the year. I think I had better start making my flight plans to Southern California now for the trials as this could be another vintage crop of youngsters.

Greg's Gold benefited from the class drop when winning The On Trust Handicap for California bred horses and he was a very short [1.5] on the exchange so I hope nobody did any serious damage as he was our lay selection. Only six horses showed up hence the skinny price on the final day of racing at Hollywood Park.

Santa Anita opened its doors with some subtle improvements on Boxing Day and almost 31,000 racing fans showed up for The Grade 1 Malibu Stakes which was won by Johny Eves in game fashion. This really was a very good seven furlong event and David Flores gave him a super ride.

This Saturday, Santa Anita features the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for three-year-old fillies.This is always one of the hardest races of the year to win because, with breeding season round the corner, a victory or even a place could easily boost a filly's value immensely. It looks like a full field of 14 go to post for this one but this is a really wide open affair. I am going to be backing Dawn After Dawn and Sindy With An S .I think that they will be both around 5.5 for the win and around 2.0 for the place in this very warm race.If you are looking for a outsider then you could do worse than back Glorified win and place.She should be around 12 for the win.

Over at Turfway Park on Saturday, Sweetsouthernsaint should really be very hard to beat in The Holiday Cheer Stakes over six furlongs on the Polyrack. It is hard to imagine that this horse actually was sent off as the favourite against the mighty Barbaro in last year's Kentucky Derby. He has proven to be quite expensive to follow but I will be backing him at around [2.0] in this week race.

Finally this week I was deeply saddened to hear of the sudden death of trainer Dale Baird who was killed in a car accident on Sunday. Baird had won more races than any other trainer in US history, ammasing a total of 9,445 victories. Even allowing for this amazing tally, Baird never became a houshold name in horseracing. In fact most of his victories were in low grade claiming races and since he trained his first winner in 1961 he never tasted a Grade 1 victory. Baird was the very backbone of grassroots racing in the United States. He never over-tried his horses and winning races was his only goal. He never sought publicity or the spotlight throughout his career in racing and to the casual observer of thoroughbred racing Baird was a virtual unknown, but to those of us who love this sport for what it is and appreciate what it takes to condition a thoroughbred to cross the line in first place whatever the grade then he was a legend.

Dale Baird dead at 72, gone but never forgotten.

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